Gnome-rdp (re-post)

Mon Jul 2 12:33:29 UTC 2012

On Mon, 2012-07-02 at 13:15 +0800, Ed Greshko wrote:
> On 07/02/2012 10:08 AM, Ed Greshko wrote:
> > I can also tell you that I have installed Window 2003 Server and added the role of
> > "Terminal Server".  The Windows 2003 is running in a Virtual Box VM with the VM
> > network adapter *Bridged* to the network adapter of meimei (F16).

Didn't see this before. Your virtual switch configuration is different
somewhat, as well as the hypervisor. We're running vSphere on this side
of the equation and using standard vSwitches with a VLAN based port
group for the VM network. That doesn't matter in this case because there
isn't an issue with virtual switch configurations.

> OK....  I have installed Windows 2008 Server in a VM.   I simply did an "Enable
> Remote Desktop" from the "Initial Configuration Tasks".  I didn't "Add roles" since
> that seemed not necessary according to the prompts when I started doing that.
> 
> I only used IP addresses since I didn't want to put that system in my DNS. 
> 192.168.0.184 is the IP address it was assigned via DHCP.
> 
> [egreshko at meimei ~]$ telnet 192.168.0.184 3389
> Trying 192.168.0.184...
> Connected to 192.168.0.184.
> Escape character is '^]'.
> 
> I then used Remmina on my F16 box (meimei) to connect.  Everything worked 100%.
> 
> So, to me, that confirms a configuration issue at your end.

I must respectfully disagree. You confirmed that you can connect at
least briefly to a Windows Server VM from inside a network, with no vpn
in the picture.

Based on what I've found, I am now 100% certain there is an issue with
gnome-rdp / Reminna AND with Network Manager. We also need to get off of
the host name resolution thing. This is not where the problems we're
having are coming from.

"It works on my system" is never confirmation. It isn't working on
multiple F16 and F17 systems, and it IS working on multiple Windows 7
systems when using the Cisco VPN client.

Case in point:
I am certain there is an issue with Network Manager and vpnc. Why?
Because on multiple systems, with both F16 and F17, I am able to show
the following:

Connection using Network Manager / vpnc first connects, then hangs.
Specifically, I did:
1) Start vpnc based connection on Network Manager
2) Attempted to connect via ssh to a Linux based VM on the inside
network: (command was "ssh -X -l cwilliams jericho.risingstar.local")
3) ssh connects successfully, but then eventually hangs after a few
seconds.

There is nothing in the ssh log or Network Manager log that I'm able to
find regarding any kind of error. The ssh session just stops working.
Further, all other vpn connectivity stops working.

The contents of /etc/resolv.conf are irrelevant because the host name
WAS indeed resolved. It does correctly show the proper domain search and
DNS information though. But as I just mentioned, this is irrelevant to
the problems we're seeing. The VPN connection simply failed, and with no
errors.

When on the inside network:
1) Connect using WiFi connection on an F17 laptop, receive address via
dhcp
2) Connect via ssh to the same machine with the exact same command as
above. The ssh connection remains up and stable.

Again, the contents of /etc/resolv.conf (and nsswitch.con for that
matter) are irrelevant because host names are being properly resolved.

HOWEVER:
Connect via Reminna or gnome-rdp to the internal system. the rdp
connection first starts, then eventually hangs after about 5 minutes.

Again, host name resolution is NOT the issue.

When connecting from a Windows 7 system using the Cisco VPN client, the
VPN connection remains stable AND Remote Desktop Connection for Windows
works as expected. This is doing this with a VM on the same Linux system
that fails when using Network Manager / vpnc. Since the VM is using
Network Manager without vpnc under the covers (VMware Workstation using
a NAT mode virtual switch that then talks to Network Manager - as an
aside, when doing client based VMs, bridged adapters should be used only
as a last resort because you chew up IP addresses needlessly), this
leads me to believe there most likely is an issue with vpnc itself.

I actually have held off on what I really know on networking here - I
know for a fact that the network configuration is correct. I also went
through our ASA box again and re-validated the configuration is correct.
I'm not going to display the entire network configuration here
(security). That said, we need to stop troubleshooting this as a DNS  or
host name resolution issue. It is not.

There is, however, an issue with vpnc on Network Manager not working
correctly.

There also is an issue with rdp sessions (I noticed that Reminna and
gnome-rdp both appear to use some of the same rdp libraries, so this
isn't a surprise). They drop after anywhere from a few seconds to a few
minutes of activity when connected to a Windows Server 2008 system, and
they do this regardless of if Network Manager or vpnc are in the
picture.

I guess I'll just file a Bugzilla report on this and then take things
from there.

Thanks for trying...

Chris