[Gentoo] Virtulbox 4.0 upgrde breaks RDP to Headless VMs

[RabbieBurns]

I run virtualbox in headless mode, which allows to RDP to the host server to view/control the Virtualmachines.

Since upgrading to Virtualbox 4.0 I am no longer able to connect to the Virtual Machines via RDP. They are definately running, as I can ping them and access their services etc.

Once thing different is when I restarted them, I got a warning that the -p port option for what port to listen on for RDP is depreciated, so I started them with the new option it said to:

11333 ?        Sl    19:50 /opt/VirtualBox/VBoxHeadless -startvm 2008R2
11586 ?        Sl     2:58 /opt/VirtualBox/VBoxHeadless -startvm Win7Pro -e TCP/Ports=3391
16141 ?        Sl    42:39 /opt/VirtualBox/VBoxHeadless -e TCP/Ports=3390 --startvm 2008Server

However an nmap of localhost doesnt show them open or listening... and I cant connect to them..

Has anyone else had this problem, or am I missing something?

[kmount]

Have a look at Chapter7.Remote virtual machines

VBoxManage modifyvm "VM name" --vrde on

Suspect you need to check you have the expansion pack and have enabled vrdp from this.

Would not necessarily rely on an nmap of localhost as I'm not sure if the vrdp bind would include loopback in addition to the specified interface address.

[RabbieBurns]

Thanks for that. It appears that running it in headless automatically enables the vrde

If you use VBoxHeadless (described further below), VRDP support will be automatically enabled since VBoxHeadless has no other means of output.

however I thnk you are right regarding the extension. How do I install it from gentoo cli though?

[kmount]

Good question, I haven't got a gentoo box around I'm afraid.

Tried X11 forwarding to open up the virtualbox gui over ssh?

[RabbieBurns]

oasis ~ # VBoxManage extpack install Oracle_VM_VirtualBox_Extension_Pack-4.0.0-69151.vbox-extpack
Successfully installed "Oracle VM VirtualBox Extension Pack".

Lets see if that has fixed it.

[RabbieBurns]

Cooking with gas now... Cheers for the help K. Shame they didnt mention this new feature in the changelog (that I could see)

[kmount]

Ah, yeah I seen it coming with the beta's and still have reservations over this 'way' of developing the product (core + ext) but we'll see what comes of it.