tsclient refusing to connect

[sktsee]

On Wed, 27 Jan 2010 13:12:45 -0500, jack wallen wrote:

> Hello list,
> 
> I have a Windows terminal server (2007) that I need to connect to. Using
> a Debian machine (Elive) and tsclient I am able to easily connect to
> this server. Using Ubuntu 9.10 and tsclient I can not connect (using the
> same configuration even).
> 
> When I try to run tsclient from the command line, I get nothing in
> return. It seems like it is connecting but no window opens, and I get no
> information in the console. This does not happen in the Elive machine.
> 
> Is there a known bug in the Ubuntu version of tsclient, or some oddity
> in Ubuntu that is keeping this connection from happening?
> 
>

Well, there are bugs filed against tsclient and rdesktop (tsclient is a 
gui frontend for rdesktop) that may or may not be related to your issue. 
You can browse through the bug reports on launchpad.net and see if there 
is one similar to what you're experiencing.
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/tsclient
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/rdesktop

Some steps in no particular order to troubleshoot the problem:
1. Check any pertinent firewall settings on Window machine if one is 
active.
2. Can you ping Window machine from Ubuntu? Also can you ping Ubuntu 
machine from Windows?
3. Are you using same protocol, RDP or RDPv5?
4. Try saving tslient profile from Debian Elive and open it Ubuntu's 
tsclient. Change Client Hostname, Domain, other settings as needed.
5. check Event Viewer - Security in Windows to see if there were any 
failed logon attempts to the server from Ubuntu machine.
6. run a tcpdump when trying to connect via tsclient to watch network 
traffic between Ubuntu and Window machine.

Example.
$ sudo tcpdump host <win hostname or ip addr> -Z <your_username> -q -l -n 
-t -c5

You should see something similar to this:
tcpdump: verbose output suppressed, use -v or -vv for full protocol decode
listening on eth0, link-type LINUX_SLL (Linux cooked), capture size 96 
bytes
IP 65.38.xxx.xxx.41750 > 137.138.xxx.xxx.3389: tcp 0
IP 137.138.xxx.xxx.3389 > 65.38.xxx.xxx.41750: tcp 0
IP 65.38.xxx.xxx.41750 > 137.138.xxx.xxx.3389: tcp 0
IP 65.38.xxx.xxx.41750 > 137.138.xxx.xxx.3389: tcp 37
IP 137.138.xxx.xxx.3389 > 65.38.xxx.xxx.41750: tcp 11
5 packets captured
44 packets received by filter
0 packets dropped by kernel

Essentially, you want to see the machines talking to each other
Ubuntu IP -> Window TS IP
Window TS IP -> Ubuntu IP
Ubuntu IP -> Window TS IP
Window TS IP -> Ubun...etc

If you see this
Ubuntu IP -> Window TS IP
Ubuntu IP -> Window TS IP
Ubuntu IP -> Window TS IP

then the terminal server is either not responding, or dropping packets
because of a firewall, or can't find a route back to the Ubuntu machine, 
or something along these lines.

7. Try connecting to another terminal server. Doesn't matter if you can 
log in to the server or not, you just want to get a login window to test 
connectivity and whether tsclient works.

That's all I can think of for now.

-- 
sktsee