Using the UI to allow RDP connections

[mkj000]

Hello.

Quick background, new Fedora user here, have jumped ship from Windows in the last 6 months, slowly getting to grips with the system.

One task I’m struggling with is getting RDP working.

I’ve got a desktop, a laptop, and any number of VMs I wish to fire up all running the latest Fedora Workstation 41 with I think latest GNOME.
And a work laptop running Windows 11.

So, on any machine I choose, I go to Settings, System, Remote Desktop, unlock Remote Login, enable it and add login details. Is that It?

Not a single machine I do this to can be rdp’d to from any other machine, Windows or Fedora. In Fedora, neither Remmina nor the Connections app get through.
Windows Remote Desktop Connection gives the error “0x4” - Useful.
The Connections app gives “authentication failed: the connection transport layer failed”.

Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks

Mike

[Sid]

Server test:

One the machine running the RDP server, run the following command in console (after enabling Remote login in Settings).

$ netstat -an --program | grep gnome-remote

This should show something like below:

tcp6  0  0 :::3389  :::*   LISTEN  136861/gnome-remote 

meaning that the gnome-remote-desktop-daemon is running and listening for connections on port 3389 (RDP port).

Client <—> Server connection test:

Next you can test the connection between the client and the machine running the RDP server using telnet as below:

If there are no connection issues, you should see the following:

$ telnet <server-ip> 3389
Trying <server-ip>...
Connected to <server-ip>.
Escape character is '^]'.

If there is connection issue (server firewall blocking connections), you’ll see the following:

$ telnet <server-ip> 3389
Trying <server-ip>...
telnet: Unable to connect to remote host: No route to host

FWIW, this is probably the default firewalld (enabled by default in Fedora) blocking connections to the server.

[oholy (Ondrej Holy)]

Try enabling the 3389 port over firewall-cmd --permanent --add-port=3389/tcp.

[mkj000]

Thanks for the reply both. Sorry it’s taken a bit to get back here. So I started with the first suggestion which had nothing like the tcp6 line in it’s response, on either desktop or VM. Not knowing what else I might have done that could get in the way, I deleted the VM and installed Fedora 41 from scratch, just to get back to a fresh install. Installed all updates, then enabled RDP through the settings UI. Exactly the same thing I’ve done in the past, I’m sure, and this time it worked - I could rdp onto the vm.
So I threw caution to the wind, backed up my desktop and reinstalled 41 from scratch. What do you know, I can RDP onto that one as well now.

I’ve no idea what’s different, and breaking the feature on all the devices I’ve got so easily is a little disconcerting, but I’ll keep an eye on it going forwards. Perhaps I’ll spot what I did if it happens again.

Thanks all

Mike