[SETUP ERROR] networking issues: windows dns resolution failure / rdp stops working after office install completes

[0nobody0]

LinOffice Version: 2.2.6
Distro: OS: CachyOS x86_64 / Kernel: Linux 6.18.8-3-cachyos
Desktop: KDE Plasma 6.5.5
Display server: Wayland
Podman: 5.7.1 - installed from repo
Podman-Compose: 1.5.0 - installed from repo
FreeRDP: 3.22.0 - installed from repo

many thanks for all your work. pardon this somewhat convoluted issue, i can split into multiple issues if that is preferred.

using setup.sh with default config/compose.yaml.default and version set to win 10 LTSC: VERSION: "https://archive.org/download/Windows10EnterpriseLTSC202164Bit/en-us_windows_10_enterprise_ltsc_2021_x64_dvd_d289cf96.iso"

similar to #78: initial container setup and windows install succeded. after the powershell window opened for the office install the download never starts due to Windows automatic DNS resolution failing. i tried the install again and was able to manually set the windows DNS server to 8.8.8.8 before the office install timed out.

a secondary issue, mentioning here on the off chance they are related. not sure if it was a result of having to restart the setup multiple times. RDP worked each setup attempt during the initial setup, but after getting the office install finished RDP connections started failing. xfreerdp3 /cert:ignore /u:MyWindowsUser /p:MyWindowsPassword /v:127.0.0.1 /port:3388 /log-level:DEBUG timed out on nego_send_negotiation_request:

[12:44:01:210] [33000:000080ea] [DEBUG][com.freerdp.core] - [log_connection_address]: resolved 127.0.0.1: try to connect to 127.0.0.1
[12:44:01:211] [33000:000080ea] [DEBUG][com.freerdp.core.nego] - [nego_connect]: state: NEGO_STATE_NLA
[12:44:01:211] [33000:000080ea] [DEBUG][com.freerdp.core.nego] - [nego_attempt_nla]: Attempting NLA security
[12:44:01:211] [33000:000080ea] [DEBUG][com.freerdp.core.nego] - [nego_send_negotiation_request]: RequestedProtocols: [SSL|HYBRID][0x00000003]

VNC still worked through a browser. i had run into a similar issue with winapps previously (winapps-org/winapps#251) and started a shell with podman unshare --rootless-netns, ran setup.sh from that shell, and the install process finished. RDP connections outside of the unshare shell then began working again.

during setup i did see:

INFO: Podman is using network backend: netavark
INFO: Testing network creation with backend: netavark
SUCCESS: Test network 'linoffice_net_test_1770224148' created successfully.
INFO: WARNING: Network directory does not exist: /home/user/.config/cni/net.d
        This might lead to errors.
INFO: WARNING: Network directory not writable: /home/user/.config/cni/net.d
        This might lead to errors.

i noticed in compose.yaml that NETWORK: "slirp" is set, and saw #74 . i don't have the slirp4netns package installed, is this possibly a dependency as well?

here is the initial log after running setup.sh:

INFO: Checking for virtual environment at: /home/user/.local/bin/linoffice/venv
INFO: Virtual environment not found at /home/user/.local/bin/linoffice/venv, using system Python
INFO: Starting LinOffice setup script...

Step 1: Checking requirements
INFO: Checking minimum RAM
SUCCESS: Sufficient RAM detected: 31GB
INFO: Checking if LinOffice container exists already
INFO: Container does not yet exist.
INFO: Checking minimum free storage
SUCCESS: Sufficient free storage detected: 250GB
INFO: Checking virtualization support
Virtualization is supported.
SUCCESS: Virtualization support detected: 
INFO: Checking if podman is installed
SUCCESS: podman is installed: podman version 5.7.1
INFO: Checking if podman-compose is installed
INFO: Python environment: System Python
SUCCESS: Using system podman-compose: /usr/bin/podman-compose
INFO: Using system Python: /usr/bin/python3
SUCCESS: python-dotenv is installed in system environment.
SUCCESS: podman-compose is installed: podman version 5.7.1
podman-compose version 1.5.0
INFO: Checking if FreeRDP is available
SUCCESS: FreeRDP found. Using FreeRDP command 'xfreerdp3'.
INFO: Checking iptables kernel modules
INFO: WARNING: iptables kernel modules not loaded. Sharing the /home folder with the Windows VM will not work unless connected via RDP. HOW TO FIX:
        
    Run the following command:
    echo -e 'ip_tables
iptable_nat' | sudo tee /etc/modules-load.d/iptables.conf
    Then reboot your system.
SUCCESS: iptables modules are loaded
INFO: Checking for essential setup files
SUCCESS: Files found.
INFO: Making scripts executable
SUCCESS: Made scripts executable
INFO: Checking subUID/subGID mappings
SUCCESS: subUID/subGID mappings verified.
INFO: Checking Podman storage configuration
INFO: Podman running in rootless mode
INFO: Podman network directory: /home/user/.config/cni/net.d
SUCCESS: Podman storage directory verified: /home/user/.local/share/containers/storage
INFO: Checking Podman networking is working
INFO: Podman is using network backend: netavark
INFO: Testing network creation with backend: netavark
SUCCESS: Test network 'linoffice_net_test_1770224148' created successfully.
INFO: WARNING: Network directory does not exist: /home/user/.config/cni/net.d
        This might lead to errors.
INFO: WARNING: Network directory not writable: /home/user/.config/cni/net.d
        This might lead to errors.
SUCCESS: Podman networking check completed.
INFO: Testing basic container functionality...
SUCCESS: Podman test container created and removed successfully.
INFO: Checking connectivity to Microsoft
SUCCESS: Successfully connected to Microsoft

Step 2: Detecting region and language settings
INFO: Running locale configuration scripts
INFO: Executing: /home/user/github/linoffice/config/locale_reg.sh
Current locale: en_US.UTF-8

Extracted settings:
  Decimal separator: '.'
  Thousands separator: ','
  Currency symbol: '$'
  Currency decimal separator: '.'
  Currency thousands separator: ','
  Short date format: 'MM/dd/yyyy'
  Date separator: '/'

Registry file created successfully at: /home/user/github/linoffice/config/oem/registry/regional_settings.reg
INFO: Executing: /home/user/github/linoffice/config/locale_lang.sh
Updated LANGUAGE: English
Updated REGION: en-001
Keyboard detection failed - leaving KEYBOARD unchanged
Compose file has been updated successfully.
Keyboard code detection failed - leaving RDP_KBD unchanged
SUCCESS: Locale script executed successfully
INFO: Checking for regional_settings.reg file
SUCCESS: Found regional_settings.reg file
INFO: Checking if LinOffice container exists already
INFO: Container does not yet exist.
INFO: Container does not exist, proceeding with setup and creation.
Logfile: /home/user/.local/share/linoffice/windows_install.log

Step 3: Setting up the LinOffice container
INFO: Starting podman-compose in detached mode...
INFO: Tailing logs from container: LinOffice
INFO: Monitoring container setup progress...

Step 4: Starting Windows download (about 5 GB). This will take a while depending on your Internet speed.

and the log from the podman unshare --rootless-netns shell:

Step 6: Downloading and installing Office (about 3 GB). This will take a while.
SUCCESS: Reboot 4 of 4 completed
SUCCESS: Container setup completed successfully

Step 7: Checking if everything is set up correctly
INFO: Checking if RDP server is available
INFO: Verifying container health...
INFO: trying command: timeout 30 xfreerdp3 /cert:ignore /u:MyWindowsUser /p:MyWindowsPassword /v:127.0.0.1 /port:3388 /app:program:C:\Windows\System32[12:00:55:757] [151648:00025062] [ERROR][com.winpr.sspi.Kerberos] - [kerberos_AcquireCredentialsHandleA]: krb5glue_get_init_creds (Client 'MyWindowsUser@ATHENA.MIT.EDU' not found in Kerberos database [-1765328378])
[12:00:55:807] [151648:00025062] [ERROR][com.winpr.sspi.Kerberos] - [kerberos_AcquireCredentialsHandleA]: krb5glue_get_init_creds (Client 'MyWindowsUser@ATHENA.MIT.EDU' not found in Kerberos database [-1765328378])
[12:01:01:824] [151648:0002506f] [ERROR][TODO] - [xf_rail_server_system_param]: TODO: implement
[12:01:01:824] [151648:0002506f] [ERROR][TODO] - [xf_rail_server_system_param]: TODO: implement
[12:01:01:895] [151648:0002506f] [ERROR][TODO] - [xf_rail_server_language_bar_info]: TODO: implement
[12:01:02:493] [151648:00025062] [ERROR][com.freerdp.core] - [rdp_set_error_info]: ERRINFO_LOGOFF_BY_USER [0x0001000C]
SUCCESS: RDP server is available (user logoff detected)INFO: Used command: xfreerdp3 /cert:ignore /u:MyWindowsUser /p:MyWindowsPassword /v:127.0.0.1 /port:3388 /app:program:C:\Windows\System32
INFO: Updating config file
INFO: Checking if Office is installed
INFO: Starting FreeRDP connection to mount home directory (Attempt 1 of 10)...
SUCCESS: FreeRDP connection established successfully (PID: 151744)
INFO: Waiting for Office installation to complete (timeout: 15 minutes)...
SUCCESS: Success file detected - Office installation is complete!

Step 8: Installing .desktop files (app launchers)
INFO: Processing .desktop files...
Number of apps found: 6
Apps are: excel word powerpoint onenote outlook linoffice
Starting to process app: excel
Processing: excel.desktop
  Installed: /home/user/.local/share/applications/excel.desktop
Debug: Finished processing excel
Starting to process app: word
Processing: word.desktop
  Installed: /home/user/.local/share/applications/word.desktop
Debug: Finished processing word
Starting to process app: powerpoint
Processing: powerpoint.desktop
  Installed: /home/user/.local/share/applications/powerpoint.desktop
Debug: Finished processing powerpoint
Starting to process app: onenote
Processing: onenote.desktop
  Installed: /home/user/.local/share/applications/onenote.desktop
Debug: Finished processing onenote
Starting to process app: outlook
Processing: outlook.desktop
  Installed: /home/user/.local/share/applications/outlook.desktop
Debug: Finished processing outlook
Starting to process app: linoffice
Processing: linoffice.desktop
  Installed: /home/user/.local/share/applications/linoffice.desktop
Debug: Finished processing linoffice
INFO: App launchers installed: 6
INFO: Updating desktop database
SUCCESS: Desktop database updated
SUCCESS: Installation complete! The applications should now appear in your application menu.
INFO: Installed applications:
  - Excel
  - Word
  - Powerpoint
  - OneNote
  - Outlook
  - LinOffice
INFO: To uninstall, remove the files from: /home/user/.local/share/applications
INFO: To recreate them, run the script with the --desktop flag.
SUCCESS: LinOffice setup completed successfully!

[eylenburg]

So if you go into your Windows VM as a full session (e.g. 127.0.0.1:8006 in browser) do you have internet then? Can you open websites and all that?

On the RDP issue, are you able to connect with any different xfreerdp command, for example using another security protocol:

    /sec: [rdp[:[on|off]]|tls[:[on|off]]|nla[:[on|off]]|ext[:[on|off]]|aad[:[on|off]]]                   

Force specific protocol security. e.g. /sec:nla enables NLA and disables all others, while /sec:nla:[on|off] just toggles NLA

It could also be a quirk to do with Win 10 LTSC. I think in the early days before I went with 11 Pro as the default version, I wasn't able to connect on LTSC (can't remember if 10 or 11 LTSC).

[iacri]

I'm not sure whether I had the same issue, but I was seeing apparently the same thing (same logs, same generic behavior) until I logged in via browser and set 8.8.8.8 as static DNS for the Ethernet connection inside the VM because it could not resolve any hostname whatsoever.
After that it started working correctly, and I still cannot use it if I let automatic DNS. I had installed some months ago without issues and then had to reinstall my whole OS so went through the same installation steps yesterday.

[0nobody0]

@eylenburg thanks for the response, pardon the confusion. both issues seem to be resolved for the current setup, just wanted to report them in case it was useful for troubleshooting the automatic setup scripts.

So if you go into your Windows VM as a full session (e.g. 127.0.0.1:8006 in browser) do you have internet then? Can you open websites and all that?

After windows installed and setup.sh moved on to installing office, I connected to 127.0.0.1:8006, logged in, and found the network connection showed as down in windows. i was able to ping 8.8.8.8 but pings failed using domain names / DNS did not resolve. after opening the network connection in windows and changing from automatic DNS to manual DNS and setting the DNS server to 8.8.8.8 the connection showed as up and the office install was able to proceed.

On the RDP issue, are you able to connect with any different xfreerdp command, for example using another security protocol:

    /sec: [rdp[:[on|off]]|tls[:[on|off]]|nla[:[on|off]]|ext[:[on|off]]|aad[:[on|off]]]                   

Force specific protocol security. e.g. /sec:nla enables NLA and disables all others, while /sec:nla:[on|off] just toggles NLA

RDP works now in general, ever since finishing setup in the rootless-netns network namespace. i can try testing the above on another setup from scratch. the strange thing is at the beginning of the setup RDP was working, then it stopped being accessible outside rootless-netns, however VNC still was working from the default netns.

It could also be a quirk to do with Win 10 LTSC. I think in the early days before I went with 11 Pro as the default version, I wasn't able to connect on LTSC (can't remember if 10 or 11 LTSC).

that makes sense to me for the DNS issue, but still stumped about RDP.

@iacri did you have any RDP issues as well?

[0nobody0]

i deleted ~/.local/share/linoffice and ran podman system reset. tried another install from scratch and ran into the same issues.

did some research and it looks like podman 5 is using pasta instead of slirp4netns for rootless containers. also saw some posts mentioningpodman-compose may have issues creating containers using pasta - containers/podman-compose#967. will try playing with around with this.

podman info --format '{{.Host.NetworkBackend}}' currently returns netavark. i'm a bit stumped why the initial xfreerdp3 connection in setup.sh sometimes works (right after Windows install completes) but then no longer works afterwards from outside the rootless-netns?