Remote access to podman machine

[userid0x0]

Hi,
I recently jumped over podman machine init / podman machine start on Linux. (Previously I knew it from Windows).
Using podman 4.3.1 I did

podman machine init
podman machine start

both worked fine. Using

podman-remote <>

I can talk to this VM in background. I then had the idea that it should be possible to access this VM from the outside e.g. from a windows machine.

Approach 1 - SSH directly

I tried to access the VM directly from the outside.
Linux:

$podman system connection list
Name                         URI                                                          Identity                                   Default
podman-machine-default       ssh://core@localhost:42545/run/user/<uid>/podman/podman.sock  /home/<user>/.ssh/podman-machine-default  true
...

Windows
Copy private key /home/<user>/.ssh/podman-machine-default from Linux to Windows C:\Users\<user>\.ssh\podman-machine-remote .

podman.exe system connection add --identity C:\Users\<user>\.ssh\podman-machine-remote --port 42545 remote core@<linux machine>

This doesn't seem to work as the used gvproxy listens on localhost/127.0.0.1 only.

sudo lsof -i -P -n | grep LISTEN
...
gvproxy   161718 <user>    7u  IPv4 681642      0t0  TCP 127.0.0.1:42545 (LISTEN)

Which is okay from my point of view.

Approach 2 - using the socket
I then tried to access the VM using the socket
Linux

podman --log-level trace machine start
INFO[0000] podman filtering at log level trace          
Starting machine "podman-machine-default"
DEBU[0000] qemu cmd: [/usr/bin/qemu-system-x86_64 -m 2048 -smp 1 -fw_cfg name=opt/com.coreos/config,file=/home/<user>/.config/containers/podman/machine/qemu/podman-machine-default.ign -qmp unix:/run/user/<uid>/podman/qmp_podman-machine-default.sock,server=on,wait=off -netdev socket,id=vlan,fd=3 -device virtio-net-pci,netdev=vlan,mac=5a:94:ef:e4:0c:ee -device virtio-serial -chardev socket,path=/run/user/<uid>/podman/podman-machine-default_ready.sock,server=on,wait=off,id=apodman-machine-default_ready -device virtserialport,chardev=apodman-machine-default_ready,name=org.fedoraproject.port.0 -pidfile /run/user/<uid>/podman/podman-machine-default_vm.pid -accel kvm -cpu host -virtfs local,path=/home/<user>,mount_tag=vol0,security_model=mapped-xattr -drive if=virtio,file=/home/<user>/.local/share/containers/podman/machine/qemu/podman-machine-default_fedora-coreos-37.20230122.2.0-qemu.x86_64.qcow2 -fw_cfg name=opt/com.coreos/environment,string=...] 
Waiting for VM ...
Mounting volume... /home/<user>:/home/<user>
DEBU[0008] Executing: ssh [-i /home/<user>/.ssh/podman-machine-default -p 42545 core@localhost -o StrictHostKeyChecking=no -o LogLevel=ERROR -o SetEnv=LC_ALL= -q -- sudo mkdir -p /home/<user>] 
DEBU[0009] Executing: ssh [-i /home/<user>/.ssh/podman-machine-default -p 42545 core@localhost -o StrictHostKeyChecking=no -o LogLevel=ERROR -o SetEnv=LC_ALL= -q -- sudo mount -t 9p -o trans=virtio vol0 /home/<user> -o version=9p2000.L,msize=131072] 

This machine is currently configured in rootless mode. If your containers
require root permissions (e.g. ports < 1024), or if you run into compatibility
issues with non-podman clients, you can switch using the following command: 

        podman machine set --rootful

API forwarding listening on: /home/<user>/.local/share/containers/podman/machine/podman-machine-default/podman.sock
You can connect Docker API clients by setting DOCKER_HOST using the
following command in your terminal session:

        export DOCKER_HOST='unix:///home/<user>/.local/share/containers/podman/machine/podman-machine-default/podman.sock'

Machine "podman-machine-default" started successfully
DEBU[0009] Called machine start.PersistentPostRunE(podman --log-level trace machine start)

Windows:

ssh-keygen.exe -t ed25519
REM append contents of c:\Users\<user>\.ssh\id_ed25519.pub to linux /home/<user>/.ssh/authorized_keys
ssh <user>@<linux machine> ls
REM succeeds withing password query
podman system connection add --identity c:\Users\<user>\.ssh\id_ed25519 --socket-path /home/<user>/.local/share/containers/podman/machine/podman-machine-default/podman.sock" remote <user>@<linux machine>
podman -c remote image ls

generates the following error

podman --log-level trace -c remote image ls
time="2023-01-31T16:15:43+01:00" level=info msg="podman filtering at log level trace"
time="2023-01-31T16:15:43+01:00" level=debug msg="Called list.PersistentPreRunE(podman --log-level trace -c remote image ls)"
time="2023-01-31T16:15:43+01:00" level=debug msg="SSH Ident Key \"C:\\\\Users\\\\<user>\\\\.ssh\\\\id_ed25519\" SHA256:... ssh-ed25519"
time="2023-01-31T16:15:46+01:00" level=debug msg="DoRequest Method: GET URI: http://d/v4.3.0/libpod/_ping"
Cannot connect to Podman. Please verify your connection to the Linux system using `podman system connection list`, or try `podman machine init` and `podman machine start` to manage a new Linux VM
Error: unable to connect to Podman socket: Get "http://d/v4.3.0/libpod/_ping": ssh: rejected: connect failed (open failed)

Which brings me to the question. Is it intended that a VM created using podman machine init / podman machine start is accessed from the outside?

[userid0x0]

Another question, is there a way I can forward the ports e.g. from a remote Linux machine (running podman) to the workstation machine (Windows/Linux) that connects via podman sytem connection / podman.exe -c <remote>?

[rhatdan]

Depends on how remote the system is, we use gvproxy for doing this with VMs inside of Macs.
But in general you would be on your own to forward the ports.

[maxx27]

Depends on how remote the system is, we use gvproxy for doing this with VMs inside of Macs.

Could you please show the example show to forward ports?
I also use VMs inside Mac.

[Pyroseza]

Any news on this? I'd like to do the same but from msys2 environment: https://packages.msys2.org/base/mingw-w64-podman