Troubleshooting common issues

The fastest path to a fix is usually the audit log on your session page — it shows exactly what step failed. If it doesn't, the patterns below cover ~90% of support tickets we receive.

"Verification code never arrived" during phone setup

We send the OTP via SMS first. If the SMS provider rejects the number (some sender-ID configurations restrict destinations), we fall back to email and send the same 6-digit code to your Google- login email. Check your inbox + spam folder. The screen at the code-entry step will tell you which channel delivered.

If neither arrives within 2 minutes, click "change number" and try again — the cooldown counter on screen shows when you can retry.

Session stuck in PROVISIONING for more than 15 minutes

Kali and Fedora can take up to 10 minutes legitimately (their AMIs need the SSM agent installed at first boot). Past 15 minutes, something failed. Check the audit log on the session page — common causes:

• SSM agent did not come online — first-boot install failed. Terminate and relaunch; transient issue.
• No AMI found — you picked an OS that isn't available in your chosen region (e.g., Kali in af-south-1). Terminate, relaunch in a different region.
• Linux bootstrap failed: exit status 1 — a package install failed on the instance. Usually a transient mirror issue. Terminate, wait 2 minutes, relaunch.

"Could not connect" via RDP

Three things to check in order:

• Session status is RUNNING (not PROVISIONING or STOPPING).
• Your network allows outbound TCP 3389. Corporate / school networks block this routinely. Try from your phone hotspot.
• You're using the right username: Administrator for Windows, deskboot for Linux. Not root, not ubuntu.

"Permission denied (publickey)" via SSH

The .pem file's permissions are wrong. SSH refuses keys with group/world-readable permissions:

chmod 600 your-key.pem
ssh -i your-key.pem deskboot@<public-ip>

If that still fails, the username is wrong — see above. If the username is right and permissions are 600, the key file may be corrupted; download a fresh one from the session page (this requires rebooting the session since each key is one-shot).

Lost the password / SSH key

Both are view-once at creation. To get fresh credentials, click Reboot on the session page — our bootstrap rerun generates a new password (and SSH key for Linux) and shows them once. Your data on the EBS volume is preserved.

Payment failed at card-add or top-up

The Billing page shows a friendly error message mapped from Paystack's response. Common cases:

• Insufficient funds. Card is valid but balance is too low for the verification charge or top-up amount.
• Restricted card. Your bank blocks the transaction type or amount. Contact your bank.
• 3D Secure / OTP failed. Retry and complete the bank's OTP prompt this time.
• "Payment failed: reversal-pending". Not an error — the verification charge auto-reversed. Your card is added and ready to use. The reversal posts to your bank in 24-48 hours.

Session was auto-stopped overnight

Your balance hit $0 while it was running. We auto-stop instances at $0 to prevent surprise charges. Your data on the EBS volume is preserved — top up your balance, then click Start on the session page.

To prevent this, turn on auto top-up in Settings.

Still stuck

Report it from /dashboard/report-bug (logged-in users) or /contact for general questions. Both routes go to the same admin queue and we usually reply within a business day.