Default Console Option has no effect ?

[H4R0]

From time to time i need to manage my vm's over the proxmox gui.

The problem for me is i want to always use xterm, my vm's dont have a virtual gpu.

Setting the default console viewer in datacenter -> options has no effect tho.

Proxmox still opens up novnc on the console tab for vm's, clicking on the button however opens a xterm pop up.

I want to manage my vm's inside the main tab and dont use a pop up..

 

[t.lamprecht]

You can only use xterm.js if the VM has also a serial socket with a getty listening on it, as long as there's no "socketX" in the hardware of the VM the console selector knows that it cannot really work and so uses noVNC.

 

[H4R0]

You can only use xterm.js if the VM has also a serial socket with a getty listening on it, as long as there's no "socketX" in the hardware of the VM the console selector knows that it cannot really work and so uses noVNC.

The vm has a serial port and is listening on it. The xterm pop up works without any problems.

So i dont get why it wont open xterm on the left console tab but does with the console button.

 

[t.lamprecht]

OK I got you now. Hmm, the setting is normally mostly for the external console not builtin, but that may be well a mistake..

Can you please open an enhancement request in our bugtracker https://bugzilla.proxmox.com/

 

[Asiier]

I'm getting the exact same behavior as H4R0

Everything is configured correctly and the default is xterm.js but when ever I click on "Console" it would open noVCN instead of xterm.js
Although, the "Console" button in the top right corner does properly launch xterm.js by default.

 

[H4R0]

I'm getting the exact same behavior as H4R0

Everything is configured correctly and the default is xterm.js but when ever I click on "Console" it would open noVCN instead of xterm.js
Although, the "Console" button in the top right corner does properly launch xterm.js by default.

fyi i ended up using the proxmox shell and ssh into my vm's

 

[Asiier]

fyi i ended up using the proxmox shell and ssh into my vm's

Yeah, I do that when ever I need to type more than a couple commands
But using the browser is pretty useful when I just have to check something quickly...

Hope they manage to fix it since noVCN doesn't work that well... (Especially with different keyboard layouts) At least compared to xterm.js which is almost as using SSH in terms of usability.

 

[H4R0]

Yeah, I do that when ever I need to type more than a couple commands
But using the browser is pretty useful when I just have to check something quickly...

Hope they manage to fix it since noVCN doesn't work that well... (Especially with different keyboard layouts) At least compared to xterm.js which is almost as using SSH in terms of usability.

yeah i meant the web gui shell, for proxmox it opens up xterm instead of novnc, so you can use the main shell and just ssh into guests.

So instead of using the left console option for your guest, select your hypervisor and then the left console option.

i still would prefer if xterm would work for other vm's as well, but setting up proper serial support in the guest is also annoying.

 

[volfan6415]

I would like to report that this is still an issue and would be great to fix this.

IT seems like it was reported as a bug already

https://bugzilla.proxmox.com/show_bug.cgi?id=1926

Also here is an older thread from 2018 on the same concern. https://forum.proxmox.com/threads/console-default.43879/

 

[t.lamprecht]

FWIW, the external-window console gets already opened as xterm.js if one configured it that way. For the inline console we could check for a serial console in addition to that, as only it that case xterm.js can actually work, IIRC.

 

[mietz]

FWIW, the external-window console gets already opened as xterm.js if one configured it that way. For the inline console we could check for a serial console in addition to that, as only it that case xterm.js can actually work, IIRC.

That sounds great keep us posted!

 

[mietz]

FWIW, the external-window console gets already opened as xterm.js if one configured it that way. For the inline console we could check for a serial console in addition to that, as only it that case xterm.js can actually work, IIRC.

@t.lamprecht any news on this?

 

[mietz]

I fixed this with a hacky tamper monkey script:

// ==UserScript==
// @name         Proxmox swap embedded console
// @version      1.0
// @description  Swap noVNC to xterm.js in Proxmox embedded console
// @match        *://*/
// @include      /^https:\/\/.*:8006\/#v.*:=node%2F.*:.*:=consolejs:$/
// @grant        none
// ==/UserScript==

(function() {
    'use strict';

    function modifyConsoleSource(div) {
            const iframe = div.querySelector('iframe');
            if (iframe && iframe.src) {
                const urlParams = new URLSearchParams(iframe.src.split('?')[1]);
                const vmid = urlParams.get('vmid');
                const node = urlParams.get('node');

                if (vmid && node) {
                    const newSrc = `/?console=kvm&xtermjs=1&vmid=${vmid}&node=${node}&cmd=`;
                    const currentSrc = new URL(iframe.src, window.location.origin).toString();
                    const normalizedNewSrc = new URL(newSrc, window.location.origin).toString();

                    if (currentSrc !== normalizedNewSrc) {
                        iframe.src = newSrc;
                        console.log('Modified iframe src:', newSrc);
                    } else {
                        setTimeout(() => {}, 1000);
                    }
                } else {
                    console.err('Could not extract vmid or node from iframe src');
                }
            } else {
                setTimeout(() => {
                    console.warn('Iframe not found within div, sleeping 3 seconds');
                }, 3000);
            }
    }
    function checkIfPageHasConsole() {
        const pve_div = document.querySelector('div[id^="PVE-qemu-Config-"]');
        const lxc_div = document.querySelector('div[id^="pveLXCConfig-"]');
        const novnc_div = document.querySelector('div[id^="pveNoVncConsole-"]');
        if (novnc_div && pve_div &&! lxc_div) {
            modifyConsoleSource(novnc_div)
        }
    }
    const observer = new MutationObserver(checkIfPageHasConsole);
    observer.observe(document.body, { childList: true, subtree: true });
})();

You might be able to detect in javascript if the display is set to socket by searching /using the Ext Object. But this was good enough for me.