Local console using framebuffer

[Mario Wolff]

Hi all,
i have done some minor changes to /usr/sbin/qm to get a local console on the pe-node using the framebuffer with directvnc. That works great.

I would like to submit a patch with a clean modification. Right now the "qm vnc <vmid>" is modified!

Would you prefer to do some kind of auto-detection (is DISPLAY set->vncviewer, is /dev/fb connected -> directvnc, else fail), or would it be better to have "qm fbvnc <vmid>"?

Is there interest on documentation?

Regards,
Mario

 

[dietmar]

I would like to submit a patch with a clean modification. Right now the "qm vnc <vmid>" is modified!

Please send you patches to dietmar@proxmox.com - I will take a look at them.

 

[Mario Wolff]

Main question:

Would you prefer to do some kind of auto-detection (is DISPLAY set->vncviewer, is /dev/fb connected -> directvnc, else fail), or would it be better to have "qm fbvnc <vmid>"?

 

[dietmar]

Hard to say without any code to review. Is your /dev/fb detection reliable? If so, we can use 'qm vnc ...'

 

[bondbig]

i'm looking hard for something like this. Is it available already? Or is there any other way to connect to a kvm machine from the proxmox server locally? Without installing X, of course, just from fb console.

 

[Mario Wolff]

I'm still using my quick and dirty hack. It is quite simple:
- install directvnc
- edit /usr/sbin/qm
-> Change line 20 ("my $vnccmd....") to

my $vnccmd = "directvnc localhost:__DISPLAY__ -p __TICKET__ -e raw -f 10";

-> reverse order of lines 662 and 663 ( "system...")
-> move the ampersand behind $vnccmd to the end of the nc-command
-> should look like this:

    system ("nc -l -p $port -c 'qm vncproxy $vmid' &");
    system ("$vnccmd");

If you have a running framebuffer thats all! Maybe a hint for all others: Don't use vesafb/vga=foo or something! Simply install fbset, edit /etc/fb.modes to place your default-setting (found inside this file!) on top and "modprobe uvesafb"!

Regards,
Mario

PS: Think about "open-source" vs. "open-development"!

 

[bondbig]

wow, it works!
But why shouldnt i use vga=foo? Could it cause this:
http://img204.imageshack.us/g/img20101118142246.jpg/ ?
image is very small, low color and distorted.

 

[Mario Wolff]

vga uses vesafb by default and this is only configurable on boot. uvesafb is configurable at runtime by fbset and complete "restartable" by disabling the binding, unload/load uvesafb. Well, i do remember that i have to install "v86d" in addition to use uvesafb but after that it works simply out of the box!

Your pictures points me to a problem with the color depth! Try to use 16bit!

If your running with the right framebuffer settings you can't see any difference to native running desktop! Only the strg-q binding is different, while strg-alt-del works as expected - no need of send-key or something!

Regards,
Mario

 

[bondbig]

i didnt understand much. I use vga=795 in /boot/grub/menu.lst, which means 1280x1024@24. Maybe i need to change smth?
p.s.: changed to 794 and now it works perfectly! Thank you, Mario!