noVNC clipboard advanced settings in Hardware > Display in PVE >= 8.1

[AndydnA]

Hello everyone,

I read that an advanced clipboard feature has been in the hardware > display section of the GUI since PVE 8.1.
I am trying to have a basic clipboard functionality between my laptop (I am currently on a Mac) and a Windows or Linux guest.
I'd like to use the default noVNC and not SPICE because I don't need such advanced performance for server desktop use, especially Windows. However, having clipboard support is an advantage when you have to deal with Windows systems and copy and paste complex passwords or similar in any situation, from an installation through to fixing a broken automated deployment or just standard maintenance. I tried a dozen things and combinations, but the clipboards on my laptop and the various VMs are constantly and always wholly separated.

For instance, I tried to set the following on PVE 8.2.7:
- hardware > display = Default
- hardware > display (clipboard advanced section) = VNC
I am using Firefox on my Mac and even enabled its clipboard API (dom.events.testing.asyncClipboard = true). I also tried Safari and Chrome.
All the VMs I tested with had the latest agent, "spice-vdagent (Linux)" or "spice-guest-tools (Windows)", installed and running. I read that the SPICE agent is mandatory for such a function because noVNC doesn't support it.
There is no way to have the most basic clipboard function to copy and paste text.

Why do we finally have an advanced clipboard function in PVE, but it seems to be broken? Where am I wrong?
Thank you in advance to those who could provide help.

Andy

 

[MarkusF]

Hello,

with noVNC, click the clipboard button in the noVNC panel and paste the text you want to send to the VM into the text box that opens.
With other standalone VNC clients you can just copy and paste using your desktop clipboard.
https://pve.proxmox.com/pve-docs/pve-admin-guide.html#qm_display

 

[AndydnA]

Hello,

with noVNC, click the clipboard button in the noVNC panel and paste the text you want to send to the VM into the text box that opens.
With other standalone VNC clients you can just copy and paste using your desktop clipboard.
https://pve.proxmox.com/pve-docs/pve-admin-guide.html#qm_display

Hi MarkusF,

Thank you very much for your reply.
In PVE GUI, I used the clipboard button in the noVNC sliding pane on the left, and it worked.
I never noticed that clipboard button because it appears only if the SPICE client is installed.

Andy

 

[MarkusF]

You're welcome!
FYI: The clipboard button should always appear if you have set clipboard to 'vnc' in the display settings.