Terminal clipboard support (copy/paste/text select) in noVNC

[patefoniq]

Good Morning,

is there any chance to add copy/paste or selecting text in the Linux/Windows VM console via noVNC feature? Lack of it is the only disadvantage of using noVNC.

I posted the message on noVNC developers GitHUb and Pierre Ossman answered that it's a Proxmox-side limitation for this feature for sure since in normal operations it works.

 

[oguz]

hi,

have you tried to hold shift and right click

 

[dcsapak]

i am guessing you reference this bug: https://github.com/novnc/noVNC/issues/1468

well for containers and the host shell it already works as expected, but for qemu vms there is nothing we can do,
since qemu has no access to the guests clipboard (since its all virtual hardware)

 

[oguz]

alternatively you can use SPICE that way you have clipboard sharing between host & guest

 

[chriss]

I did not have any luck running SPICE viewer on macOS. Do you have any other ideas to copy and paste to VMs there @oguz @dcsapak ?

 

[PnoJai]

I'm in the same boat. My guest runs Mac OSX, which the SPICE client doesn't support. SPICE appears to be the only avenue for copy and paste between VM and guest in Proxmox.

I repeat the question again because I'm hoping I missed something or a change is coming in Proxmox. Otherwise, it's a deal breaker for Proxmox, I'm afraid, and I must turn to an alternative.

Ever hopeful,
Jai

 

[dcsapak]

there is always the possibility to run another remote desktop software inside the guest that can handle clipboard (e.g. rdp,vnc)

 

[patefoniq]

there is always the possibility to run another remote desktop software inside the guest that can handle clipboard (e.g. rdp,vnc)

It is impossible in Linux terminals.

Besides, what about Windows in the emergency mode without a network connection or some other rescue consoles also without access to any network?

 

[toomanylogins]

I'm in the same boat. My guest runs Mac OSX, which the SPICE client doesn't support. SPICE appears to be the only avenue for copy and paste between VM and guest in Proxmox.

I repeat the question again because I'm hoping I missed something or a change is coming in Proxmox. Otherwise, it's a deal breaker for Proxmox, I'm afraid, and I must turn to an alternative.

Ever hopeful,
Jai

NO Machine works well for Macos Guests.

 

[Keeper of the Keys]

I understand why copy from the console would not work since the VNC instance is acting as a screen for whatever guest is running from outside the OS and thus doesn't "know" what it is displaying and whether it is select-able etc.

What I don't understand is why I can't paste into the VNC session (and this goes just as much for HTML5 IPMI consoles or VMware consoles), why can't a paste of text just be passed to the guest as keystrokes of that text, this always makes recovery of systems with password manager generated passwords so tedious.

So far I have not been able to find a solution to any of these consoles.

 

[dcsapak]

What I don't understand is why I can't paste into the VNC session (and this goes just as much for HTML5 IPMI consoles or VMware consoles), why can't a paste of text just be passed to the guest as keystrokes of that text, this always makes recovery of systems with password manager generated passwords so tedious.

the problem in general here is that 'text' and 'keystrokes' are fundamentally different things.
qemu vms need scancodes[0] sent from the (virtual) hardware
as long as you type with a keyboard, noVnc is able to use those keystrokes to send it to the server
but if you want to paste some text (for example 'this is a unique test with special characters: öäü '

it would highly depend on the keyboard layout which keystrokes to send, and some characters ( ) might not have an equivalence..
what you could try is to configure you password manager to 'type in' the password?

0: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scancode

 

[Keeper of the Keys]

For the reason you mention above (of not knowing what input method will be available) I usually stick to ascii passwords, as I recall KeePassXC would be able to "type" but at work we use 1pass which uses copy/paste.

Anyhow thanks

 

[Alessandro]

I go into the shell pve, type ssh username@internal ip
Where username is a valid username you want use to join the vm and internal ip is the ip of the vm. It doesn’t work with the user root, but if you use another username, once you’re into the vm you can pass to root with “su -“. In this way you can use copy and paste with mouse as in the shell

 

[dbayer]

I go into the shell pve, type ssh username@internal ip
Where username is a valid username you want use to join the vm and internal ip is the ip of the vm. It doesn’t work with the user root, but if you use another username, once you’re into the vm you can pass to root with “su -“. In this way you can use copy and paste with mouse as in the shell

Thank you for this tip! It works slick!

 

[LnxBil]

I go into the shell pve, type ssh username@internal ip
Where username is a valid username you want use to join the vm and internal ip is the ip of the vm. It doesn’t work with the user root, but if you use another username, once you’re into the vm you can pass to root with “su -“. In this way you can use copy and paste with mouse as in the shell

Why don't you just use a desktop ssh client for that? All major OSes already come with an SSH client, even Windows nowadays.

 

[Yuriy.Samorodov]

I would recommend installing GPM (General Purpose Mouse) driver in your PVE host. It appears this console mouse driver works great with the clipboard inside noVNC

Spoiler: Demo inside

 

[guletz]

driver in your PVE host

.... and in VM guest

- select



... and paste(right click with mouse):

 

[dmpm]

.... and in VM guest

- select

View attachment 39556

... and paste(right click with mouse):

View attachment 39557

I just tried this. GPM is running in the host and the VM but I still can't paste with right-click in my Ubuntu VM.

 

[guletz]

Hi,

Verify if gpm service is running!

Good luck / Bafta !

 

[dmpm]

Hi,

Verify if gpm service is running!

Good luck / Bafta !

I checked it was running in both the host and VM but it still isn't working. I'll just have to RDP into the VM I think.

EDIT: I also see that there's no clipboard icon in my noVNC side menu, so I don't know if that's been removed since Yuriy made his post, or if it's just not showing for me.