Antix 26 in a VM (virt-manager): Copy-and-paste

[bertramMember]

I’m running antix 26 in a virtual machine (host: Linux Mint 22). I can’t get copy-and-paste to work between the guest and the host. I’m using virt-manager (QEMU/KVM) for virtualization.
I installed spice-vdagent in the guest (Antix).
In Antix I also added the following line to this file: ~/.icewm/startup:
spice-vdagent &
But copy-and-paste still doesn’t work. Otherwise, Antix 26 runs fine in the VM.
What else can I try?

• This topic was modified 6 months ago by bertram.

[sybokMember]

Have not done that.
But this Ubuntu link suggests that spice-vdagent has to be started and enabled and the guest system may have to be rebooted (Is the reboot only to have spice-vdagent auto-started?).

Check if it running, probably ‘ps -ef | grep spice’ or ‘service –status-all’ (the latter may be higher than your terminal window) might do.
Not sure if spice-vdagent works without systemd correctly.

[ProwlerGrMember]

sybok wrote:

Not sure if spice-vdagent works without systemd correctly.

sudo apt install runit-service-spice-vdagent 66-service-spice-vdagent s6-rc-service-spice-vdagent dinit-service-spice-vdagent runit-service-consolekit 66-service-consolekit s6-rc-service-consolekit dinit-service-consolekit

[bertramMember]

I tried to run this code
sudo apt install runit-service-spice-vdagent 66-service-spice-vdagent s6-rc-service-spice-vdagent dinit-service-spice-vdagent runit-service-consolekit 66-service-consolekit s6-rc-service-consolekit dinit-service-consolekit
– after rebooting antix nothing changed. No copy-and-paste.

[bertramMember]

sybok wrote:

‘ps -ef | grep spice’

This is the output in terminal

 ps -ef | grep spice
root       962     1  0 11:23 ?        00:00:00 runsvdir -P /etc/service log: at error runsv spice-vdagentd: fatal: unable to start ./run: exec format error *** debug [daemon/old_main.c(156)]: selected 0 times runsv spice-vdagentd: fatal: unable to start ./run: exec format error runsv spice-vdagentd: fatal: unable to start ./run: exec format error *** debug [daemon/old_main.c(156)]: selected 0 times runsv spice-vdagentd: fatal: unable to start ./run: exec format error 
root      1121   962  0 11:23 ?        00:00:00 runsv spice-vdagentd
root      1134  1121  0 11:23 ?        00:00:00 svlogd -tt /var/log/runit/spice-vdagentd
bp        1363  1361  0 11:23 ?        00:00:00 runsv spice-vdagent
bp        1365  1363  0 11:23 ?        00:00:00 svlogd -tt /var/tmp/log/runit/user/1000/spice-vdagent
bp       21164 19833  0 11:29 pts/0    00:00:00 grep spice

[bertramMember]

bertram wrote:

sybok wrote:

‘ps -ef | grep spice’

This is the output in terminal

 ps -ef | grep spice
root       962     1  0 11:23 ?        00:00:00 runsvdir -P /etc/service log: at error runsv spice-vdagentd: fatal: unable to start ./run: exec format error *** debug [daemon/old_main.c(156)]: selected 0 times runsv spice-vdagentd: fatal: unable to start ./run: exec format error runsv spice-vdagentd: fatal: unable to start ./run: exec format error *** debug [daemon/old_main.c(156)]: selected 0 times runsv spice-vdagentd: fatal: unable to start ./run: exec format error 
root      1121   962  0 11:23 ?        00:00:00 runsv spice-vdagentd
root      1134  1121  0 11:23 ?        00:00:00 svlogd -tt /var/log/runit/spice-vdagentd
bp        1363  1361  0 11:23 ?        00:00:00 runsv spice-vdagent
bp        1365  1363  0 11:23 ?        00:00:00 svlogd -tt /var/tmp/log/runit/user/1000/spice-vdagent
bp       21164 19833  0 11:29 pts/0    00:00:00 grep spice

has anybody an idea how to realize copy-and-paste between host and guest?

[sybokMember]

Could you please try the following:

0) Just for sure, does ‘apt-cache policy spice-vdagent’ contain line with ‘Installed: 0.23.0-1.0nosystemd1’ (the version may slightly differ but ‘nosystemd’ should be included)?
This is to ensure you have the antiX-repacked version.

1) Would you care trying use ‘spice-vdagent’ with a different init? (antiX newly provides several)
It seems that SysVinit service is provided with the package ‘spice-vdagent’ already, this is probably a good candidate to work.

2) Does attempt to start it manually from the terminal ‘sv restart spice-vdagent’ (SysVinit: ‘service spice-vdagent start’) print something useful other than the fatal error?

3) Is there any log file to inspect for additional details of the failure?
Your post suggests that there is ‘/var/log/runit/spice-vdagentd’; does it contain anything helpful?

4) If staying with ‘runit’, please run the following (find all files|directories containing ‘spice-vdagent’ in path corresponding to the runit folder, print their properties):
ls -lh $(find /etc/runit/ -name '*spice-vdagent*' | sort)

BTW, it seems that the QEMU/KVM in the host system may need some (additional) configuring for ‘spice-vdagent’ to work – https://www.kraxel.org/blog/2021/05/qemu-cut-paste/

• This reply was modified 6 months ago by sybok. Reason: correct runit service (re)start

[bertramMember]

your idea No 4:

$ ls -lh $(find /etc/runit/ -name '*spice-vdagent*' | sort)
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root  1  6. Dez 13:22 /etc/runit/override-sysv.d/spice-vdagent.block
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root  1  6. Dez 13:22 /etc/runit/override-sysv.d/spice-vdagentd.block
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 26  9. Dez 14:01 /etc/runit/runsvdir/default/spice-vdagentd -> ../../../sv/spice-vdagentd

your idea No 2:
sv restart spice-vdagent
fail: spice-vdagent: unable to change to service directory: file does not exist

to this link:
https://www.kraxel.org/blog/2021/05/qemu-cut-paste/
that refers to cut-and-paste – but I only want to use “copy-and-paste”.

sybok wrote:

3) Is there any log file to inspect for additional details of the failure?
Your post suggests that there is ‘/var/log/runit/spice-vdagentd’; does it contain anything helpful?

In this folder I have 2 files: “current” and “lock” . both files are empty.

???

[bertramMember]

sybok wrote:

(SysVinit: ‘service spice-vdagent start’)

When I try this I get:

$ sudo service spice-vdagent start
Starting Agent daemon for Spice guests: spice-vdagent.

But even then, copy-and-paste does not work.

[sybokMember]

You started the service using SysVinit as an alternate init, I presume.
Does it remain active or does it die out again (‘service spice-vdagent status’)?

fail: spice-vdagent: unable to change to service directory: file does not exist

If the directory ‘/var/run/spice-vdagentd/’ does not exist, create it and try again.

[XaverMember]

VirtualManager and/or Spice is causing the problem

If you do not need any of their special features,
I suggest to run Qemu from the command line or use Aqemu as GUI. (–> see my tutorial in ‘Documentation’ of this forum)

I have booted antiX-26_x64-full.iso in Qemu from the command line.
Thus copy and paste is working fine.

qemu-system-x86_64 \
    -enable-kvm \
    -cpu host \
    -smp 2 \
    -m 3072 \
    -vga virtio \
    -display gtk,gl=on \
    -audio alsa,model=ac97 \
    -device qemu-xhci \
    -boot d \
    -cdrom /<path-to>/antiX-26_x64-full.iso

• This reply was modified 6 months ago by Xaver.

[enigma9o7Member]

Perhaps you have to use the virtio vga driver? In my experience when using that in virt-manager, it prevents screenshots….

[bertramMember]

sybok wrote:

You started the service using SysVinit as an alternate init, I presume.
Does it remain active or does it die out again (‘service spice-vdagent status’)?

service spice-vdagent status
spice-vdagent is running

but copy-and-paste between host and guest does not work.

sybok wrote:

If the directory ‘/var/run/spice-vdagentd/’ does not exist, create it and try again.

the directory ‘/var/run/spice-vdagentd/’ exists, in this directory I find the file spice-vdagent.pid (content of this file: 1829) and the file spice-vdagent-sock (this file is empty).

Xaver wrote:

VirtualManager and/or Spice is causing the problem

One year ago I had virt-manager/qemu running, and in there a vm with antix 23. I installed spice-vdagent in the same way (in the vm) I did it now with the new version. And with this older version of antix copy-and-paste between host and guest was running.
But with antix 26 it is not running.

[sybokMember]

My understanding of your current situtation regarding the ‘spice-vdagent’ service is:
Runit: it fails to start.
SysVinit (?): it starts and it is up and running.

I’ve run out of ideas.
You may try an internet search or try to debug it with the help of an LLM.

[XaverMember]

@bertram

Sorry, I had misunderstood your question.

So far I had not the time to install antiX26 in a VM. But I have a Refracta13 VM with runit.
So I have used Refracta for a test.
spice-vdagent does start and run fine, but host to guest copy and paste does not work either.

So I can confirm your problem. Maybe it is a general issue of Trixie.

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