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elopio
Asked: 2016-12-09 19:47:51 +0800 CST

How can I copy&paste from the host to a KVM guest?

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I have a QEMU/KVM virtual machine created with Virtual Machine Manager.

I would like to be able to copy text on the host and paste it into the guest, and the other way around too.

How can I share the clipboard between the host and the guest?

kvm

4 Answers

  1. Best Answer

    The solution is simple. Just install the package spice-vdagent in the guest virtual machine:

    sudo apt install spice-vdagent

    The clipboard is automatically shared - we can copy and paste between the host and the guest.

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  2. For my Linux Mint 18.2 Sonya machine timelf123 provided the answer:

    • In my Windows guest (Windows 7) downloaded and installed spice-guest-tools-latest.exe.
    • Before That, back in my QEMU/KVM Virtual Machine Manager I had to switch the guest machine's display to Spice.
    • Before That, back in my Linux host I had to fire up Synaptic Package Manager and install gir1.2-spice-client-gtk-3.0.
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  3. In case the question pops up - what if it's Ubuntu server or similar?

    Don't run around in circles - install openssh-server on the vm, and when you ssh in you cut and paste into your favourite terminal.

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  4. In year 2021, qemu uses qemu-vdagent chardev for copy&paste, which turns off clipboard by default, so simply installing spice-vdagent package in guest OS does not work.

    The solution of 2021 is:

    1. Install spice-vdagent package as the current answer said,

    2. Have qemu support spice (--enable-spice --enable-spice-protocol in ./configure option),

    3. Launch qemu using:

      qemu-system-x86_64 [ ... ] \
  -chardev qemu-vdagent,id=ch1,name=vdagent,clipboard=on \
  -device virtio-serial-pci \
  -device virtserialport,chardev=ch1,id=ch1,name=com.redhat.spice.0

      P.S. A side effect on my qemu is that the mouse moves more smoothly thanks to vdagent.

    Reference: https://www.kraxel.org/blog/2021/05/qemu-cut-paste/

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