Support pasting clipboard from host

[fkorotkov]

It seems it's not supported at the moment with the current API according to this comment and based on my research at the time. But let's create a tracking issue.

[fkorotkov]

Yeah, I've poked around the code and didn't find a way to support it. Seems there is no way to get handle on a keyboard to send fake strokes.

A workaround for people might be enabling Screen Sharing and using VNC via running a VM with --no-graphics option and then getting it's IP via tart ip <name> command to use with Screen Sharing.

[edigaryev]

Yeah, I've poked around the code and didn't find a way to support it. Seems there is no way to get handle on a keyboard to send fake strokes.

So, sending CGEvent's is not an option either?

Also, maybe can we manually call methods like keyDown() on an NSResponder?

[fkorotkov]

I haven't found a public API to interact with a keyboard. As far as I understood VZVirtualMachineView will support it at some point:

If the VM configuration includes a keyboard and a pointing device, the view forwards keyboard and mouse events to the VM through those devices.

[fkorotkov]

It seems it will be possible. At least according to a new Linux example (see "Enable copy-and-paste support between the host and the guest" section):

private func createSpiceAgentConsoleDeviceConfiguration() -> VZVirtioConsoleDeviceConfiguration {
    let consoleDevice = VZVirtioConsoleDeviceConfiguration()

    let spiceAgentPort = VZVirtioConsolePortConfiguration()
    spiceAgentPort.name = VZSpiceAgentPortAttachment.spiceAgentPortName
    spiceAgentPort.attachment = VZSpiceAgentPortAttachment()
    consoleDevice.ports[0] = spiceAgentPort

    return consoleDevice
}

Need to verify that it will work in macOS though.

[fkorotkov]

I've tried the above example and a bit different one:

let spiceAgentPortAttachment = VZSpiceAgentPortAttachment()
spiceAgentPortAttachment.sharesClipboard = true
let serialPortConfiguration = VZVirtioConsoleDeviceSerialPortConfiguration()
serialPortConfiguration.attachment = spiceAgentPortAttachment
configuration.serialPorts = [serialPortConfiguration]

with the latest Ventura and it seems not be working. It might be indicating that it only works for Linux. Will need to investigate more.

[bootstraponline]

@fkorotkov Hey, https://github.com/cirruslabs/tart/commit/048a5506df871aaddc412ddfabe2e52bec850e57 doesn't support clipboard sharing on Linux. A spice agent is necessary, similar to what you posted in https://github.com/cirruslabs/tart/issues/14#issuecomment-1147850768

https://github.com/cirruslabs/tart/pull/287 also fixes this issue. Would you prefer a standalone PR for clipboard sharing?

[fkorotkov]

Right. https://github.com/cirruslabs/tart/commit/048a5506df871aaddc412ddfabe2e52bec850e57 was only about trackpad support. @edigaryev had some security concerns as well about enabling clipboard sharing by default. Will be probably better to put the clipboard support under a flag or maybe do similar to what "Screen Sharing" app is doing e.g. only share things copied to clipboard after launching a session. It seems "Screen Sharing" either cleans the clipboard upon session creation or doing something else. Haven't investigated the behaviour in more details.

[bootstraponline]

Right. 048a550 was only about trackpad support.

Ah, the commit message says Support trackpad on macOS and clipboard sharing on Linux

@edigaryev had some security concerns as well about enabling clipboard sharing by default. Will be probably better to put the clipboard support under a flag or maybe do similar to what "Screen Sharing" app is doing e.g. only share things copied to clipboard after launching a session.

I think a flag makes sense. Some users may want an isolated VM with no clipboard support.

Does tart have the concept of a VM description file? In VMWare, there's .vmx files that contain the VM configuration.

What do you think about having a Tart.app with a UI that enables configuring persistent VM settings that are stored on disk? https://github.com/cirruslabs/tart/issues/243#issuecomment-1248355627 mentioned the .app might be required for certain entitlements.

Parallels has a simple UI.

The settings could also be available via flag for the command line use case.

[fkorotkov]

Right now config is stored in a JSON file and can be altered via tart set command. We were thinking about a UI similar to your screenshot so you can open Tart.App or run tart run which will display a list of available VMs with an option to change configs. We just have too many other things on our plates to find time for that.

[bootstraponline]

We were thinking about a UI similar to your screenshot so you can open Tart.App or run tart run which will display a list of available VMs with an option to change configs. We just have too many other things on our plates to find time for that.

I looked into this and it seems like Swift Package Manager doesn't play nice with macOS apps. For full SwiftUI support (including view previews), Xcode is expecting an Xcode project.

[ThreatLockerAlex]

with the latest Ventura and it seems not be working. It might be indicating that it only works for Linux. Will need to investigate more.

hey @fkorotkov any breakthroughs here? Just came across this thread trying to help another team at work. Not super familiar with swift but I have modified the VMInstance file of MacVM. There biggest pain point right now is clipboard sharing, hoping to either resolve let them know it is still not currently possible.

[edigaryev]

I've just tried building & running Tart on a macOS 14.0 Sonoma (23A5276g) host with macOS 14.0 Sonoma (23A5276q) guest with the following snippet added to a VM.craftConfiguration()

    // Clipboard sharing
    let spiceAgentPortAttachment = VZSpiceAgentPortAttachment()
    spiceAgentPortAttachment.sharesClipboard = true

    let spiceAgentPort = VZVirtioConsolePortConfiguration()
    spiceAgentPort.name = VZSpiceAgentPortAttachment.spiceAgentPortName
    spiceAgentPort.attachment = spiceAgentPortAttachment

    let consoleDevice = VZVirtioConsoleDeviceConfiguration()
    consoleDevice.ports[0] = spiceAgentPort
    configuration.consoleDevices = [consoleDevice]

With this snippet, tart run boots the VM with an additional device present in ioreg:

    | |   |   | +-o AppleVirtIOPCITransport  <class AppleVirtIOPCITransport, id 0x1000001a7, registered, matched, active, busy 0 (12 ms), retain 7>
    | |   |   |   +-o AppleVirtIOConsole  <class AppleVirtIOConsole, id 0x1000001b1, registered, matched, active, busy 0 (9 ms), retain 10>
    | |   |   |     +-o IOSerialStreamSync  <class IOSerialStreamSync, id 0x1000001c3, registered, matched, active, busy 0 (9 ms), retain 7>
    | |   |   |       +-o IOSerialBSDClient  <class IOSerialBSDClient, id 0x1000001c7, registered, matched, active, busy 0 (0 ms), retain 5>

This device is also present in /dev:

crw-rw-rw-  1 root   wheel      0x9000001 Jun 23 15:51 cu.com.redhat.spice.0
crw-rw-rw-  1 root   wheel      0x9000000 Jun 23 15:51 tty.com.redhat.spice.0

However, when attempting to access either of these devices (e.g. using cat /dev/cu.com.redhat.spice.0) from inside of a VM, the VM exits with the following exception:

guest has stopped the virtual machine due to error: Error Domain=VZErrorDomain Code=1 "The virtual machine stopped unexpectedly." UserInfo={NSLocalizedFailure=Internal Virtualization error., NSLocalizedFailureReason=The virtual machine stopped unexpectedly.}

So I guess it's not ready for macOS yet or I'm doing something wrong.

I've also found a similar issue in another project utilizing Virtualization.Framework: https://github.com/s-u/macosvm/issues/1.

[ThreatLockerAlex]

Thank you for your efforts @fkorotkov

[fkorotkov]

All thanks to @edigaryev for double checking! 🙌

[joshuaquek]

There is another tool like tart that allows MacOS virtualisation as well as copy and pasting - https://github.com/insidegui/VirtualBuddy/pull/144 , where the both the host and guest is running on MacOS

Seems like the solution is to simply have a helper app within the guest VM to allow this.