Puppy Linux Virtual Machine Bidirectional Copy

[JusGellin]

How can I set up a kvm qemu puppy linux virtual machine to have bidirectional copy?
Other linux virtual machine use spice-vdagent to set this up.
Thanks,
JusGellin

[Geek3579]

I presume you want to copy files back and forth from the guest to the host...

I use PureFTP in the host and gFTP / Filezilla in the guest. Easy to copy back and forth, from the guest side.

[JusGellin]

Yes, that's important to be able to copy files back and forth. I never thought to do it that way using FTP. That sounds promising to try.
On other Linux I have a shared folder that I use between the host and guest for sharing files. Hopefully that will be straight forward. I haven't tried that yet but will.

But I was really thinking more of clipboard copying text and screen captures between guest and host. On other Linux guests to be able to do this I have to set the guest to share memory and also install the spice-vdagent on it:

sudo apt install spice-agent

How can I do install something like this using Puppy Linux? Do you do any clipboard copying between the host and the Puppy Linux guest? How do you do it?
Thanks for your help.

[bigpup]

If you use a Puppy version that has APT in it.

BookwormPup64 does and a few of the very newest Puppies may also.

You could try:

sudo apt install spice-agent

(do not need sudo in the command. You are root user)

Are you sure that is the correct apt command?

The install documentation says to use this:

apt install spice-vdagent

See if that works in Puppy.

Note:
I tried apt install spice-vdagent in BookwormPup64 and it downloaded and installed.
I have no idea how to use it.

[JusGellin]

I'm using BookwormPup64_10.0.4 but it's telling me when I run the apt that the apt command is not found.
Do I need to do something to make the apt command work?

You are right, it is supposed to be:
apt install spice-vdagent
I entered it wrong here - my notes had it right.
Thanks

[rockedge]

@JusGellin I know a guy who had a dog named Gel Dog and hosted a boomerang tournament named Gel Boom.....

on another note, I used a suggestion that @wiak gave us to use 9p to copy files back and forth from a QEMU virtual machine to the host system. Somewhere on this forum there is a topic that has posts explaining how it's done.

Quicker to get started is some info on how to do it here -> https://wiki.qemu.org/Documentation/9psetup

9P as root filesystem (Howto)

It is possible to run a whole virtualized guest system entirely on top of QEMU's 9p pass-through filesystem (Documentation/9psetup) such that all guest system's files are directly visible inside a subdirectory on the host system and therefore directly accessible by both sides.

[JusGellin]

I thought that BookwormPup64 just didn't have the apt command available and that was my problem for what I thought I needed to install until @bigpup mentioned that apt came with it. So I searched and found another recent post that indicated the same problem. But I didn't see that it was completely resolved:
BookwormPup64 apt & synaptic not working by Insanitor
One comment by @dimkr said:

The installer you used probably didn't copy bdrv_*.sfs from the ISO image to the partition you installed to. This SFS contains apt and Synaptic, and it's optional (you'll get a working Puppy but without them, if you don't have this SFS).

From my virtual machine install, I have the drive that was installed called sda1 (/mnt/home/puppBWbios) and I think another one that must be a memory drive called sr0 (/mnt/sr0).
The sda1 drive has these sfs files:
adrv_dpupbwk64_10.0.4.sfs
frdv_dpupbw64_10.0.4.sfs
puppy_dpupbw64_10.0.4.sfs
zdrv_dpupbw64_10.0.4.sfs

The sr0 has:
adrv_dpupbw64_10.0.4.sfs
bdrv_dpupbw64_10.0.4.sfs
fdrv_dpupbw64_10.0.4.sfs
kbuild-6.1.67.sfs
puppy_dpupbw64_10.0.4.sfs
zdrv_dpupbw64_10.0.4.sfs

Does this help to indicate why my apt command is missing and what I can do? My Synaptic Package manager also doesn't come up. either.

[bigpup]

Any time you start to use Apt or Synaptic.

First run updates to get the latest info on what is in the repositories.
Then try doing the download and install.
This is the info they use to determine what is in the repositories.

apt update

synaptic click on reload button

When I did apt update before running apt install spice-vdagent

It found quite a bit of new stuff.

[JusGellin]

Since apt can't be found and Synaptic doesn't start, how can I update?
Thanks

[bigpup]

Then the install you are booting from is not a good install.

I am not sure why it has the bookwormPup64 files in two different locations.

But make sure bdrv_dpupbw64_10.0.4.sfs is in both locations.

If you have to copy it to where it is not.

Apt and Synaptic should be working if bdrv_dpupbw64_10.0.4.sfs is there to be loaded on boot up.

[JusGellin]

I found that the sr0: drive is the virtual cd drive for installing virtual machines. If an iso is loaded in it , it will show up as a drive. But the virtual machine will boot up from the installation if the bios is set for the hard drive - which I have.
The installation allows me to see that the puppy installation doesn't bring all the necessary sfs file, like bdrv_*.sfs. So I copied the missing ones to the installed ones which now allows apt and Synaptic to work.

But the original problem with bidrectional copy (clipboard copy between host and guest) still doesn't work even with the installation of spice-vdagent. It tells me I have the latest version. So I have to do more research to see why it's not working.

Has anyone had success using clipboard copy between qemu guests and host?

[JusGellin]

I'm able to share a folder ok. I'm using virtiofs instead of virtio-9p that was suggested before. That works ok. But I would also like to be able to use clipboard copy between guest and host.

Have any of you that are using QEMU able to do that? If so, what can I do to accomplish that as well? For other linux guests, normally clipboard copy/paste works automatically. Others require that I install spice-vdagent. But I haven't been able to get this to work for puppy linux.
Thanks

[Clarity]

I am days late to this topic.

AS a user of KVM built (within the INtel and AMD CPUs), the official PUPs/KLs/DOGs and almost ALL of the forum distros have what is needed for simple-easy bi-directional data movement/copy/duplication without any need to install anything.

Its REALLY easy. (I use QEMU to boot a forum distro in a VM)

1. On the host

   1. Forum distros have been Great for this kind of simplicity.In forum distros, go to Host's Menu>Network>Simple SAMBA

   2. Define the folder you want to share to your home network and hit its start button

2. On the VM

   1. In the terminal on the VM, where the PUP is running (virtually), you can see the Host's share via smbclient -U% -L 10.0.0.3

   2. You can access any of the host's shares using normal "mount" commands in the terminal on the VM

   3. Once mounted, everyone knows how to open a file-manager to move information to/from folders

ALL OF THIS has been a staple in PUPs for years. YOU INSTALL NOTHING for information exchange!

No complexity, no installations, secure, fast, integrated in the forum distros, consistent with any LAN exchanges with any Windows/MACs/Linux/Unix/etc, etc...

Forum distros have been Great for this kind of simplicity.

[JusGellin]

@Clarity
This is pretty new to me. So far I haven't used PuppyLinux as as host, but used other Linux versions. I see your instructions indicate using the PuppyLinux as the host. I'll set my bare metal computer to do that. Could you help me a bit for the QEMU commands for setting up the guest? I'm using Bookworm Pup64. I think I see how to do the rest of it. Also what is a good way to have the share mounted on boot up for the guest?
Thanks for your help.

[Clarity]

Hello @JusGellin
Note before beginning: You can do the same no matter which Linux you use for your HOST system; meaning any you are comfortable with.

But if you choose to use a forum distro for you Host, that's fine as they all, at least most over the past decade, have SAMBA pre-installed and operational

Steps
On your host

1. If a PUP, do Menu>Network>Simple Samba and share a folder that has some data insuring SAMBA is green

2. Install QEMU from its package-manager, as thus far, ONLY 1 (@norgo's ISO) forum distros have it pre-installed.

3. Add and run @norgo's "qemu-ready" (click) to insure KVM (CPU feature) is active

4. Assume you have BookwormPUP64 (BKW64) ISO file, here's QEMU stanza that will boot it to desktop

   Code: Select all

   qemu-system-x86_64 -boot d -m 2048 -enable-kvm -smp 2 -vga std -soundhw all -cdrom path-to-YOUR-ISO-file.iso

   You can substitute any ISO filename you have, to have it boot a VM

Let us know your progress

[JusGellin]

@Clarity

3. Add and run @norgo's "qemu-ready" (click) to insure KVM (CPU feature) is active

When I run this, it gives an error - "rdmsr: open: No such file or directory" Everything above that shows ok. So it show the virtual STATUS disabled.
Is there something I need to do for this?
Thanks

[Clarity]

Hummm??? Check you PC's UEFI-BIOS to insure the Virtual feature (usually it has a name like "virtualization ...") is turned on. Every 64bit PC since 2008 has a setting for this. If turned on, that utiltiy in step 3 will discover and start it so that your KVM run the VM at 99.99% of bare-metal speeds.

Check you PC for it.

BTW: QEMU will still work without,but the VM's speed will be diminished. And, in some cases QEMU will complain that KVM is not present. If so, remove the KVM parm from the QEMU stanza to stop his complaint.

[JusGellin]

Yes it does - Virtualization with a capital V. I have it enabled

[Clarity]

Did the utility enable everythng?

[JusGellin]

I have it so I can bring up a QEMU guest.
But I did have some problems with the virtualization. It seemed to stop. I couldn't run the QEMU commands which gave a kvm error. Also, if I ran lsmod | grep kvm I got nothing back. I found someone that had a similar problem and resolved it by re-enabling it like this:
modprobe kvm
modprob kvm_intel
dmesg | grep kvm
This let me make a guest that worked. I don't know if this is the proper way to solve this or not, but it worked.
I'm looking forward to doing more of this to be able to use QEMU. This will be very helpful.

I looked at the Samba Simple Management tool, but just don't know how to use it. I've never used Samba before. I know it is providing a share that the guest can use, but I'm not sure how to use it on the guest. Could you start me out on this part as well? This will be usful for file transfers.
Also will I be able to use it to copy/paste from the clipboards between the two ( <ctl> c; <ctl>v) with it?
Thanks again for helping me.

[rockedge]

I looked at the Samba Simple Management tool, but just don't know how to use it. I've never used Samba before.

What system is the Host? What will be the guest?

On the host machine you will need to set a password for samba. I use a simple one.
In a terminal:

Code: Select all

smbpasswd -a root

On the host system start SAMBA with the Samba Simple Manager. Here is an example from host system F96-CE_4 ->

Screenshot(14).jpg (53.57 KiB) Viewed 1127 times

On the guest Virtual machine system use Menu->Network->Pnethood access windows shares
This will scan your network for SAMBA shares.

Screenshot(16).jpg (38.65 KiB) Viewed 1127 times

[JusGellin]

That's great. Thanks for the information.

What system is the Host? What will be the guest?

I'm using Bookworm Pup64 for both.

On the guest Virtual machine system use Menu->Network->Pnethood access windows shares

I don't have that on this version of Puppy. Is there a way to get this?
Thanks

[JusGellin]

I found another one called "YASSM Samba share search" that works!
Thanks again!!

[JusGellin]

Now all I would like to have is the clipboard copy/paste (<ctl>c, <ctl>v) that this topic was really asking.
But... I have really learned a lot from all of you for the other details that I needed as well.

[Clarity]

Since most of my use of VMs has been temporary usages, I've never used the copy-paste across the virtual-host environment.

BUT, I do have a "transfer' folder in the "puppyshare" (samba folder defined on the host) where I will place content to 'transfer' between the virtual-host.

Hope this helps

[Trapster]

I do not us VMs but I do use sshfs with my server.
Does sshfs work with VMs?

[Clarity]

... Does sshfs work with VMs?

Yes. Think of the VM as a PC on your network whose desktop is a visible pane on your normal distro desktop. And you get to it the same way you do to any other 'real' PC. Everything you can do on a real PC you can so the same on your desktop in a virtual PC.

Try it. I think it is simple. And, you can manage the VM is exactly the same way you would any PC.