Skip to content

Clarify virtserialport requirement for SPICE clipboard with UTM on Apple Silicon#1

Open
cronar wants to merge 1 commit into
utmapp:mainfrom
cronar:docs/utm-virtserial-clipboard-note
Open

Clarify virtserialport requirement for SPICE clipboard with UTM on Apple Silicon#1
cronar wants to merge 1 commit into
utmapp:mainfrom
cronar:docs/utm-virtserial-clipboard-note

Conversation

@cronar

@cronar cronar commented Feb 1, 2026

Copy link
Copy Markdown

Summary

Added a clarification to the README explaining a scenario where the SPICE agent clipboard does not function even though the agent and the device node appear to be correctly configured in the guest.

Background

When using Linux guests on Apple Silicon Macs in UTM Virtualize mode with minimal X11 window managers (e.g. Openbox), it is possible for:

  • spice-vdagentd to be running
  • /dev/virtio-ports/com.redhat.spice.0 to exist in the guest

while host → guest clipboard still fails.

This occurs because the VM configuration may not create the required SPICE virtserial channel, even though the agent is present and waiting for it.

As this isn’t obvious on the guest side, it can lead users to unnecessarily troubleshoot X11, the window manager, or the clipboard tooling rather than the channel requirement described in this README.

Change

This PR adds a short note showing how to add the required -chardev and -device virtserialport arguments in UTM so that the agent can function as described.

Sign up for free to join this conversation on GitHub. Already have an account? Sign in to comment

Labels

None yet

Projects

None yet

Development

Successfully merging this pull request may close these issues.

1 participant