Clarify virtserialport requirement for SPICE clipboard with UTM on Apple Silicon#1
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Clarify virtserialport requirement for SPICE clipboard with UTM on Apple Silicon#1cronar wants to merge 1 commit into
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…gent with UTM on Apple Silicon.
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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-vdagentdto be running/dev/virtio-ports/com.redhat.spice.0to exist in the guestwhile 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
-chardevand-device virtserialportarguments in UTM so that the agent can function as described.