[vfio-users] Virtual USB Keyboard and Mouse for guest?

[Jonathan Scruggs]

Hi Jonathan,

You are correct. One physical usb keyboard and mouse shared between the
host and guest(s). For the guests, it would be done via usb pass through
instead spice/vnc so that it can be used with guests that are using
dedicated graphic cards instead of seeing the desktop with virt-veiwer or
something else like it. Which means, some kind of virtual usb device that
can be added into the usb pass through part of virt-manager. This would
have several advantages, one being, if done right, lower latency than
Synergy or other network based software. Also, no need for external KM
switches. It would also play nicer with MS Windows. Synergy is nice, but
can be a bit of a pain.

@Blank Field: You were a bit rude.

Jon

On 1 September 2015 at 03:29, Jonathan Panozzo <jonp at lime-technology.com>
wrote:

> I don’t think he’s talking about connecting over VNC/SPICE here, he’s
> talking about essentially physical USB assignment where a key combination
> on the assigned device could alter the VM it’s assigned to.  The method
> you’re describing has the problems you mention which is probably why he’s
> asking for this.
>
> On Aug 31, 2015, at 5:34 PM, Blank Field <ihatethisfield at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> I don't want to be rude, but seriously, dude, are you stoned?
> http://i.imgur.com/HREQQVF.png
> We have that.. since the very beginning!
> It works REALLY as you've described.
> There are two minor problems, however.
> First - that silly QEMU SDL or VirtManager VM window disables the surface
> where it grabs the mouse(click-to-grab) when there's no emulated GPU
> present. Well, i workaround that by adding a dead QXL device, which gets
> turned off by windows automatically(i don't know why) when the real GPU
> fires up. It works on bare QEMU and VirtManager too.
> Second - you must add two mice, PS2 and USB. That way it almost never
> falls off or lags in any games. Using either of those alone produces weird
> lagging and even stalls in weird games like minecraft. This issue is
> virt-manager specific, and may be machine specific.
>
> Anyway, after adding a bunch of devices, i have a window that shows
> nothing and can be resized to the smallest size. I click my mouse on the
> black rectangle inside of it, and the mouse and keyboard controls are now
> grabbed and passed to the guest.
> The only keystroke i can't send is ctrl-alt-delete for some weird reason.
> When i want to control the host system again, i follow the hint shon and
> push the ctrl-alt-shift key combination and my controls are now free from
> the VM.
>
> I'm glad you didn't send that feature request to qemu-devel or
> qemu-discuss mailing lists.
>
> 2015-08-31 21:18 GMT+03:00 Jonathan Scruggs <j.scruggs at gmail.com>:
>
>> Hi all,
>>
>> This is an idea I had that would be really cool if possible. If it is,
>> you may want to somehow build it into VirtManager or something.
>>
>> Currently, I have a Windows guest using Synergy, but somethings Windows
>> has popups that disable Synergy and only a real mouse would work. Also, you
>> can't update Synergy while using Synergy. My solution which is better than
>> Synergy and solves these issues:
>>
>> Would it be possible to have the real mouse and keyboard that is plugged
>> into the host to be (this is where I struggle for the right words)
>> duplicated/virtualized/emulated so that they can be passed through to the
>> guest as a USB device and used on the host system as well. There would be a
>> program that listens for a certain key combination that would switch the
>> control to either the VM or host. Then windows would think it has a real
>> USB keyboard and mouse rather than Synergy. This is especially useful when
>> there is a dedicated graphics card passed through.
>>
>> This seems like something that VirtManger can have built in, like select
>> an option to do this and it would switch the inputs between the systems.
>> The only thing is, is that the mouse and keyboard would still need to be
>> visible to the guest/host just no movements/keystrokes being sent. Also,
>> calling external programs, like those that can switch monitor inputs should
>> be added to this.
>>
>> This will lose the clipboard sharing and other features of Synergy, but I
>> don't use those anyways, and this would be a lot more stable and better for
>> the guests.
>>
>> Does this make sense?
>>
>> Thanks,
>> Jon
>>
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>>
>>
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