SPICE

SPICE (the Simple Protocol for Independent Computing Environments) is a remote-display protocol built for virtual environments.

Contents

Filesystem sharing

Note: There is a bug in virt-manager that causes the Filesystem option to be unavailable even though it will work on your system.

• Edit your guest's XML file with virsh (replace <name-of-guest> with the name of your guest VM):

virsh -c qemu:///system edit <name-of-guest>

• Add something similar to the following to your XML file, just above </devices>:

<filesystem type='mount' accessmode='passthrough'>
    <source dir='/path/to/share'/>
    <target dir='share'/>
    <address type='pci' domain='0x0000' bus='0x00' slot='0x08' function='0x0'/>
</filesystem>

• Quit your text editor. You can run the edit command again or check in virt-manager to make sure that the filesystem device you just added shows up.

• Add this line to /etc/fstab on your guest:

share /mnt 9p trans=virtio,version=9p2000.L 0 0

• Put the following in /etc/modules-load.d/9p.conf on your guest:

fscache
9p
9pnet_virtio

• Reboot, or just mount your new filesystem with mount, and you should be set.

Troubleshooting

Graphical corruption or lag with QXL video driver

• Add the following to /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/20-qxl.conf:

Section "Device"
    Identifier "qxl"
    Driver     "qxl"
    Option "ENABLE_SURFACES" "False"
EndSection

• Reboot or restart X

DPI set incorrectly

If you have issues with your DPI being set incorrectly, you can manually override it for Xft by adding the following to .Xresources in your home directory:

Xft.dpi: 96

You will need to run xrdb $HOME/.Xresources from your .xinitrc if you do not already.