How do I enable drag & drop files to and from Host & Guest VMs in GNOME Boxes?

linustalman · 11-29-2021, 01:42 PM

Hi.

I'm using Debian 11 + MATE.

I can mount a USB in the VM but would also like to copy text + files to and from the Host~Guest. I've installed the spice-vdagent package inside the VM.

Thanks.

computersavvy · 11-29-2021, 09:13 PM

I cannot answer about the gui. I suspect not because those are 2 different machines.

However, rsync will copy files back and forth for you all day if you wish.

linustalman · 11-30-2021, 06:37 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by computersavvy

I cannot answer about the gui. I suspect not because those are 2 different machines.

However, rsync will copy files back and forth for you all day if you wish.

Hi computersavvy. Hmm, where to begin with rsync from host to guest. 🤔

computersavvy · 11-30-2021, 08:54 AM

Rsync is quite flexible. If not already installed then install it. The man page tells how it works. Once you have tried it ask questions specifically about what you do not understand.
The following is part of the help that it provides if the command is given no arguments.

Code:

$ rsync
rsync  version 3.2.3  protocol version 31
Copyright (C) 1996-2020 by Andrew Tridgell, Wayne Davison, and others.
Web site: https://rsync.samba.org/
Capabilities:
    64-bit files, 64-bit inums, 64-bit timestamps, 64-bit long ints,
    socketpairs, hardlinks, hardlink-specials, symlinks, IPv6, atimes,
    batchfiles, inplace, append, ACLs, xattrs, optional protect-args, iconv,
    symtimes, prealloc, stop-at, no crtimes
Optimizations:
    SIMD, asm, openssl-crypto
Checksum list:
    md5 md4 none
Compress list:
    zstd lz4 zlibx zlib none

rsync comes with ABSOLUTELY NO WARRANTY.  This is free software, and you
are welcome to redistribute it under certain conditions.  See the GNU
General Public Licence for details.

rsync is a file transfer program capable of efficient remote update
via a fast differencing algorithm.

Usage: rsync [OPTION]... SRC [SRC]... DEST
  or   rsync [OPTION]... SRC [SRC]... [USER@]HOST:DEST
  or   rsync [OPTION]... SRC [SRC]... [USER@]HOST::DEST
  or   rsync [OPTION]... SRC [SRC]... rsync://[USER@]HOST[:PORT]/DEST
  or   rsync [OPTION]... [USER@]HOST:SRC [DEST]
  or   rsync [OPTION]... [USER@]HOST::SRC [DEST]
  or   rsync [OPTION]... rsync://[USER@]HOST[:PORT]/SRC [DEST]
The ':' usages connect via remote shell, while '::' & 'rsync://' usages connect
to an rsync daemon, and require SRC or DEST to start with a module name.

linustalman · 11-30-2021, 09:05 AM

Rsync between a host and VM surely brings lots of hurdles though?

enigma9o7 · 11-30-2021, 09:29 AM

I sftp from guest to host, that's easier than setting up shared folders.

Open file manager, put sftp://hostname into address bar.

Then you can drag and drop within the file manager....

Not sure how to do it without using file manager tho.

computersavvy · 11-30-2021, 09:32 AM

Almost none. Particularly between the host and VM. Rsync is a very capable copy tool and can be easily used in almost any scenario.

Once you try it and get comfortable it should handle all your needs at least as well as drag & drop.

Just as a further tidbit of info.
I use Fedora with a fedora VM running under QEMU/KVM. I tried a drag & drop between the 2 systems (host to guest) and it worked (the transferred file was placed in the Downloads folder). So it is possible drag & drop could work for you as well. It really depends on the type of vm manager you are using and I have no experience with gnome boxes.

sundialsvcs · 11-30-2021, 05:43 PM

VirtualBox, for instance, does support "drag and drop" between host and guest, but this does require you to install a particular kernel module on the Linux side as explained in the instructions.

linustalman · 12-11-2021, 02:19 AM

I'll just stick to using a USB drive to copy the odd file from host to guest - keeping it simple.

sundialsvcs · 12-12-2021, 10:25 PM

"Drag and drop" between host and guest is available in some virtual-machine environments, and it requires a custom kernel module and related software to be installed onto the guest. I have had decidedly-mixed results with it. "Shared drives," where a host directory appears as a mount-point to the guest, are usually a more successful approach to me, and the concept works regardless of what sort of guest/host it is. It's now a two-step instead of a one-step process but it usually works well enough to get by.

linustalman · 12-14-2021, 12:35 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by sundialsvcs

"Drag and drop" between host and guest is available in some virtual-machine environments, and it requires a custom kernel module and related software to be installed onto the guest. I have had decidedly-mixed results with it. "Shared drives," where a host directory appears as a mount-point to the guest, are usually a more successful approach to me, and the concept works regardless of what sort of guest/host it is. It's now a two-step instead of a one-step process but it usually works well enough to get by.

Hi sundialsvcs. I'll stick to the shared folder/USB route.

jmgibson1981 · 12-14-2021, 06:50 AM

This is one of the many benefits of keeping a small home file server around. In my case I just have the shares mounted in both the vms and the hosts. I don't have to bother moving anything around for the most part.