Skip to content

VirtUI Remote Viewer

The VirtUI Remote Viewer is a custom-built, high-performance graphical console integrated directly into VirtUI Manager. It provides a seamless way to interact with your Virtual Machines without needing external tools like virt-viewer or virt-manager.

It supports both VNC and SPICE protocols and offers advanced features like USB redirection and snapshot management directly from the viewer window.

Interface Overview

The viewer is designed to be intuitive, with a toolbar at the top and a tabbed interface for advanced controls.

Main Toolbar

The header bar provides quick access to essential functions:

  • Settings Menu: Configure display scaling, smoothing, compression, and view-only mode.
  • Power Menu: Quickly Start, Pause, Resume, Shutdown, or Force Off the VM.
  • Send Keys: Send special key combinations like Ctrl+Alt+Del or Ctrl+Alt+F1 directly to the guest.
  • Clipboard: Push/Pull text to and from the guest clipboard.
  • Screenshot: Capture the current state of the VM display to a file.
  • Fullscreen: Toggle fullscreen mode for an immersive experience.
  • Logs & Events: Toggle the visibility of the logs and events panel.

Remote Viewer Menu

Features

Display Settings

You can customize the viewing experience to match your network conditions and preferences:

  • Scaling: Resize the guest display to fit the window.
  • Smoothing: Enable interpolation for better image quality when scaled.
  • Lossy Compression: Use JPEG compression to reduce bandwidth usage (useful for slow connections).
  • Color Depth: Adjust the color depth (8-bit, 16-bit, 24-bit) to balance quality and performance.

Snapshot Management

The Snapshots tab allows you to manage VM snapshots without leaving the viewer.

  • Create Snapshot: Take a new snapshot of the current state. You can optionally "quiesce" the guest file system for data consistency (requires QEMU Guest Agent).
  • Restore Snapshot: Revert the VM to a previous state. Note: The VM must be stopped to restore a snapshot.
  • Delete Snapshot: Remove old snapshots to free up space.

Remote Viewer Snapshots

USB Redirection

The USB Devices tab enables you to pass through USB devices from your local machine (the one running VirtUI Manager) directly to the VM.

  • Attach USB: Select a device from the "Available Host USB Devices" list and click "Attach" to make it available to the guest.
  • Detach USB: Select an attached device and click "Detach" to return control to the host.

Remote Viewer USB Redirection

Logs & Events

The Logs & Events tab provides a real-time stream of internal operations, libvirt events, and debugging information. This is invaluable for troubleshooting connection issues or monitoring background tasks.

  • Connection Details: View SSH tunnel status and VNC/SPICE handshake information.
  • Libvirt Events: See lifecycle events (Started, Stopped, Paused) as they happen.
  • Debug Info: detailed logs for developers and power users.

Remote Viewer Logs

Connectivity

VirtUI Remote Viewer handles connections intelligently:

  • Local: Connects directly to local libvirt instances via Unix sockets.
  • SSH Tunneling: When managing remote servers, it automatically establishes secure SSH tunnels for VNC/SPICE traffic, ensuring your data is encrypted.
  • Direct Attach: Can attach to existing file descriptors for seamless integration.

Keyboard Shortcuts

  • Ctrl+F: Toggle Fullscreen