Enabling Copy & Paste in Proxmox

By default, Proxmox uses noVNC, which does not support clipboard functionality. Here are three ways to enable copy and paste in your virtual machines.

Method 1: Using VNC Clipboard

This method leverages the native VNC clipboard feature. It requires enabling the clipboard setting in your VM's display configuration.

1. In Proxmox, open your VM and navigate to Hardware → Display.
2. Enable the clipboard option.
3. If using a Windows VM, insert the VirtIO driver file.
4. Reboot the VM.

Figure 1: Enable clipboard in Display settings

Figure 2: Clipboard icon in Proxmox console

Method 2: Using xterm.js Serial Console

xterm.js provides a web-based terminal with full clipboard support. This method is ideal for Linux VMs and offers superior clipboard integration.

1. In Proxmox, navigate to your VM's Hardware tab.
2. Click Add → Serial Port and set it to port 0.
3. SSH into the VM and edit the GRUB bootloader configuration:

sudo nano /etc/default/grub

Add serial console parameters to the GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT line:

GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="quiet console=tty0 console=ttyS0,115200"

Update GRUB and reboot:

sudo update-grub
sudo reboot

Once rebooted, open the Proxmox console, click the dropdown menu, and select xterm.js.

Figure 3: Add Serial Port to VM hardware

Figure 4: Select xterm.js from console menu for clipboard support

Method 3: Using SPICE Display Protocol

SPICE (Simple Protocol for Independent Computing Environments) is a remote display protocol with excellent clipboard support. This method requires a dedicated SPICE viewer.

1. In Proxmox, navigate to your VM's Hardware → Display.
2. Change the display type from VNC to SPICE.
3. On your client machine, install Virt-Viewer:
   • Windows: Download from virt-manager.org
   • Linux: sudo apt install virt-viewer
   • macOS: brew install virt-viewer
4. In the Proxmox console dropdown, select SPICE to launch Virt-Viewer.

Figure 5: Configure VM to use SPICE display protocol