When using tightvnc to connect to a FreeNAS VM (in bhyve), can't use clipboard

[David Dyer-Bennet]

Connecting from Windows-10 with tightvnc to the VNC port for a FreeNAS VM, the clipboard never works at all in either direction. (The VM is running Ubuntu 18.04.0 LTS)

All the general help I find assumes I'm running some VNC server on a normal system somehwere; and while that may be happening somewhere on FreeNAS it's nowhere visible to me . So it occurred to me to ask it as a specific FreeNAS question.

There's an option to turn *off* the clipboard in tightvnc on windows; I have *not* done so, clipboard support should be on.

FreeNAS version is FreeNAS-11.3-U1 (very close to current). I'm trying to connect from Windows 10 using Tightvnc 2.8.27 (current).

Since I use 32-character random passwords whenever possible, this is a big problem; I want to load the password into the clipboard from my password database on my laptop and paste it into the VNC window to log into my account on the virtual system. The workaround currently is to turn on automatic logon on the VM Ubuntu installation for my user, but that's suicidal from a security point of view. I can SSH in via public-key encryption, but sometimes I need the desktop to test something specific.

 

[Patrick M. Hausen]

Try to run a VNC server inside your VM. The FreeNAS VNC connects you to the virtual "VGA" console - no copy&paste there for obvious reasons.

HTH,
Patrick

 

[David Dyer-Bennet]

Try to run a VNC server inside your VM. The FreeNAS VNC connects you to the virtual "VGA" console - no copy&paste there for obvious reasons.

Don't actually see any reason there couldn't be copy and paste there! And it's during installation and first logon that having cut and paste would be really valuable.

Playing with running my own vnc server; I can now connect to a gray backdrop with a cursor moving over it, but I can't find any way to *start* anything there. (Listing things in .vnc/xstartup hasn't helped yet). No errors in the log file, just nothing visible and no controls or right-click response or anything. But that's not (presumably) a FreeNAS problem in any way . Not sure this is any better than remote X, though; it's in the early stages for the *console* that it's really useful.