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Last active April 26, 2025 17:01
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Proxmox - SPICE Client setup for MacOS

Proxmox - SPICE client setup for MacOS

  1. Install a working (and compiled) version of virt-viewer. You may view the homebrew package's upstream source on GitHub.

    brew tap jeffreywildman/homebrew-virt-manager
    brew install virt-viewer
  2. Once that's installed should be able make a call remote-viewer with a pve-spice.vv file downloaded from proxmox web interface

    remote-viewer pve-spice.vv

    Check out this useful script for debugging. There are also several other cli tools like this one on GitHub that can be used to test the same sort of thing.

Improving Quality of Life

We want remote-viewer to automatically start and open the session when we double click the VM entry in proxmox. To do that we need to first create a small helper application.

  1. Launch Automator and select Application from the dropdown list, when prompted.

    Screen Shot 2021-07-15 at 1 39 31 PM

  2. Search for shell and drag to the right. The contents:

    /usr/local/bin/remote-viewer "$@"

    Make sure to select as arguments for passing the input. Save as ~/Applications/pve-spice-launcher.app.

    Screen Shot 2021-07-15 at 2 13 01 PM

  3. Locate a pve-spice.vv file and right click, and go to Get Info -> Open With -> Change All, look for the .app file you just made.

    Screen Shot 2022-02-16 at 11 26 22 AM

  4. In Chrome, click on the small arrow on the list of downloads at the bottom, and select "Always open files of this type"

    Screen Shot 2021-07-15 at 2 02 46 PM

  5. If everything is set up correctly you should be able to double-click on the VM in the left pane of Proxmox and remote-viewer should start up and take care of the rest.

    Note: the pve-spice.vv files will be automatically deleted by remote-viewer

    Screen Shot 2021-07-15 at 2 05 57 PM

    Screen Shot 2021-07-15 at 4 42 21 PM

Enjoy!

#!/usr/bin/env bash
set -e
# needs pve-manager >= 3.1-44
usage() {
echo "Usage: $0 [-u <string>] [-p <string>] vmid [node [proxy]]"
echo
echo "-u username. Default root@pam"
echo "-p password. Default ''"
echo
echo "vmid: id for VM"
echo "node: Proxmox cluster node name"
echo "proxy: DNS or IP (use <node> as default)"
exit 1
}
PASSWORD=""
USERNAME=""
while getopts ":u:p:" o; do
case "${o}" in
u)
USERNAME="${OPTARG}"
;;
p)
PASSWORD="${OPTARG}"
;;
*)
usage
;;
esac
done
shift $((OPTIND-1))
if [[ -z "$PASSWORD" ]]; then
PASSWORD=""
fi
if [[ -z "$USERNAME" ]]; then
USERNAME='root@pam'
fi
DEFAULTHOST="$(hostname -f)"
# select VM
[[ -z "$1" ]] && usage
VMID="$1"
#[[ -z "$2" ]] && usage
NODE="${2:-$DEFAULTHOST}"
if [[ -z "$3" ]]; then
PROXY="$NODE"
else
PROXY="$3"
fi
NODE="${NODE%%\.*}"
DATA="$(curl -f -s -S -k --data-urlencode "username=$USERNAME" --data-urlencode "password=$PASSWORD" "https://$PROXY:8006/api2/json/access/ticket")"
echo "AUTH OK"
TICKET="${DATA//\"/}"
TICKET="${TICKET##*ticket:}"
TICKET="${TICKET%%,*}"
TICKET="${TICKET%%\}*}"
CSRF="${DATA//\"/}"
CSRF="${CSRF##*CSRFPreventionToken:}"
CSRF="${CSRF%%,*}"
CSRF="${CSRF%%\}*}"
curl -f -s -S -k -b "PVEAuthCookie=$TICKET" -H "CSRFPreventionToken: $CSRF" "https://$PROXY:8006/api2/spiceconfig/nodes/$NODE/qemu/$VMID/spiceproxy" -d "proxy=$PROXY" > $NODE-$VMID.vv
exec remote-viewer $NODE-$VMID.vv
@dwyeraidan
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I'm still getting aforementioned error

(remote-viewer:43357): virt-viewer-WARNING **: 21:52:42.947: (../src/virt-viewer-window.c:831):accel_key_to_keys: runtime check failed: ((accel_mods & ~(GDK_SHIFT_MASK | GDK_CONTROL_MASK | GDK_MOD1_MASK)) == 0)

Exporting paths did not help for me

Is there a permanent fix possible?

@danzokuduro
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MacBook-Pro:Downloads username$ remote-viewer pve-spice.vv

(remote-viewer:9598): virt-viewer-WARNING **: 12:55:11.190: (../src/virt-viewer-window.c:831):accel_key_to_keys: runtime check failed: ((accel_mods & ~(GDK_SHIFT_MASK | GDK_CONTROL_MASK | GDK_MOD1_MASK)) == 0)

(remote-viewer:9598): virt-viewer-WARNING **: 12:55:11.190: (../src/virt-viewer-window.c:831):accel_key_to_keys: runtime check failed: ((accel_mods & ~(GDK_SHIFT_MASK | GDK_CONTROL_MASK | GDK_MOD1_MASK)) == 0)

(remote-viewer:9598): virt-viewer-WARNING **: 12:55:11.190: (../src/virt-viewer-window.c:831):accel_key_to_keys: runtime check failed: ((accel_mods & ~(GDK_SHIFT_MASK | GDK_CONTROL_MASK | GDK_MOD1_MASK)) == 0)

(remote-viewer:9598): virt-viewer-WARNING **: 12:55:11.190: (../src/virt-viewer-window.c:831):accel_key_to_keys: runtime check failed: ((accel_mods & ~(GDK_SHIFT_MASK | GDK_CONTROL_MASK | GDK_MOD1_MASK)) == 0)

(remote-viewer:9598): virt-viewer-WARNING **: 12:55:11.190: (../src/virt-viewer-window.c:831):accel_key_to_keys: runtime check failed: ((accel_mods & ~(GDK_SHIFT_MASK | GDK_CONTROL_MASK | GDK_MOD1_MASK)) == 0)

(remote-viewer:9598): virt-viewer-WARNING **: 12:55:11.190: (../src/virt-viewer-window.c:831):accel_key_to_keys: runtime check failed: ((accel_mods & ~(GDK_SHIFT_MASK | GDK_CONTROL_MASK | GDK_MOD1_MASK)) == 0)

(remote-viewer:9598): virt-viewer-WARNING **: 12:55:11.352: (../src/virt-viewer-window.c:831):accel_key_to_keys: runtime check failed: ((accel_mods & ~(GDK_SHIFT_MASK | GDK_CONTROL_MASK | GDK_MOD1_MASK)) == 0)

(remote-viewer:9598): virt-viewer-WARNING **: 12:55:11.352: (../src/virt-viewer-window.c:831):accel_key_to_keys: runtime check failed: ((accel_mods & ~(GDK_SHIFT_MASK | GDK_CONTROL_MASK | GDK_MOD1_MASK)) == 0)

(remote-viewer:9598): virt-viewer-WARNING **: 12:55:11.352: (../src/virt-viewer-window.c:831):accel_key_to_keys: runtime check failed: ((accel_mods & ~(GDK_SHIFT_MASK | GDK_CONTROL_MASK | GDK_MOD1_MASK)) == 0)

(remote-viewer:9598): virt-viewer-WARNING **: 12:55:11.352: (../src/virt-viewer-window.c:831):accel_key_to_keys: runtime check failed: ((accel_mods & ~(GDK_SHIFT_MASK | GDK_CONTROL_MASK | GDK_MOD1_MASK)) == 0)

(remote-viewer:9598): virt-viewer-WARNING **: 12:55:11.352: (../src/virt-viewer-window.c:831):accel_key_to_keys: runtime check failed: ((accel_mods & ~(GDK_SHIFT_MASK | GDK_CONTROL_MASK | GDK_MOD1_MASK)) == 0)

(remote-viewer:9598): virt-viewer-WARNING **: 12:55:11.352: (../src/virt-viewer-window.c:831):accel_key_to_keys: runtime check failed: ((accel_mods & ~(GDK_SHIFT_MASK | GDK_CONTROL_MASK | GDK_MOD1_MASK)) == 0)

(remote-viewer:9598): virt-viewer-WARNING **: 12:55:11.354: (../src/virt-viewer-window.c:831):accel_key_to_keys: runtime check failed: ((accel_mods & ~(GDK_SHIFT_MASK | GDK_CONTROL_MASK | GDK_MOD1_MASK)) == 0)

(remote-viewer:9598): virt-viewer-WARNING **: 12:55:11.354: (../src/virt-viewer-window.c:831):accel_key_to_keys: runtime check failed: ((accel_mods & ~(GDK_SHIFT_MASK | GDK_CONTROL_MASK | GDK_MOD1_MASK)) == 0)

(remote-viewer:9598): virt-viewer-WARNING **: 12:55:11.354: (../src/virt-viewer-window.c:831):accel_key_to_keys: runtime check failed: ((accel_mods & ~(GDK_SHIFT_MASK | GDK_CONTROL_MASK | GDK_MOD1_MASK)) == 0)

(remote-viewer:9598): virt-viewer-WARNING **: 12:55:11.354: (../src/virt-viewer-window.c:831):accel_key_to_keys: runtime check failed: ((accel_mods & ~(GDK_SHIFT_MASK | GDK_CONTROL_MASK | GDK_MOD1_MASK)) == 0)

(remote-viewer:9598): virt-viewer-WARNING **: 12:55:11.354: (../src/virt-viewer-window.c:831):accel_key_to_keys: runtime check failed: ((accel_mods & ~(GDK_SHIFT_MASK | GDK_CONTROL_MASK | GDK_MOD1_MASK)) == 0)

(remote-viewer:9598): virt-viewer-WARNING **: 12:55:11.354: (../src/virt-viewer-window.c:831):accel_key_to_keys: runtime check failed: ((accel_mods & ~(GDK_SHIFT_MASK | GDK_CONTROL_MASK | GDK_MOD1_MASK)) == 0)

2025-02-06 12:55:11.410 remote-viewer[9598:302570] +[IMKClient subclass]: chose IMKClient_Modern
2025-02-06 12:55:11.410 remote-viewer[9598:302570] +[IMKInputSession subclass]: chose IMKInputSession_Modern

and a pop up saying "Unable to connect to the graphic server pve-spice.vv(1)

@danzokuduro
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I got this warning and failed:

(remote-viewer:48032): virt-viewer-WARNING **: 10:42:12.312: (../src/virt-viewer-window.c:831):accel_key_to_keys: runtime check failed: ((accel_mods & ~(GDK_SHIFT_MASK | GDK_CONTROL_MASK | GDK_MOD1_MASK)) == 0)

have you found any fix?

@Albertfib6
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happens the same to me

@hanmilLee
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hanmilLee commented Mar 30, 2025

MacBook-Pro:Downloads username$ remote-viewer pve-spice.vv

(remote-viewer:9598): virt-viewer-WARNING **: 12:55:11.190: (../src/virt-viewer-window.c:831):accel_key_to_keys: runtime check failed: ((accel_mods & ~(GDK_SHIFT_MASK | GDK_CONTROL_MASK | GDK_MOD1_MASK)) == 0)

...

(remote-viewer:9598): virt-viewer-WARNING **: 12:55:11.354: (../src/virt-viewer-window.c:831):accel_key_to_keys: runtime check failed: ((accel_mods & ~(GDK_SHIFT_MASK | GDK_CONTROL_MASK | GDK_MOD1_MASK)) == 0)

2025-02-06 12:55:11.410 remote-viewer[9598:302570] +[IMKClient subclass]: chose IMKClient_Modern 2025-02-06 12:55:11.410 remote-viewer[9598:302570] +[IMKInputSession subclass]: chose IMKInputSession_Modern

and a pop up saying "Unable to connect to the graphic server pve-spice.vv(1)

@danzokuduro I’m encountering this as well. Has anyone found a solution yet?

@sylfr3na
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I have been smashing my head into this issue for about two or three days and have yet to find a way to get Spice to connect via MacOS - I have installed the remoteviewer via the homebrew commands listed above but I cannot call remote-viewer with a pve.vv file. I am on an M2 Mac, I've got Pop OS installed on another laptop and that is able to spice into the VMs successfully.
Any ideas before I give up forever?

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