How to *not* use seamless mode? (seamy mode, or seamlessless mode :)

User Support
1

When one of my qubes is running tests, it pops up windows all the time, grabbing focus as i’m trying to type. It would be much better if i could have the system use the qemu emulated video card without seamless mode (meaning it would not grab focus)

I’m guessing that I just need to uninstall one of the qubes-* packages. perhaps qubes-gui-agent? (I’d like to still be able to use the qvm-copy command if possible).

There are other use cases for wanting a isolated desktop, this is just my current use case.

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2

No need to uninstall, you can just disable (or stop) qubes-gui-agent using systemctl

Funny part is that qvm-copy still works

Sad part is that qvm-run doesn’t (but it’s okay, salt works anyway)

How do

With standalone as an example, cuz its simpler with full persistency

qvm-create --standalone --template=debian-12-xfce --label=red debitest
qvm-run -u root debitest -- systemctl disable qubes-gui-agent

After this the qube will have no display output in your desktop environment at all. To get full desktop, without shutting down (or with qvm-console-dispvm --autostart debitest later):

qvm-run -u root debitest -- systemctl set-default graphical.target
qvm-prefs debitest debug True
qvm-prefs debitest virt_mode hvm

I have salt for getting full desktop if you want, although you might want to remove x config part at the end: codeberg.org

p.s. it’s seamful now. full of seams. a seamer if you want

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Could you run a local xserver in your testing qube, and just tell your tests to use that, using DISPLAY=?

I have used Xnest, which runs in a single window, but there are others, including vnc…

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Works! Thanks!

Note: I did the above procedure, plus rebooting. I get the X login screen, but I didn’t set the password for user, so I can’t log in, but obviously I can start over again and just set the password before rebooting

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You don’t need to, just leave password empty and log in

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enter user of user then no password and hitting enter spins for a sec then it gives “sorry, password authentication didnt work”

I see in your salt you did a “autologin” thing, so it wont be a issue for you.

(if it matters, i’m debian-13, not debian-12)

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No, with autologin it skips lightdm greeting entirely, without it you still can log in but as far as I remember it’s a bit janky

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It does not work for me either. Some step with turning autologin or adding some user is missed, isn’t it?

The link is dead (404). Can you please update it?

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Yeah, @ddevz was correct here: login doesn’t work without auto-login on fedora, only on debian. As a matter of fact last time I checked it auto-login doesn’t work on fedora either. I feel like there must be a way around it, I just haven’t tried well enough.

I removed the previous version from the repo in the process of turning it into a proper formula. It’s still there, but I haven’t made it work well in a top file - undoing full desktop is semi-automatic:

More recent discussion on this is here, mechanism there is better too (IMO).

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For me fedora-42-xfce standalone clone does not even boot.
And debian-42-xfce shows login window and does not accept empty password, empty user or anything. So, also not possible to get it.

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What preferences do you use with fedora? It works like this:

#!/usr/bin/env bash
qvm-clone fedora-42-xfce mushroom
# run `systemctl set-default multi-user.target` to revert this
qvm-run -u root mushroom -- systemctl set-default graphical.target
 # Fedora login screen won't let you through without a password, and auto-login doesn't work for some reason.
qvm-run -u root mushroom -- 'echo "user" | passwd --stdin user'
qvm-prefs mushroom debug true
qvm-prefs mushroom virt_mode hvm
qvm-prefs mushroom kernel ''
qvm-prefs mushroom memory 1000
qvm-prefs mushroom maxmem 0
qvm-service mushroom lightdm on
qvm-shutdown mushroom

You could also try VNC, it works great but fedora needs a bit of tinkering to get it right.

You mean debian 12? Just to be sure that we are testing on the same version

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I tried only steps they you mentioned in in How To spoiler in your post that is marked as Solution. Only I tried fedora-42-xfce instead of debian-12-xfce.

I made debian-12-xfce work somewhat (autologin did not work, but I set empty password to user account and logged in).

Do you know, how to make window bigger? It has resolution up to only 1280x720 in Display settings. Not even FullHD.

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Should not user use ‘–standalone’? In your case you created template.

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I don’t think class matters in this case, only preferences. Fedora is unique because it requires setting kernel and giving it more memory, otherwise it won’t boot.

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I checked this, and it works for defora-42-xfce, thank you. User have to use ‘user’ password to pass login screen (writing for future readers).

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And other important notes:

  • fedora-42-xfce allows changing resolution to FullHD and beyond! Unlike debian-12-xfce.
  • fedora-42-xfce has proper cursor position (in sync with dom0), unlike debian-12-xfce, where it is misplaced a bit to bottom.
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Second one is easily fixed, just set a resolution to align cursor. To go beyond HD you need to add new mode using xrandr.

Also you don’t literally have to use user password, the point is that with fedora one must set a password.