Guest Tools

The guest tools are a small agent that runs inside a virtual machine. It talks to SwiftVM over the machine's own socket device, so it works even when the guest has no network.

What they add#

	Linux	macOS
SwiftVM knows the guest's system, kernel, and address	Yes	Yes
The clock is set the moment the guest resumes	Yes	Yes
Shut Down works at once, without a question on the guest's screen	Yes	Yes
SwiftVM shows what a setup script is doing	Yes	No
Shared folders are mounted	Yes	macOS mounts them by itself
Shared clipboard	Uses `spice-vdagent` instead	Yes
The time zone follows your Mac's, once	No	Yes
SSH without a network on older systems	Yes	No
`swiftvm` runs commands and copies files in the guest	Yes	Yes
`swiftvm` sees the screen and uses the mouse and keyboard	Yes	Yes, once macOS allows it

Which machines have them#

Machines that SwiftVM sets up come with the guest tools:

Linux machines made with Quick Create.
macOS 27 or newer, created with Sign in over SSH with my key on.

swiftvm info <machine> shows the installed version.

Installing#

For any other running guest, choose Install Guest Tools… in the machine's menu, or use swiftvm install-tools. The same command updates them when SwiftVM brings a newer version.

Linux#

swiftvm install-tools web-server          # over SSH
swiftvm install-tools web-server --disc   # from a disc, inside the guest

Over SSH works when your key can sign in and sudo asks for no password.
Otherwise SwiftVM plugs in a disc and shows one command to run in the guest.
The guest needs systemd and Python 3. Ubuntu and Debian have both; other distributions haven't been tried.
Reading the screen as a tree also takes python3-gi and gir1.2-atspi-2.0, which a desktop brings.

macOS#

macOS asks for the account's password before installing:

swiftvm install-tools build-mac --password 'the account password'

Or choose Install Guest Tools…, which plugs in a disc. In the guest's Terminal, run:

sudo sh /Volumes/SWIFTVM/install.sh

macOS then says that a background item was added: that is the agent. The guest needs macOS 27 or newer.

Removing#

In the guest, Linux or macOS:

sudo sh /usr/local/lib/swiftvm/install.sh --remove

What is installed#

Guest	What
Linux	One Python script and its systemd units
macOS	One program, `swiftvm-agent`, and two launchd jobs: one runs as root, one in the session of whoever is logged in, for the clipboard, the screen, the mouse, and the keyboard

The agent only takes orders from your Mac, and only over the machine's socket device. What swiftvm may have it do in a guest can be turned off for each machine.