Thank you for the report.

This is strange. Currently, the only thing that requires 'spice-gtk' is 'virt-manager'; which is not only not required by 'gnome-boxes' - but by nothing at all!
The only 'virt' pkgs required by 'gnome-boxes' are:
 libvirt-gconfig
 libvirt-util

Impressed that you found the solution.
Assigning to Gnome people.

Assignee: bugsquad => gnome

(In reply to Lewis Smith from comment #1)
> Thank you for the report.
> 
> This is strange. Currently, the only thing that requires 'spice-gtk' is
> 'virt-manager'; which is not only not required by 'gnome-boxes' - but by
> nothing at all!
> The only 'virt' pkgs required by 'gnome-boxes' are:
>  libvirt-gconfig
>  libvirt-util
> 
> Impressed that you found the solution.
> Assigning to Gnome people.

A trick that use in this cases see the requirements in archlinux https://archlinux.org/packages/extra/x86_64/gnome-boxes/ ;)

spice-gtk get my attention because was not in my system and this requires other spice packages

Watching this to see if something for errata...

If someone like to make a Wiki page for GNOME-boxes, it can be linked from https://wiki.mageia.org/en/Virtualisation#GNOME_Boxes

CC: (none) => fri

Created attachment 14616 [details]
gnome-boxes version 45.0 with fix

I take this spec from cauldron time ago and used to have an updated version of the software , I add the spice-gtk require

@David is good for you if I add this missing require in cauldron and update gnome-boxes to version 45.0 in mageia 9?

CC: (none) => geiger.david68210

Yes you can go.

Done in cauldron and mageia 9

I add to papoteur as is my mentor now

David or papoteur please send the builds

CC: (none) => yvesbrungard

Submitted for cauldron.

What is the reason to upgrade to 45.0 in Mageia 9?

(In reply to papoteur from comment #9)
> What is the reason to upgrade to 45.0 in Mageia 9?

Upstream perform fixes https://github.com/GNOME/gnome-boxes/compare/44.2...45.0

Submitted:
SRPMS and RPMS:
 gnome-boxes-45.0-1.mga9

Assignee: gnome => qa-bugs
Source RPM: gnome-boxes => gnome-boxes-44.2-1.mga9

In GNOME right now.  Installed gnome-boxes (125+ packages).
Started boxes but could find no way to open an existing VM.
???
Shall try to launch it outside boxes and then see if it is visible.

CC: (none) => tarazed25

The problem is that boxes launches fullscreen and cannot be resized.

(In reply to Len Lawrence from comment #13)
> The problem is that boxes launches fullscreen and cannot be resized.

I not see that but I not use in gnome, is classic session or wayland?

The main test to do here is with the current version 44.2, open/create a VM
Once the Guest system is ready 

Plug usb memory in th host system

Click in the "⁝" symbol select preferences, click on devices⁝ tab toggle the selector for you usb device

That should fail, shutdown the guest system and close the application

Update to testing package
Then repeat the test, this time you can work with the usb memory 
in the guest system

By VM I meant virtual machine, Vbox or vdi.  Not sure what type of session.  I switched from Mate to GNOME to see what all this is about.  Have to log out to check.

And yes, I understood the point of the test.  I do not see any way to manage an existing virtual machine via gnome-boxes.

Note that VboxManager says "cannot enumerate USB devices".

(In reply to Len Lawrence from comment #16)
> By VM I meant virtual machine, Vbox or vdi.  Not sure what type of session. 
> I switched from Mate to GNOME to see what all this is about.  Have to log
> out to check.
> 
> And yes, I understood the point of the test.  I do not see any way to manage
> an existing virtual machine via gnome-boxes.
> 
> Note that VboxManager says "cannot enumerate USB devices".

Virtual Machine created by gnome-boxes, I not think can handle VM from other managers

(In reply to katnatek from comment #17)
Thanks.  I could not see a USB drive from VirtualBox either - I have always had trouble with them.
This is GNOME Wayland I think.  This could take some time then if it involves an installation from scratch.  Have to make sure that the iso is still available on this machine and that there is room for another virtual disk.

(In reply to Len Lawrence from comment #18)
> (In reply to katnatek from comment #17)
> Thanks.  I could not see a USB drive from VirtualBox either - I have always
> had trouble with them.
> This is GNOME Wayland I think.  This could take some time then if it
> involves an installation from scratch.  Have to make sure that the iso is
> still available on this machine and that there is room for another virtual
> disk.

I use 20 Gb for my test VM but is mageia, other systems could need more

(In reply to papoteur from comment #11)
> Submitted:
> SRPMS and RPMS:
>  gnome-boxes-45.0-1.mga9

In generally we should not mix Gnome versions in stable releases. Mageia 9 was released with Gnome 44, and we should stay on 44.x releases.

In reply to katnatek from comment #19:
This is becoming bizarre.
Decided to allow 40GB to be used for the new box.
Ran gnome-boxes in GNOME Classic Wayland.
The installation process for the Mageia9 64-bit iso started OK;
allocated 20GB to the system, 4GB to swap, and the rest to home.
Next stage: "EXT4 formatting failed".

Backed out and went back to Mate to nurse my wounds.

/home/lcl/.local/share/gnome-boxes/images

$ ll
total 624720
-rwxr--r-- 1 lcl lcl 639762432 Feb 19 20:54 boxes-unknown*
$ file boxes-unknown
boxes-unknown: QEMU QCOW Image (v3), 42949672960 bytes (v3), 42949672960 bytes

Out of my depth now.

I have Gnome configured on a box, but gnome boxes ... never got it working.  I guess I can try something with this update.  It'll be this weekend though.

CC: (none) => brtians1

After watching a couple of Youtube demonstration videos, I decided to give it a shot. I got farther than Len, but I'm working in a Plasma host - not that that should make a difference.

Installed gnome-boxes and dependencies, 144 packages in all, with no issues. Rebooted, for no good reason other than having just installed so many packages.

I created a Mageia 9 VM using the netinstall iso and the math.princeton mirror. I ran it, adjusted display resolution to 1920x1080, installed hardinfo. Inserted a usb stick, which was detected by the host, but not the Boxes guest. Hardinfo didn't show it, confirming that the guest isn't detecting it.

I was about to update gnome-boxes, but then I read comment 20. Waiting now to see what happens because of that.

(In reply to Jani Välimaa from comment #20)
> (In reply to papoteur from comment #11)
> > Submitted:
> > SRPMS and RPMS:
> >  gnome-boxes-45.0-1.mga9
> 
> In generally we should not mix Gnome versions in stable releases. Mageia 9
> was released with Gnome 44, and we should stay on 44.x releases.

This mean I must revert to 44 version? is needed ask to remove this packages and then send the updated spec or can proceed for this time with the 45 version ?

CC: (none) => jani.valimaa

Note that I have been testing this before updating in order to generate the image file.  Perhaps it would work after the update.  Shall have a go tomorrow.

One of these days I will remember the value of RTFM.

It went right over my head that the usb drive had to be "redirected" from the host to the guest, the same as has to be done in VirtualBox. Had I read comment 0 more closely, I wouldn't have wasted my time with what I did in comment 23.

After accessing the Devices tab under the guest's Preferences, I saw 2 devices under usb. One was my generic card reader, the other the usb stick I had plugged in and mounted on the host. Neither one would switch from host to guest, and I got the error message described in comment 0. So, finally, I accurately reproduced the fault.

But I didn't stop there. I can confirm that simply installing spice-gtk on the host does indeed make the issue go away. I removed it again, and the issue returned. I await the update, so I can confirm that it does indeed draw in spice-gtk as a new dependency.

CC: (none) => andrewsfarm

(In reply to Thomas Andrews from comment #26)
> One of these days I will remember the value of RTFM.
> 
> It went right over my head that the usb drive had to be "redirected" from
> the host to the guest, the same as has to be done in VirtualBox. Had I read
> comment 0 more closely, I wouldn't have wasted my time with what I did in
> comment 23.
> 
When I start to use gnome-boxes, I also did not understand how it works, a few net searching help me

Reverted to version 44.2

Submitted:
RPMS and SRPMS: gnome-boxes-44.2-1.1.mga9

Assignee: j.alberto.vc => qa-bugs

Installing the update drew in spice-gtk, as expected. No installation issues.

I started my Mageia 9 guest. Then I inserted a usb stick with 185 vacation photos on it, and mounted it. Going to the preferences menu of the guest, I told Boxes to redirect that stick, and the guest's device notifier immediately detected it. I mounted it, and copied the folder with all photos to the guest's desktop. Afterward, I changed the guest's wallpaper to one of the photos from the middle of the folder, to be sure the photo had transferred without corruption. Finally, I shut down the guest, whereupon the usb stick became available to the host once more.

There were no issues. This is OK for me in my Plasma system, but What about Len's issues from inside Gnome-Wayland?

(In reply to Thomas Andrews from comment #30)
> Installing the update drew in spice-gtk, as expected. No installation issues.
> 
> I started my Mageia 9 guest. Then I inserted a usb stick with 185 vacation
> photos on it, and mounted it. Going to the preferences menu of the guest, I
> told Boxes to redirect that stick, and the guest's device notifier
> immediately detected it. I mounted it, and copied the folder with all photos
> to the guest's desktop. Afterward, I changed the guest's wallpaper to one of
> the photos from the middle of the folder, to be sure the photo had
> transferred without corruption. Finally, I shut down the guest, whereupon
> the usb stick became available to the host once more.
> 
> There were no issues. This is OK for me in my Plasma system, but What about
> Len's issues from inside Gnome-Wayland?

Perhaps run 

GDK_BACKEND=x11 gnome-boxes

Can help

I installed plasma-workspace-wayland and dependencies, then rebooted into a wayland session. I ran Boxes, and was able to redirect a usb stick with no issues.

Moved to a different system, different hardware. Started with MGA9-64 Plasma, and installed task-gnome-minimal, then installed gnome-boxes and dependencies. Rebooted into "Gnome on Wayland" and ran Boxes.

Created a MGA9-64 Plasma guest, using the netinstall iso and the math.princeton mirror. There were no issues with the guest creation. Plugged in a usb stick, and attempted to redirect it to the guest, which failed.

Updated gnome-boxes, using qarepo and urpmi, which drew in spice-gtk. Ran Boxes again, and this time the usb stick was redirected successfully. Copied photos from the stick to the guest desktop, then set one up as Plasma wallpaper. 

I had no issues at all. I don't know how to reproduce Len's issue with creating the guest. It looks to me like that would be beyond the scope of this bug, anyway. This bug is for the missing dependency that allows usb redirection, and that appears to be solved.

I'm going to validate the update. If Len still has issues with creating a guest, that should be addressed in another bug.

Keywords: (none) => validated_update
Whiteboard: (none) => MGA9-64-OK
CC: (none) => sysadmin-bugs

An update for this issue has been pushed to the Mageia Updates repository.

https://advisories.mageia.org/MGAA-2025-0023.html

Status: NEW => RESOLVED
Resolution: (none) => FIXED