How to paste into a VM console that won't take a paste

Why paste does not work in a console

A console shows you another machine's screen and passes your keyboard and mouse through to it. The clipboard is a separate thing, and it often does not make the trip.

• Clipboard sharing needs software inside the VM. VMware Tools, VirtualBox Guest Additions or the SPICE agent carry the clipboard across. A machine you are still installing does not have them yet, and a minimal server may never get them.
• Many web consoles only pass key presses. Some have a paste button that types for you. Plenty do not, or struggle with anything longer than a line.
• Installers, recovery shells and BIOS setup have no clipboard at all. Nothing is running on the other side that could receive one.

So you end up reading a 40-character key off one screen and typing it into another, one character at a time.

Why a keyboard gets through

Every console passes typing through, because a console you cannot type into is no use. When the console window has focus on your PC, keys from CodePass travel exactly the way keys from your own keyboard do: into your PC, through the console, and into the machine on the other side.

You could do the same with a script or a desktop auto typer, if you are allowed to install one. On a jump box, a locked-down admin workstation or someone else's computer, you often are not. CodePass needs nothing installed on the PC and nothing inside the VM. The PC just sees a Bluetooth keyboard.

Where it works

If a console accepts typing from your keyboard, it accepts CodePass. That includes:

• virtual machine consoles in VMware, Hyper-V, VirtualBox, Proxmox and other hypervisors,
• server remote consoles such as iDRAC, iLO and other IPMI consoles,
• VNC viewers, including noVNC in a browser,
• Remote Desktop and other remote sessions,
• OS installers, recovery shells, and the BIOS or UEFI setup of the machine inside the console.

How to type into a console with CodePass

1. Set up CodePass once. Install it on your Android phone, pair the phone with your PC and connect. The setup guide takes a few minutes.
2. Add your text. Paste it into the app, import a text file, or photograph it off another screen.
3. Turn human mode off. For console input you want every key sent to be the key you meant, at a steady pace.
4. Start slow. Consoles drop keys sooner than a text editor does. Begin at a low speed and raise it once everything arrives.
5. Click inside the console window on your PC so it has keyboard focus.
6. Tap Start typing on your phone.

Before you send

Every line ends with Enter

Newlines in your text are typed as Enter, and tabs as Tab. Pasted into a shell, each line runs the moment it arrives, so check a multi-line block before you send it.

Keep both ends on US English

CodePass sends keys for the US QWERTY layout. Set your PC to US English, and the machine inside the console too, or symbols will come out as the wrong characters.

English keyboard characters only

Letters, digits and the symbols on a US keyboard all work. Accented letters, emoji and other scripts cannot be typed, and the app lists any it finds before you start.

Letters going missing?

Lower the speed and send again. The limit is Bluetooth, your PC and the console, not the app.