Management console is hard to find

[ben-grande]

Qubes OS release

Qubes OS 4.2

Brief summary

I want to disable gui for some qubes:

• GUI tools do not consider qube can have gui feature disabled #9787

But saying to users that they need to run qvm-console-dispvm QUBE is not nice, there are few GUI options and they are hard to find. Only disabling the gui is not enough if users cannot open a management console.

Qube Manager:

• Right click qube and Open console in qube

App-menu (Q menu):

• No option

qui-domain:

• No option

CLI:

• qvm-console-dispvm

Steps to reproduce

1. Search for management console in GUI tools app-menu, qui-domains, qube manager.

Expected behavior

Find the management console available in more GUI tools, such as app-menu and qui-domains.

Actual behavior

Management console is not easy to run with GUI tools.

Additional information

The name console is nice, but it has to be consistent and to make it distinct than a terminal, I suggest adding management, as in management console, because it is created from the management_dispvm and because it does what it says, it manages even without a GUI.

Another name is debug console. I don't really want one name more than the other, but only console is confusing.

[alimirjamali]

Generating custom .desktop file which should run qvm-console-dispvm vmname instead of the conventional qvm-run is relatively easy. It would allow users to easily add/remove them to the AppMenu (Q Menu) for desired qubes. The other approach for AppMenu is to show console option with specific feature or property.

For qui-domain, it is really easy. But I guess it might be better to enable it only with specific feature or property.

[ben-grande]

Generating custom .desktop file which should run qvm-console-dispvm vmname instead of the conventional qvm-run is relatively easy. It would allow users to easily add/remove them to the AppMenu (Q Menu) for desired qubes. The other approach for AppMenu is to show console option with specific feature or property.

I am not sure if users should be allowed to remove that from the app-menu or it should be considered a system setting such as the option Qube settings which is always present.

For qui-domain, it is really easy. But I guess it might be better to enable it only with specific feature or property.

Also I don't know if it should be optional, it is useful with the gui feature enabled or not, it is very useful to debugging (as long as qrexec agent can start in the qube, else only xl console can connect).

Can you please clarify why it should be enabled conditionally to understand your reasoning?

[alimirjamali]

I am not sure if users should be allowed to remove that from the app-menu or it should be considered a system setting such as the option Qube settings which is always present.

I am not 100% sure either. That was a suggestion. Both options are possible.

Can you please clarify why it should be enabled conditionally to understand your reasoning?

This is very simple. Since the current existing code does this. And it would fail if gui=''. Doesn't it?

[ben-grande]

This is very simple. Since the current existing code does this. And it would fail if gui=''. Doesn't it?

Doesn't "fail", it hangs and no message is shown because it waits-for-session. See:

• qvm-run --gui waits indefinetly for GUI application even if gui feature is disabled #9789

[Atrate]

I agree that "Open Console" should be a default option in the qui-domains widget, it would be very handy and useful.

[unman]

On Fri, Feb 21, 2025 at 03:04:37AM -0800, ben-grande wrote: I am not sure if users should be allowed to remove that from the app-menu or it should be considered a system setting such as the option `Qube settings` which is always present.

I do not think it should be a "system setting". Naive users will click it if it is there, and find it confusing, and experienced will find it wherever it is.

[alimirjamali]

I believe we should consult @marmarta as well. What to do?

1. Always show it
2. Show it with some advanced feature, or use debug preference to enable it, or maybe both?
3. Never show it.

Like below (but with a better icon):