DEV Community: Andrew Jackson

How to Configure Multi-Display with Virt-Manager and Virt-Viewer (Linux)

Andrew Jackson — Mon, 16 Mar 2026 16:44:19 +0000

Background

I've been using Virtual Machine Manager for my virtual machine needs for a while now, such as testing new Linux distro's or development work. I wanted a way to use multiple displays with a single vm, so I did some research and this is what I've found.

First

Virtual Machine Manager doesn't (from what I've found) allow for a multi-display setup. You will need to use a secondary program called Virt-Viewer. From it's GitLab, it says that:

"Virt Viewer provides a graphical viewer for the guest OS display."

This means that it can be used as the graphical console instead of Virt-Manager. These are 2 different programs that can be used separately or in tandem.

Virt-Viewer Installation

We first have to verify that virt-viewer is installed.

Ubuntu/Debian: "sudo apt install virt-viewer"

Fedora: "sudo dnf install virt-viewer"

Virtual Machine Manager GUI Configuration

Step 1

Open Virtual Machine Manager and select "Edit" tab and then "Preferences".

Step 2

In the "General" settings, make sure that "Enable XML editing" is selected and then click "Close" on the bottom right. (This will be needed for the next step)

Step 3

Open the VM you want to use with multiple displays and go to the "Details" view.

Step 4

Select "Video Virtio" in the list of configurations in details view.

Step 5

In the "XML" tab, in the "heads=" property, change it from "1" to "2" (Or the number displays you want), then click "Apply".

Running Virt-Viewer from the Terminal

There are multiple ways to start up virt-viewer from the terminal, but I will only show 2 of them.

Now that you have the display configured, open a new terminal.

Example 1

The 1st and easiest way to get your vm displayed with virt-viewer is to use:

virt-viewer <VM Name>

Example 2

The 2nd way is to reconnect with the UUID. The UUID can be found in the "Overview" of the details view in Virtual Machine Manager.

virt-viewer --reconnect --wait <UUID>

Hopefully this helps and serves as a future reference.

Out-of-Office BUG

Andrew Jackson — Tue, 23 Dec 2025 23:21:09 +0000

Issue

There is a bug in Teams where if you except an Out-of-Office invite from a team member, your status will show ", Out of Office". That is, if you select "Available", "Busy" or "Do not disturb", your status would be one of those appended by ", Out of Office". If "Be right back", "Appear away" or "Appear offline" are selected then it will only show "Out of Office" as the status instead.

Fix 1

You will need to change the invite from "Accepted" to "Tentative".

You can do this in "Teams: Calendar" or "Outlook: Calendar".

Select the invite.
In the pop-up, click "Change" at the bottom.
Then, click the "More Options Button (3-dots)" on the bottom right.
Select "? Tentative"
Doing this should allow you to control your status as normal.

Fix 2

Similar to the answer provided by @Alexis-NG , on the use of "Free", you can do this from Teams as well.

Go to "Teams: Calendar".

Select the invite.
In the pop-up, click "View event" (Multi-Arrow Icon).
In the Event Tab, you will see "Out of office".
Click it an change it to "Free" or "Tentative".
Your status should change immediately. If not try restarting the application.

For other solutions, you can follow the discussion: "My status is set to Out of Office and won't change".

How-to install Windows SPICE Guest Tools on QEMU/KVM Virtual Machine Manager

Andrew Jackson — Sun, 17 Dec 2023 18:25:00 +0000

As everyone knows, getting started with a new technology is not always simple but this how-to will hopefully help in the process when using a Windows VM.

As of 2023 and if you are using a Windows guest you can use Windows SPICE Guest Tools.

How to install Windows SPICE Guest Tools on QEMU/KVM Virtual Machine Manager

To start, make sure inside the VM manager "Show virtual hardware details" -> "Video < Model-Name >" you have QXL selected.

If it looks like this:

then you continue with the following steps.

The Process

Start the Windows VM.
Open your favorite browser, inside the Windows VM.
Go to SPICE Website Download Page.
Scroll down to "Windows binaries".
In the first sentence you should see:
- "Windows SPICE Guest Tools (spice-guest-tools)"
- Click -> (spice-guest-tools) to download it on the Guest VM.
Run through the installer. The defaults should be fine.
Restart

You should now be able to change the "Display resolution" in the Windows VM.

Hopefully this helps. If you have further questions, let me know in the comments.

Admin page coming along, but still looking.

Andrew Jackson — Thu, 16 Apr 2020 19:31:03 +0000

Hey everyone,

I am creating a WordPress theme and want show what I have done so far. I already have the design mock of the theme so I decided to work on the backend portion. I am working on the Advanced admin page for personal information that will work in a sidebar and shows a preview in the admin section.

Check it out

Have if work ahead of me with this theme, trying to find a job, school work, and overall family matters.

On that note,

If anyone has any remote job suggestions for an intermediate Frontend, UI Dev, Web Developer/Designer with a small amount of experience let me know. Even internships are cool. Just trying to get more experience and not feel like an impostor.

Merci beaucoup!

Wordpress Themes or Vala for Java Programmers?

Andrew Jackson — Mon, 30 Mar 2020 22:15:03 +0000

Oh, how tech gods tease me so...
I am stuck between either learning how to create Wordpress Themes or learning Vala for Java Programmers to create ElementaryOS applications.

Which do I choose? Oh, the technology!

There are probably more jobs for people who can create and work with Wordpress themes and templates, but, with Vala, you have ElementaryOS apps! I do want to become a Linux App Developer one day but maybe it's probably better to learn how to work with Wordpress themes because it has more opportunities.

Do you or anyone you know work as a Linux App Developer or Wordpress Theme Developer? What has your or their experience been?

Train Simulation Problems - Update

Andrew Jackson — Mon, 23 Mar 2020 23:40:12 +0000

Thanks for yesterday.

Hey everyone,

So, I have gotten pretty far with the Train Simulation from the help I've gotten yesterday. Thank you to all that helped! I really appreciate it. Most of the problems I had were with things I thought I had fixed already but didn't. I think I just needed some extra eyes on this problem. Usually, everyone is by themselves trying their hardest to figure out a problem, but, sometimes all you need to do is put your ego and pride aside and ask for help.

Update.

To update you on this project, I have pretty much solved all those pesky problems I had, but then, others have popped up...

Peskipiksi pesternomi!
It had no effect...

The issue where the number of stations that were entered, were not how many stations you went to. So let's say I entered 3 as the number of stations. I would instead get 100 stations because the getCurrentStation method was not actually returning the current station.

The other major issue I had involed the station name. It turns out I was trying to get a char instead of an integer to return the current station index. SMH... I felt so dumb but thats why you ask for help. I thought I already corrected it when I copied and changing it from another method.

Current problems.

1.
With these problems solved I am now having a problem with getting the current station... Yes, this is unexpected considering I just fixed it to where it wouldn't print out 100 stations anymore. Now, it is only giving me one station when it is supposed to be adding 1 after each station and subtracting 1 if the stopCounter is not less than the number of stations.

2.
The other problem I am having is with the display of the Usage Report. It is supposed to be shown at the end of the program after you have already run a simulation. If the current trains create counter is less than 0 then it is supposed to display the usage report with the user name, the create counter, and the run counter. So far I have not been able to figure out why this happening.

I am asking once again.

Well, like the great Bernard Sanders it's that time again when I ask you for your help. I am learning a lot from these post and do think I will continue to post about these school projects. If you can lend your eyes toward this project and tell me if you see any discrepancies in the code that would cause these problems, I would greatly appreciate it.

Thanks for reading.

Train Simulation Problems

Andrew Jackson — Sat, 21 Mar 2020 19:02:09 +0000

Hey everyone,

I am having trouble with this Train Simulation that I am working on for school. I don't know what I have done wrong. I am not getting any errors but the output is just wrong. I am having problems with how many stations are being visited and also the station names. The station name that is being printed is [Ljava.lang.String;@27716f4 and I don't know why.

You can find the main class MainClass and support class SubwayTrain
--> here.

If anyone can help I would greatly appreciate it.

Test data I am using

Number of Stations: 3
Home Station Number: 33
Maximum Capacity: 10

counters != countersWorking; SOLVED

Andrew Jackson — Thu, 19 Mar 2020 17:00:08 +0000

Hey everyone as for the title I am having trouble with my counters not working. They are itemCounts and discountCounts. They are arrays that hold the value of ITEM_NAMES.length and DISCOUNT_NAME.length. This is a school practice project and those are the values I was given but I am not sure on how to use them to count the number of time the item or discount has been selected. Usually I would just use........... BARRROOOOOO!!!

I literally just figured out what my problem was. I just realized I am using arrays and because I am also using an if statement to check if it is the correct item I could just used that array point like so:

itemCounts[0]++;

I guess I was overthinking it the whole time because I was scared of failing and looking stupid.

Well thanks for your help?

The project is a gist here;

Not understanding this project.

Andrew Jackson — Mon, 16 Mar 2020 03:30:07 +0000

Hey everyone I am working on this project and am having a hard time trying to complete it. The information given is confusing and at times lacking in clarity on what is supposed to be done. I don't know what to do because I believe I know OOP but with this project the directions are weird. Can someone look it over and tell me if it makes since to them and if it does tell me what I am missing in my project here. You would go into the bin folder all the way down to get to the project.

I thank you in advance for your help.

update: Code is now a Gist.

Received an 'A'

Andrew Jackson — Wed, 26 Feb 2020 19:15:03 +0000

I received an 'A' in this Java class and was exempt from the final. Well next up is CPT 187 Object Oriented Programming. It has been truly rewarding to be able to complete all of my classes up until now with an A. I still have a good ways to go but I can say that I am doing well in college.

I should probably start searching for a job right?

New Keyboard

Andrew Jackson — Thu, 20 Feb 2020 05:19:45 +0000

Got a new keyboard from amazon today. It's a HAVIT game series MAGIC EAGLE gaming computer but I will be using it for coding as well. Is this a weird thing to do or are you doing the same. Lol :-p

New desk with old desk underneath. I’m really liking this setup. What do you think?

Andrew Jackson — Tue, 18 Feb 2020 23:06:05 +0000

Hey so I got a new desk a week and a half ago and wanted to show my new setup. I will add another photo of how my old setup looked as well. It feels so good to have more space. If you want to show off your setup put it in the comments and lets see what you got. Lol ;D

DEV Community: Andrew Jackson

How to Configure Multi-Display with Virt-Manager and Virt-Viewer (Linux)

Background

First

Virt-Viewer Installation

Virtual Machine Manager GUI Configuration

Step 1

Step 2

Step 3

Step 4

Step 5

Running Virt-Viewer from the Terminal

Example 1

Example 2

Out-of-Office BUG

How-to install Windows SPICE Guest Tools on QEMU/KVM Virtual Machine Manager

How to install Windows SPICE Guest Tools on QEMU/KVM Virtual Machine Manager

The Process

Admin page coming along, but still looking.

Wordpress Themes or Vala for Java Programmers?

Train Simulation Problems - Update

Thanks for yesterday.

Update.

Current problems.

I am asking once again.

Train Simulation Problems

Test data I am using

counters != countersWorking; SOLVED

Not understanding this project.

Received an 'A'

New Keyboard

New desk with old desk underneath. I’m really liking this setup. What do you think?

Old Setup

New Setup