[Qemu-ppc] sendkey is not working for any of the keystrokes

[Balamuruhan S]

sendkey option is not working for any of the keystrokes in ppc64le,

Qemu version:
# qemu-img --version
qemu-img version 2.9.50 (v2.9.0-303-g81b2d5c-dirty)

Qemu command line:
# qemu-system-ppc64 --enable-kvm --nographic -vga none -machine pseries -m 4G,slots=32,maxmem=32G -smp 16,maxcpus=32 -device virtio-blk-pci,drive=rootdisk -drive file=/var/lib/libvirt/images/f25-upstream-ppc64le.qcow2,if=none,cache=none,format=qcow2,id=rootdisk -monitor telnet:127.0.0.1:1234,server,nowait -net nic,model=virtio -net user -redir tcp:2000::22

Guest booted successfully and logged in
Fedora 25 (Twenty Five)
Kernel 4.11.0-rc4 on an ppc64le (hvc0)

atest-guest login: updatedb (5582) used greatest stack depth: 9568 bytes left
root
Password:
Last login: Mon Mar 27 01:57:51 on hvc0
[root@atest-guest ~]#

Qemu monitor:
# telnet 127.0.0.1 1234
Trying 127.0.0.1...
Connected to 127.0.0.1.
Escape character is '^]'.
QEMU 2.9.50 monitor - type 'help' for more information
(qemu) sendkey a
(qemu) sendkey ret

But from the console, I couldn't observe the keystroke a or return.

[Fabiano Rosas (farosas)]

I see this happening in ppc64le and x86_64 with QEMU v2.11.0-1684-ga6e0344fa0. The keystrokes are being sent to tty1:

in x86_64:

./v2.11.0-1684-ga6e0344fa0/bin/qemu-system-x86_64 -enable-kvm -m 512 -kernel vmlinuz -initrd initramfs.img -chardev serial,id=s1,path=/dev/pts/10 -mon chardev=s1 -qmp tcp:localhost:4444,server,nowait -vga none -nographic -append "console=ttyS0 i8042.debug"

QEMU 2.11.50 monitor - type 'help' for more information
(qemu) sendkey a
(qemu) sendkey b
(qemu) sendkey c
(qemu) sendkey ret

# cat /dev/tty1
abc

---
same thing with input-send-event:

{"events": [{ "type": "key", "data" : { "down": true, "key": {"type": "qcode", "data": "a" } } }]}
{"events": [{ "type": "key", "data" : { "down": true, "key": {"type": "qcode", "data": "ret" } } }]}

# cat /dev/tty1
abc
a

I'm not sure what is the expected behavior when using two input sources in this way (serial line + PS/2 keyboard). I'm inclined to say that the keys should indeed not be seen in the serial console.

[Daniel Henrique Barboza (danielhb)]

Yes, you are right: sendkey does not send keys to the serial console. I had a chat with Peter last year about it in the IRC where the explained:

<danielhb> hey! quick question: is the 'sendkey' monitor command supposed to send the key presses to the serial console of the guest when running with -nographics ? The command works fine with VGA/VNC graphics but the serial console doesn't show the character key being sent by the command
<pm215> no, 'sendkey' sends a key to whatever physical keyboard is currently being emulated, regardless of what is being done with serial devices
<danielhb> pm215, I 've debugged the code and saw that the scancodes are being sent to the emulated keyboard via sendkey. I just wondered why the serial console doesn't show the keysyms but the VGA does
<pm215> because keyboards don't plug into serial terminals
<pm215> this is like having a server with a PC keyboard plugged into it and also a serial port which you're using as the serial terminal
<pm215> pressing a key on the PC keyboard doesn't do anything to the serial terminal
<danielhb> pm215, that makes sense, haven't thought of that. thanks!

Given that the bug report was created around a wrong assumption, this should be closed.