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vGPU OS
Documentation: Web panel

Documentation · Usage

Web panel

The panel in another computer’s browser on the network: signing in, tabs, VMs, monitor, sound, backup, maintenance and terminal.

Alpha

This documentation covers vGPU OS 0.3.0, in alpha. Screens and commands may change between versions; to see the installed version, use vgpu-os version.

Since version 0.2.0, vGPU OS has a web panel: the VMs and the computer can be run from the browser of another computer, phone or tablet on the same network. The monitor attached to vGPU OS is still where the VMs' screen appears; the panel is their remote control.

Opening the panel

The panel starts working when the first setup ends and becomes available once OSX-REIMS finishes its own preparation. The address is shown:

  • on the OSX-REIMS console, right under the menu, as Web panel: https://<address>;
  • on the session's screens and on the text login screen (Ctrl+Alt+F2);
  • at the end of the first setup.

Open that address in a browser and sign in with the user vgpu-user and the password set during installation.

Note

The panel uses HTTPS only, with a certificate created on the computer itself at installation. That is why the browser shows a security warning the first time; accept it to continue. The certificate's fingerprint, to compare, is in /etc/vgpu-os/webui/tls.sha256. An http:// address is redirected to https://.

A panel session ends after 30 minutes without use or after 12 hours. The panel works in Portuguese and English, in light and dark themes, and can be added to a phone's home screen.

Important

Use the panel only on your local network. Whoever has the vgpu-user password controls the whole computer through the panel, the terminal included.

Tabs

Tab What it has
Virtual machines The VMs, with each one's state and uptime: create, start, shut down, restart, force off, terminate the process, delete and set autostart
This computer Processor, memory, graphics card, disks, and the Monitor and Sound cards
Maintenance The actions of the OSX-REIMS console's Maintenance menu, and the VM network
Backup & Restore A VM's backup into one file, restoring and deleting backups
Logs and diagnostics The logs of OSX-REIMS' runs, as in View logs on the console
Terminal A vgpu-user terminal in the browser

Each long action shows up in Activity, with its progress; its output is also in Logs and diagnostics. The footer shows the vGPU OS and OSX-REIMS versions. Restarting and powering off the computer are in the panel too; with VMs running, it asks to shut them down first.

Virtual machines

  • New VM: number, macOS version and disk size. The Recovery is downloaded from Apple, with a progress bar, and the macOS installation appears on vGPU OS' monitor.
  • Start: the panel shows the VM's settings — memory, processors, nested VMs, refresh rate, network and sound — and keeps them for the next starts, as the console does. The advanced options hold installing the VM's OpenCore into the macOS disk's EFI, and the installer attached again, for that one start, to finish an interrupted installation or repair macOS.
  • A VM only starts while the monitor session is up: its window opens on the monitor attached to vGPU OS.

Each VM's settings are OSX-REIMS': see VM settings (opens in a new tab).

This computer

Besides the hardware and how much of each part is in use, refreshed every 5 seconds, this tab has two vGPU OS settings of its own:

  • Monitor: the resolution and refresh rate. A new mode is tried for 15 seconds and kept only if you confirm it; if the monitor goes black, do nothing and the previous mode comes back by itself. Back to the monitor's own mode undoes the choice. The mode does not change while a VM runs.
  • Sound: where the sound comes out — the monitor's HDMI or DisplayPort, the board's speakers or a USB headset —, the volume, mute and a test tone.

Both also exist on the vGPU OS screen and over SSH: see Daily use.

Maintenance

The same actions as the console's Maintenance menu: check this computer (osx-reims doctor), clean the cache, prepare the environment, update and rebuild Reims vGPU, check OSX-REIMS' published version and delete all VMs. The ones that need the VMs shut down say so first.

In VM network, the bridge is turned on or off. With it on, each VM set to Bridge when it starts gets an address of its own from the router and can be reached from any computer on the network, while vGPU OS keeps its own address. The bridge needs a wired network port; turning it on stops the network for a few seconds and the panel may disconnect and come back. If the computer does not get its address back within a minute, the change is undone by itself.

Backup & Restore

  • Back up: the whole VM — macOS disk, boot disk, identity and settings — becomes a single compressed file. A running VM is shut down first, if you agree. The installers are left out unless you ask for them.
  • Restore: over the VM itself, which goes back to how it was in the backup, or as a new VM, under another number.
  • Delete a backup.

The files are in /opt/osx-reims/backup, on the same disk as the VMs, and are the same ones as the console's Backup & Restore. They protect from a mistake or an update gone wrong, not from a disk failure or a reinstall: to keep a backup, copy the file to another computer over SSH (for example, with scp).

Terminal

A vgpu-user shell in the browser, like the session's terminal. It closes when you leave the panel, when the session ends or after 30 minutes without typing, and each opening is recorded.

A new vGPU OS installation comes with the terminal on. To turn it off, delete the line WEBUI_TERMINAL=on from /etc/vgpu-os/webui.conf.