sixel doesn't work on Windows 10

[xiangpeng2008]

What Operating System(s) are you seeing this problem on?

Windows

WezTerm version

wezterm 20210814-124438-54e29167

Did you try the latest nightly build to see if the issue is better (or worse!) than your current version?

No, and I'll explain why below

Describe the bug

when I open wezterm on windows10, ssh to remote linux, and img2sixel path/img.png, nothing prints

To Reproduce

open wezterm on windows10 ssh to linux server img2sixel path/img.png

Configuration

no config

Expected Behavior

Sixel graphics support (experimental: starting in 20200620-160318-e00b076c)

Logs

 2021-10-17T12:07:17.919Z INFO  wezterm_mux_server_impl::local > setting up C:\Users\zhangxia\.local/share/wezterm\gui-sock-6796
 2021-10-17T12:07:18.484Z WARN  wezterm_term::terminalstate    > unhandled DecPrivateMode SetDecPrivateMode(Unspecified(9001))
 2021-10-17T12:07:18.960Z INFO  wezterm_gui::termwindow        > OpenGL initialized! ANGLE (NVIDIA Quadro P620 Direct3D11 vs_5_0 ps_5_0) OpenGL ES 3.0.0 (ANGLE 2.1.1 git hash: 07ea804e6201) is_context_loss_possible=true wezterm version: 20210814-124438-54e29167
 2021-10-17T12:07:30.103Z WARN  wezterm_term::terminalstate    > unhandled DecPrivateMode SetDecPrivateMode(Unspecified(1034))

Anything else?

No response

[wez]

The Windows ConPTY layer might be interfering with this. If you use wezterm ssh to connect directly to the remote host, I would expect this to work. Could you try that?

[xiangpeng2008]

I'm not with this Windows 10 right now, will let you know tmr.

[xiangpeng2008]

The Windows ConPTY layer might be interfering with this. If you use wezterm ssh to connect directly to the remote host, I would expect this to work. Could you try that?

Yes, wezterm ssh works.

[wez]

We're waiting on some combination of: https://github.com/microsoft/terminal/issues/1173 https://github.com/microsoft/terminal/issues/448

before this will work directly on ConPTY

[ykhan21]

For what it's worth, mintty is a Windows terminal that supports sixel graphics.

[wez]

@ykhan21 wezterm does support sixel graphics. It's conpty in the middle that can mess things up

[wez]

The workaround that I suggest is using wezterm ssh to get directly into eg: a WSL environment or a remote linux environment

[ykhan21]

Is there a way to get it to work without ssh-ing into a linux / WSL environment?

For example, on Windows with mintty I can do: magick convert image.png -polaroid 10 -thumbnail 500x image.png sixel:- > image.six.txt, then cat the file to display the image with sixel graphics: cat image.six.txt.

[wez]

No, conpty, which is intimately tied to native console program output on windows, does not support sixels. To use sixel, you need to avoid conpty. Learn more about conpty: https://wezfurlong.org/wezterm/what-is-a-terminal.html#windows-and-conpty

As an alternative, using the iTerm2 image protocol uses a different kind of escape sequence that can mostly squeeze through conpty.

Consider using eg: png or jpg images together with wezterm imgcat

[AnonymouX47]

I think this might be worth looking into, now that https://github.com/microsoft/terminal/issues/1173 has been resolved.

Thanks.

[Kreijstal]

I think this might be worth looking into, now that microsoft/terminal#1173 has been resolved.

Thanks.

wezterm ssh does support sixel, mintty supports sixel, and microsoft terminal supports sixel now

[pcgeek86]

Now that Microsoft Windows Terminal (Preview) supports sixel, is there any reason that conpty would still block wezterm support for sixel?

This screenshot shows wezterm running side-by-side with Windows Terminal Preview. Windows Terminal can render sixel graphics, but wezterm still cannot.

I have very little to no knowledge on terminal architecture, so it isn't clear to me why one works, but not the other. So, be gentle in your responses. :)

[AnonymouX47]

So, be gentle in your responses. :)

I just want to say... as far as I know, he always is. :smiley:

[a-usr]

Hello, today I noticed that miraculously both sixel and kitty support randomly started working. This is difficult to explain for me, since I didnt update anything, and Windows Update claims to not have done anything like that either. However I suppose that isnt that important, I just thought I'd let yall know.

[Kreijstal]

Hello, today I noticed that miraculously both sixel and kitty support randomly started working. This is difficult to explain for me, since I didnt update anything, and Windows Update claims to not have done anything like that either. However I suppose that isnt that important, I just thought I'd let yall know.

is this ssh wezterm, or wezterm under windows? ssh wezterm does support sixel, but if you use wezterm then use ssh, it won't work, are you sure?

which windows version do you use and which wezterm version is this?

[a-usr]

this is on Windows 11 build 22631.4751, with wezterm nightly (wezterm 20250210-070846-3bc67e44). Both mentioned image protocols work both using the unix domain, and the local one. SSH wasnt used, this should go through regular conPTY.

[a-usr]

Also uhh this

I can assure you, the image is not black

Once we've figured the current issue out I suppose I'll create a seperate one for this.

[hexium310]

I read https://github.com/wezterm/wezterm/issues/1236#issuecomment-2662315786 and tried it. I replaced conPTY.dll and OpenConsole.exe of wezterm 20240203-110809-5046fc22 with ones in 4accc376f3411f2cbf4f92ca46f79f7bc47688a1 and launched wezterm-gui.exe, and it printed sixle.

the wezterm configuration when I tried it:

local wezterm = require('wezterm')

local config = wezterm.config_builder()
config.default_prog = { 'C:/Program Files/PowerShell/7/pwsh.exe' }

return config

I guess all I had to do was use conPTY.dll and OpenConsole.exe of Windows Terminal 1.22, which supports sixel.

[wez]

Thank you for confirming that it works!

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