There appears to be a problem with vmware's Easy Install script for Ubuntu 10.04 (beta). It appears as thought the easy install process sets the keyboard model to 'SKIP' during the install process, which is not a valid keyboard model.
Note that everything seems to work fine after installing Ubuntu 10.04 until you apply Ubuntu updates. After updates are installed the keyboard input is broken at the gnome login screen. I was able to use the on-screen keyboard to gain entry (note that others were not able to use the on-scren keyboard to login). After getting logged in the keyboard seems to work. The problem is present only at the Gnome login screen.
Running 'sudo dpkg-reconfigure console-setup' to configure a valid keyboard model resolves the issue.
The problem is observed on Windows, Mac and Linux host systems and 32-bit and 64-bit Ubuntu 10.04 Beta (Lucid) guest OS.
The VMware Easy Install script should be corrected to supply a valid keyboard model.
More details here: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/source/console-setup/bug/548891
