i was about to dump kubuntu due to the below, which has sufficiently p'ss]d me off now. i have tried gutsy, hardy and feisty on an amd64 with both workstation6 and 6.5 but all the same thing.

can anyone confirm whether the same thing happens in ubuntu server lts or rhle5 because these distros are supposed to be 100 percent supported

Excellent document, thanks Peter. I have been looking for a support matrix guide for ages, but in all honesty have been struggling somewhat. I find the site a little tricky to navigate and find anything. I'm also fairly frustrated with the design of the members login area, but that's another story

Do you happen to know if there is an equivalent document for the supported host systems? or is it the same?

This is a crosspost with comment 127 and 128 here: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/linux/+bug/195982

I did this crosspost because I have discovered very specific steps on how to reproduce the issue that might be important for debugging. I will also be able to test patches or provide more information to interested parties.

Yet another report, but I can reproduce it and have some interesting observations.

HP Compaq nx6325 running Kubuntu Hardy (8.04) running KDE3
uname -a:
Linux 2.6.24-18-generic #1 SMP Wed May 28 19:28:38 UTC 2008 x86_64 GNU/Linux
VMware Server 1.0.6 build-91891
xserver-xorg 1:7.3+10ubuntu10
xserver-xorg-core 2:1.4.1~git20080131-1ub
(by the way, you can get the above from the command "dpkg -l")
graphics card: ATI Radeon
driver: ati

Interestingly I also had the issue on this machine running Dapper and VMware server a year ago, which I guess rules out xserver 7.3. It disappeared when I stopped using VMWare. At that time I though it was triggered by excessive memory usage, as I only had 1GB but now I have 3GB and only using just over 2.
I believe my old setup was VMware-server-1.0.5-80187 and Kubuntu Dapper (6.06?) i386 (not AMD64). The old setup compiled perfectly, both vmware host and tools.
On my current setup I had to apply vmware-any-any-update117 to get the VMware host to compile, and open-vm-tools-2008.04.14-87182 to get the VMware tools to compile. I had the issue both before and after I got VMware tools properly installed.

I also have the annoying keyboard auto-repeat issue (while typing in the VM, sometimes (or, quite often actually) your keystrokes will be repeated).

steps to reproduce:
NOTE: I have put a lot of time into reproducing exactly the steps needed. The following is the bare minimum of what I need to do to reproduce it. Anything else is irrelevant (in my case). For example, it works fine if I switch to full screen without first clicking inside the VM.

• have a vm running
• switch to vmware
• move the mouse into and click inside the vm
• press ctrl-alt-enter to make it full screen
• press ctrl-alt to revert back to windowed mode

now the problem is there:
ctrl and caps/num/scroll lock does not work
the alt key, including alt-tab works, but when pressing alt-tab it does not release the alt key, meaning i have to press any other key, or tab without alt, to actually switch to another program. It's like I am till holding the alt key.
I do not however have the unstability issue. I can continue running anything I want, so it's easy for me to test various proposed solutions.
Note: I can not reproduce it by holding the ctrl key while moving the mouse from the guest to the host

both of these methods can be used as workaround, reverting the effect of the issue:

• running setxkbmap
• running System Settings - Regional & Language - then selecting Enable keyboard layouts and applying the changes (or if it's already enabled, disable it - apply - then enable and apply)

Interesting things from /etc/X11/xorg.conf
Section "InputDevice"
Identifier "Generic Keyboard"
Driver "kbd"
Option "XkbRules" "xorg"
Option "XkbModel" "pc105"
Option "XkbLayout" "gb"
EndSection
Section "Device"
Identifier "Configured Video Device"
EndSection

When it's working fine, I get this output from xmodmap:
xmodmap: up to 2 keys per modifier, (keycodes in parentheses):

shift Shift_L (0x32), Shift_R (0x3e)
lock Caps_Lock (0x42)
control Control_L (0x25), Control_R (0x6d)
mod1 Alt_L (0x40), Meta_L (0x9c)
mod2 Num_Lock (0x4d)
mod3
mod4 Super_L (0x7f), Hyper_L (0x80)
mod5 Mode_switch (0x5d), ISO_Level3_Shift (0x7c)

When it's buggy, I get this output:
xmodmap: up to 1 keys per modifier, (keycodes in parentheses):

shift
lock
control
mod1
mod2
mod3
mod4
mod5

As I can easily reproduce it, anyone with ideas are encouraged to suggest them, and I will try it to see it if will solve the issue.

Another observation:

It can also be reproduced this way:
click inside the VM
hold any of Shift, Ctrl or Alt keys down while moving the mouse out of the VM window

Note: If I switch to the VM by simply alt-tabbing to it, then pressing Ctrl-Alt-Enter to full screen it, then Crtl-Alt to release, I do not get this problem. It only occurs when I:
1. Click inside the VM and
2. Hold any of the Ctrl, Alt and/or shift keys while releasing the keyboard/mouse to the host OS (which you obviously do when you press Crtl-Alt to revert back to windowed mode, as the cursor is then released from the VM).

Ok, I tried this "trick". No change for me.

Anyway, the v-scancodes are available here: http://www.vmware.com/support/ws55/doc/ws_devices_keymap_vscan.html
(v-scancodes are the hexadecimal numbers on the right)

For further explanations: http://www.vmware.com/support/ws55/doc/ws_devices_keymap_linux_longer.html

On my Thinkpad, I still have the same result: the modifier keys aren't mapped anymore as soon as I enter VMware in fullscreen or use the alt/shift/control key into the console, etc.