I tried the trick, and works for me ... thanks!!

Ubuntu hardy + VMWware 6.5 beta

Hello, I'm one of those frustrating folks. Here is my 'solution': System -> Preferences -> Keyboard -> Layout (tab) -> Keyboard model I chose IBM Thnikpad 560Z/600/600E/A22E Intl -- I'm using Thinkpad R60 Initially, it seems solving the problem. After awhile, cap lock had problem. Then System -> Preferences -> Keyboard -> Layout (tab) -> Layout options -> CAPSLOCK key behavior -> CapsLock just lock the shift modifier

So far, the problem did not come back (having run my VM for 1 hour with switching to full screen of my vm many many times).

Hopefully, my 'solution' helps to release some frustration.;\

Bamboo

Interesting... I've had this problem with vmware since... forever. I just got used to it. In fact now I have a cron job that runs every minute (ya, overkill, I know) that does the following:

---

#!/bin/bash
export DISPLAY=:0.0
xmodmap - << EOF
clear shift
add shift = Shift_L Shift_R
clear lock
add lock = Caps_Lock
clear control
add control = Control_L Control_R
clear mod1
add mod1 = Alt_L Alt_R
clear mod2
add mod2 = Num_Lock
clear mod3
clear mod4
add mod4 = Super_L Super_R
clear mod5
add mod5 = Scroll_Lock
EOF
xset r on
xset m 3.5 4
xset b off
xset s off

---

This effectively resets the keyboard when it goes awry. YMMV.

Intrepid Xorg 7.4 WS 6.5 running XP guest. Keyboard worked fine before the upgrade to intrepid/ws6.5, ctrl, arrow keys, del key map to strange things in all guests, Win, Linux, Solaris, etc. Since Esc won't work, I can't reload OS'es for the software testing I need. Looking at temp hacks to get my keys back, just thought I'd report it doesn't work on Intrepid, though it worked fine in Hardy/WS6.0.x.

edit: the hack here http://nthrbldyblg.blogspot.com/2008/06/vmware-and-fubar-keyboard-effect.html (Solution 2) works, you have to create ~/.vmware/config and put the contents listed in it, then logout of X and log back in. If your keys are still mapped strangely, edit that file and change the wacked key after you find out its code by running xev.

HP Pavilion DV9000 AMD64 duo-core 2GHz 3G RAM laptop

---

Cameron
Selma, OR

Old thread but...

Everyone talks about trouble with Ubuntu (or other dists) but i have the same problem in my Vista host and my VMWare 6.5 with XP guest.

Easy solution in windows for me, although annoying, is to quickchange language in my Vista host: Left ALT + Shift to some other language (in my case english) and Left ALT + Shift back to my standard language swedish. It takes 1 sek but it is still a stupid bug.

You can easy change key combination if you want to. I think it can be done in the same way in Ubuntu if you dont want to make some workaround script i have seen around.

how do i stop this annoying crap from happening

this is worse than a virus

Same happening on me for quite long time with ubuntu since hm 6 (dapper?)

And I always could fix it by changing the keyboard mapping in KDE 3.5 by a few clicks:

• in control panel enable keyboard layouts (I use IT and USA) and the indicator in the tray

• when the bug comes out (firefox crash or wrong chars trying to write a command in KDE with Alt+F2) I simply click the tray icon to change the layout, wait a few seconds then revert back to the usual layout

hth