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jpkeisala

5 posts since
Oct 30, 2008

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Oct 30, 2008 3:46 AM

Some keys does not work on in the guest

I have a strange problem with my keyboard on the guest. I am running Ubuntu 64bit as host and I have WinXP and Win2003 as guests and on both guests keyboard layouts are strange.

For example when I press arrow down it executes Windows Key, PageUP = / etc...

I have US keyboard layout and the host works fine. it is just a problem on guest.

I found that there is some Keymap command in Workstation to assign keyboardlayout but how can I fix this in the Server?

Tags: keyboard, keymap

Paul Thomas

861 posts since
Dec 30, 2007

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1. Oct 30, 2008 3:49 AM

in response to: jpkeisala

Re: Some keys does not work on in the guest

Have you installed the vmware tools on your guests? They do include keyboard drivers, however I've not experienced your problems when the tools have not been installed.

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jpkeisala

5 posts since
Oct 30, 2008

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2. Oct 30, 2008 5:38 AM

in response to: Paul Thomas

Re: Some keys does not work on in the guest

Yes, I installed vmware tools for both hosts and still I see the same problem.

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ralph-d

9 posts since
Jul 25, 2006

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3. Oct 30, 2008 6:23 AM

in response to: jpkeisala

Re: Some keys does not work on in the guest

Same problem here, with Ubuntu 8.10 host (Linux gobo 2.6.27-7-server #1 SMP Fri Oct 24 07:37:55 UTC 2008 i686 GNU/Linux):

My guest WinXP boots, then asks for Ctrl-Alt-Del, but this doesn't work (and yes, VMtools are installed).

I've analyzed this with "xev" in an Ubuntu guest: The main keys (from ESC to F12, and below) are working fine; only the buttom row is weird:

Ctrl	Win	Alt	Space Bar	Alt	Win	Menu	Ctrl
Control_L	noSymbol	Alt_L	Space	KP_Enter	noSymbol	noSymbol	Next

The arrow keys and keys above are completely scrambled:

PrtSc

Delete

Scroll Lock

Scroll_Lock

Pause

noSymbol

Insert

noSymbol

Home

Pause

PgUp

KP /

Delete

noSymbol

End

Super_L

PgDn

(ScreenShot)

Left

Level3_Shift

Down

Super_L

Right

Pause

So I can login to the XP client by pressing Ctrl-Alt-PrtSc. The numeric pad works partly (with NumLock off).

My host system has a perfectly working USB keyboard, and the strange key assignment is restricted to the VMware Remote Control Plugin 2.5.0.116460 for Firefox 3.0. The keyboard works fine, when using "rdesktop".

I guess, the problem is caused by the Firefox Plugin.

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jpkeisala

5 posts since
Oct 30, 2008

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4. Oct 30, 2008 9:13 AM

in response to: ralph-d

Re: Some keys does not work on in the guest

Yes, I can confirm that I have same issues as ralph-d and it seems to be problem on Firefox plugin. Rdesktop works fine. thank you for the tip!

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vm_dude123

73 posts since
Sep 9, 2007

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5. Oct 30, 2008 11:33 AM

in response to: jpkeisala

Re: Some keys does not work on in the guest

I have exactly the same problem, but with VMWare Workstation. I get this problem, even if I am not running firefox. Indeed, upgrading to Ubuntu Intrepid gave me Firefox 3.0.3 and thus my VMWare add-on (for servers) is disabled.

Any clues?

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ralph-d

9 posts since
Jul 25, 2006

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6. Oct 30, 2008 11:51 AM

in response to: vm_dude123

Re: Some keys does not work on in the guest

Maybe this article is useful for you:

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

I presume, that Workstation and the Server Remote Plugin share the same code. So, if you manage to find out, which settings in which config file solves your problem, I'd be grateful to hear from you. Maybe it'll also fix my problem with the Server Plugin.

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vm_dude123

73 posts since
Sep 9, 2007

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7. Oct 30, 2008 7:28 PM

in response to: ralph-d

Re: Some keys does not work on in the guest

Got my answer from the Workstation forum. For those who are interested the fix is to add this to vmware/config

xkeymap.keycode.108 = 0x138 # Alt_R

xkeymap.keycode.106 = 0x135 # KP_Divide

xkeymap.keycode.104 = 0x11c # KP_Enter

xkeymap.keycode.111 = 0x148 # Up

xkeymap.keycode.116 = 0x150 # Down

xkeymap.keycode.113 = 0x14b # Left

xkeymap.keycode.114 = 0x14d # Right

xkeymap.keycode.105 = 0x11d # Control_R

xkeymap.keycode.118 = 0x152 # Insert

xkeymap.keycode.119 = 0x153 # Delete

xkeymap.keycode.110 = 0x147 # Home

xkeymap.keycode.115 = 0x14f # End

xkeymap.keycode.112 = 0x149 # Prior

xkeymap.keycode.117 = 0x151 # Next

xkeymap.keycode.78 = 0x46 # Scroll_Lock

xkeymap.keycode.127 = 0x100 # Pause

xkeymap.keycode.133 = 0x15b # Meta_L

xkeymap.keycode.134 = 0x15c # Meta_R

xkeymap.keycode.135 = 0x15d # Menu

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AlexPX

10 posts since
Apr 27, 2006

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8. Oct 31, 2008 10:40 AM

in response to: vm_dude123

Re: Some keys does not work on in the guest

Can you post your entire .vmx file here? (or just any lines that include the string 'key' if you prefer)

I have the same problem, but just adding the individual key mappings didn't solve it for me, it seems that something is missing.

For example, did you add a line like 'xkeymap.usekeycodeMap = true' too?

Thanks for any help,

Alex

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HobbitSW

1 posts since
Nov 1, 2008

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9. Nov 1, 2008 7:49 AM

in response to: vm_dude123

Re: Some keys does not work on in the guest

many thank you for your suggestion. the problem is solved.

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tagno25

1 posts since
Nov 3, 2008

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10. Nov 3, 2008 2:29 PM

in response to: AlexPX

Re: Some keys does not work on in the guest

the changes go in "/etc/vmware/config" (on my ubuntu 8.10 laptop)

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ralph-d

9 posts since
Jul 25, 2006

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11. Nov 7, 2008 4:36 AM

in response to: vm_dude123

Re: Some keys does not work on in the guest

Thanks! These lines should go either into

~/.vmware/config (user preferences)

or /etc/vmware/config (? server settings ?)

or /usr/lib/vmware/config (system wide settings)

Finally, I found out, that the following line only also fixes the problem for me:

xkeymap.nokeycodeMap = true

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wainersm

2 posts since
Apr 6, 2009

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12. Apr 6, 2009 2:31 PM

in response to: ralph-d

Re: Some keys does not work on in the guest

Just adding

"xkeymap.nokeycodeMap = true" to the /etc/vmware/config file also worked out in my system (ubuntu 8.10)

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linuxbuilders

4 posts since
Dec 24, 2008

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13. May 3, 2009 6:05 AM

in response to: jpkeisala

Re: Some keys does not work on in the guest

Hi there, recently I did upgrade my laptop with Ubuntu 8.04 to 8.10 and then to 9.04, I think the keys mapping got broken when I did 8.04 to 8.10. Funny thing is that it does not work on the client site under Ubuntu. So when I fire up my laptop and want to use vm system over web interface console the keys are wrong. When I use windows it is perfectly well. In both scenarions I use Firefox. I have added all suggested entries on server site but it stil does not work with the client under Ubuntu. There is no files to edit in my workstation. Any suggestions what to do in this case?

Regards Marek

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linuxbuilders

4 posts since
Dec 24, 2008

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14. May 4, 2009 3:16 AM

in response to: linuxbuilders

Re: Some keys does not work on in the guest

Ok Ladies, so far noone said anything about fixing problem on workstation using plugin to access VMs. First we have a server with VMware 2.x.x and then we connect using webbrowser from external computer. My laptop is Ubuntu 9.04 but the server is not, server goes on different system. So there is no problem on the server, the problem is in Ubuntu on my laptop. Remember that Ubuntu by the standard does not have root password and you can´t log in as root. In my case I like to know what I am doing so I created root login. So you log in probably as user and if you work from console you #su to root. So if you root then whatever you do stays in root home folder /root. So to get this thing working you need to create a folder in your home directory. I mean the user which you use on daily bases. /home/userx/.vmware and there you do #touch config and then echo 'xkeymap.nokeycodeMap = true' > /home/userx/.vmware/config

The user profile needs to know to turn off mapping in the plugin, by default it is mapping to 101 keys and I use 105 ...

Simple

Regards

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This Question is Answered (go to answer)

Oct 30, 2008 3:46 AM

Some keys does not work on in the guest

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