I've been searching for this for a week. I have the same issue with player 2.5.3 and workstation 6.5.3 on ubuntu karmic (2.6.31rc8). I tried with/without vmtools, no luck in both configuration. I reinstalled the guest from scratch and even in the setup screen I lose the focus when I go outside of VGA. I tried some modifications in the .vmx file but no lock again.

On Ubuntu Jaunty (2.6.28) and fedora 11 (2.6.29) I don’t have this issue.

As I wrote before, I tried every versions I have of vmtools and also without vmtools and it didn't work.  In every situations I have this issue. Therefore I don't think the problem is related to vmtools.

I tried with different guest OS and nothing I tried works, even a simple Windows XP with vmtools. the unsupport part is on my host OS wich is Ubuntu Karmic with the kernel 2.6.31. All my vm works pretty well on Ubuntu Jaunty (2.6.28) and vmplayer 2.5.3.

By the way here is my xorg.conf from my host.

Here is a video of this issue. As you can see, the mouse ungrab when I go outside of 640x480. You can also see that vmtools is installed and working (when I resize the screen). I wish to record more but the forum limit is 4.9mb.

If someone want to see more, Explain me what and I will post the video (I will host it myself if it's too big)

I had this issue on Player first, but then tried with Workstation. The problem was the same on both so I use Player to test because it's faster to install (and reinstall). Other user from this post seem to experiment this problem on workstation

It's the same problem as mine. What kernel do you have on your host ubuntu ?  2.6.28 (for jaunty) or 2.6.31 (for karmic)

I have no way to tell because i'm not able to update the kernel to 2.6.31 on Ubuntu jaunty without updating X (I'm really not an expert). I don't rule out the kernel because when you start vmware (player or workstation) for the first time (and each time you update your kernel) it have to compile/recompile some modules. Old version (2.5.2 and 6.5.2) didn't work on the kernel 2.6.31 because they failed to compile these modules.

You're right about X that change alot in the new Ubuntu Karmic but once again, I'm not able to update package one by one to see which one is causing this. I will continu to try and post my result.