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Bradall
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

VMWare Fusion Stuck Keys

Thought I would reopen a new thread on this issue as the old one located here High Sierra and Fusion "stuck" keys was related to High Sierra and as we are now into Mojave and the problem still exists for a number of people. OI had to move to another product and occassionally return to see what and if this has been resolved. It has not been on my 2017 MAC. The issue was fixed by a once off patch to fusion 10.1.3 or some thing but then lost in subsequent updates to fusion. All in all this issue has existed for over a year and the official bugs and tribletickets were closed against the earlier version. The problem persis and its sad to see the state of repair and bug resolution frequency on Fusion. Once such a great product.

11 Replies
Bradall
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

well while having time off at present thought  would try and solve this other ways because its obvious that VMWare are using some old calls that do not behave the way they used to and that VMWare can not actually see or even recognide they have a problem. I've tried all sorts of things to stop this from occurring and the closest i can come is to permanent enable the touch bar. Nothing else seems to impact the outcome except for this. Seems that when th touchbar switches modes then the key repeat occurs. Simply can not remove that issue. Seems back toparallels.

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wila
Immortal
Immortal

Hi,

Upgraded my MBP (now a 2018 15" one with all the bells and whistles), also installed the latest Fusion 11.0.2 and am now seeing keys getting stuck after a few days of use.

I'm pretty much only seeing this when I swipe from one full screen VM to another full screen one.

On initial typing into the VM a key can be stuck, especially moderator keys (Ctrl or Alt), but it can be any keyyyyyyyyy.

Did not see this on my old 2012 MBP where I ran an older Fusion version.

FWIW, using an external keyboard and screen.

--

Wil

| Author of Vimalin. The virtual machine Backup app for VMware Fusion, VMware Workstation and Player |
| More info at vimalin.com | Twitter @wilva
Bradall
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

Yes happens with VMWare on MACOS12, 13 and 14 with internal and external keyboards seems that those with touchbars are effected more greatly than those without. Any itttttt can be annnnnnnny key as you say. Its been this way for well over a year now and obviously not going to be fixed by VMWare. Best t head towards an alternative product if you want to use a VM.

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wila
Immortal
Immortal

Hey Brad,

Happy to say that I have not really seen it happen since that one time and even then it was sporadic.

So while I believe you in the problem that you are bumping into, it does not happen to everybody or happen all the time.

Chances of this getting addressed when VMware cannot reproduce it are pretty slim I'm afraid.

I really hope they know how-to reproduce this, but somehow I doubt that.

--

Wil

| Author of Vimalin. The virtual machine Backup app for VMware Fusion, VMware Workstation and Player |
| More info at vimalin.com | Twitter @wilva
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Bradall
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

Thanks for the response. Yes this has been an issue since version 8 of Fusion. There is another thread High Sierra and Fusion "stuck" keys |VMware Communitieshttps://communities.vmware.com/thread/577500 that is 12 pages long on this topic. VMware did seem to fix it in a 10.3 patch release that did not seem to go public. Release 11 returned to the same old problem and 12 the issue remained. It is extremely simple to replicate on my machine. Simply install ubuntu server, get to a cli line and then wait for the Touch Bar to turn off. The next key the MAC lights up the touch bar and the key bounces in the ubuntu terminal. Has not changed in the years and makes using Linux inside of fusion almost impossible. Luckily there are alternatives to Fusion that do not suffer from this issue. It is a pity because I like Fusion, and I keep returning in hope that some year the issue may be addressed but as you point out its unlikely this will ever occur and I'm best to remain using alternative products.

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wila
Immortal
Immortal

Brad,

If the touch bar is part of the issue, then perhaps I am not seeing it anymore because I reconfigured the touch bar to always show the F1 .. F12 and Escape keys when a VM is focused.

The standard touch bar buttons as offered by VMware Fusion are completely - I think the technical term for it is - useless to me.

Besides that I do sometimes have a need for functions keys so it was a no-brainer for me to reconfigure that.

See the workaround from Zhus here:

Re: Fusion 10 MacBook Pro Touch Bar configuration?

on how-to apply that workaround.

--

Wil

| Author of Vimalin. The virtual machine Backup app for VMware Fusion, VMware Workstation and Player |
| More info at vimalin.com | Twitter @wilva
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UserOfVirtualMa
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

It just happened to me, right now, in VMware Fusion 11.5.5 (16269456) on macOS Catalina 10.15.5. This problem has also occurred in prior VMware Fusion versions, running on prior macOS versions. An update about a year ago was supposed to solve this problem but it's still there, and still not fixed. This is a long standing problem. This is a non-touchbar MacBook Pro Retina 15 inch late 2013.

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UserOfVirtualMa
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

It just happened to me again. For example, you type "hello" and you get "helloooooooooooo" until you push another key.

VMware Fusion 11.5.5 (16269456) on macOS Catalina 10.15.5 on non-touchbar MacBook Pro Retina 15 inch late 2013.

This is happening about once every day or two. This is a long standing problem that we were told was related to High Sierra or Mojave or something, and was supposed to be fixed by a point release about a year ago. That fix made the problem manifest less frequently (it used to happen several times a day) but it still manifests, through several versions of VMware Fusion and macOS.

I am a programmer. I would begin by looking for "lost event" type problems: e.g., the "key down" event is received but the "key up" event is somehow lost or misdirected to the wrong place. The repeating stops once you push another key. It looks like a classic case of that, but what the heck do I know. I know one thing: I want this to get fixed!!

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UserOfVirtualMa
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

It happened again yesterday, and once again today.

For example, you type "hello" and you get "helloooooooooooo" until you push another key.

VMware Fusion 11.5.5 (16269456) on macOS Catalina 10.15.5 on non-touchbar MacBook Pro Retina 15 inch late 2013.

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am4sec
Contributor
Contributor

uncheck 3D acceleration in display settings of vmware fusion

k3rv1n
Contributor
Contributor

The "uncheck 3d acceleration option" answer should be on the official KB article for this issue.

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