CTRL ALT F2 once and for all!!

[smapjb1]

Hello

Seen as this forum has proved to be extremely helpful I wonder if someone can help once and for all.

I upgraded the esxi from 3.5 to 4.0 in the hope that there would be keymappings or properties file support or something in the new vSphere client that would enable me to send CTRL ALT F2 ... to my linux vm's from the vSphere console?

I am running windows XP inside vmware fusion on my mac solely for the purpose of running vSphere console so I can manage my vm's. But as soon as I press CTRL + ALT the focus returns to the parent o/s. This is true also on linux.

At the moment I have to get my work laptop out which is running windows natively.. but that now has a power supply fault and is out of charge...

I have tried the CTRL + ALT + Space then F2 thing that I have read in the forums.. I have also tried creating a properties file in my Applications folder for vmware as per some other post.. there must be a cunning trick??

This is particularly frustrating in that I am developing virtual appliances for delivery into vmware.. these appliances run ssh with no password set by default.. so I have to CTRL + ALT + F2 to get to a console to set a root password so I can ssh to the machine to continue testing..

Please help me shed this last vestige of dependency on the MS platform !!

Yours

Phil

[DSTAVERT]

You might get more response from the fusion forum.

[asatoran]

I am running windows XP inside vmware fusion on my mac...But as soon as I press CTRL + ALT the focus returns to the parent o/s....

The default for ungrabing in Fusion is Ctrl- Command , not Ctrl-Alt. (a.k.a.: Ctrl-Option.) Did you configure the keyboard to switch the Command and Option keys? (Either in OSX or in Fusion's keyboard mappings?)

[smapjb1]

Hi,

The problem is I am an extra layer down.. i.e.

Mac -> fusion running XP -> vSphere client -> esxi running linux

returning from fusion to MAC no problem as you said.

returning from vSphere client to XP CTRL + ALT (I cant see how to influence these bindings)

problem is entering CTRL + ALT + F2 in the linux instance because CTRL + ALT returns me to XP and vSphere client only runs on windows. I need to somehow change the key bindings in vSphere client

[asatoran]

... because CTRL + ALT returns me to XP...

In your previous post, you said ctrl-alt returned you to the host OS. Since your host is OSX, you can see why all the responses pointed you to Fusion issues. (Remember, the host for ESX is ESX. The Windows that the client is running on is not really a host. But by your terminology, you have two hosts. (OSX & XP.) so you'll want to be specific in the future. )

In any case, Ctrl-Alt has been the default for ages for the client, (and Workstation and Player) so that's not likely to change. I don't remember seeing any posts about changing the keys, so I can't help you there.

This situation is similar to when you RDP to a Windows machine to run Player, then use Player to run a Windows VM. Player does not have a menu selection to "send a ctrl-alt-del" amd RDP does not send a ctrl-alt-ins. So you can't logon to the Windows VM. The workaround is to connect directly to the VM (e.g.: RDP directly to the VM;)

So my suggestion to you is the same: remote connect direcly to the VM, rather than use the client to view the VM's console. The primary disadvantage is that this is not feasible if the VM is on some isolated network, obviously. But you probably already knew this.

[DSTAVERT]

You are using the CTRL ALT F2 will always be a problem. You will need to find another way to get a terminal window. Boot without X. Install without X ssh and sudo sh Boot with rescue disk, chroot . . . . .

[smapjb1]

Yes this is rather tricky and probably comes down to a feature request and/or a vote for a non-windows vSphere client.

oh and I didn't mention the word host in any of my posts I did mention parent, however due to the nested nature of this problem I can see why my original question was difficult to understand.

I think being able to remap CTRL + Alt in the vSphere client would be an extremely useful feature.. even the 'space bar' trick that you can do in vmware server client.. i.e. pres CTRL + ALT + Space then let go space and press F2

Or even a properties file somewhere to provide the key mappings without GUI would suffice.

I'd rather test the system that I am going to give to the customer rather than leave in X or root passwd so there are lots of reasons why using a workaround like you suggest is not acceptable to me.. after all you may inadvertently leave something in your released version.. like a time bombed license key for example