Repeating keys issue after installing Horizon Client Version 2111 for MacOS

[rshahoud]

After the automatic upgrade to Version 2111 of the Horizon Client for MacOS, I was getting repeating keys with each keystroke while logged into my Windows 10 Enterprise desktop.  Downgrading to Version 2106.1 fixed the problem.

[AaronSixtus1]

I can confirm that creating config.ini, disabling Typematic and restarting my device has worked around the issue. As mentioned by others this disables some intended functionality so is not a permanent fix.

[Craig_00]

Hi YunYiQun

I tried the sandbox version on a machine that had never previously had the vmware client installed.

It functions fine. No issue with the keyboard repeat.

At this time, I am not able to test the sandbox version on a machine that was affected by the issue - they were all staff personal machines, so I don't have the ability to remotely install software.

When the issue occurred, staff had logged into their account on a Server 2016 remote desktop. Immediately after logging in, they tried to open any application / web browser. As soon as they type any key, many dozens of characters appear. Pressing a key once, then pressing backspace once would delete all of the keys.

I will keep the sandbox version handy in case I get further reports, but for now we've advised staff not to upgrade client versions.

[YunYiQun]

Hi Craig,

Thanks for the information.

Please keep an eye of it and help try the sandbox in the reproducible machine.

Without your helpful logs, it's very hard for us to locate the issues.

Thank you very much!

[YunYiQun]

Hi Aaron,

Could you help try this sandbox and send us the logs under %temp%/vmware-xxx/? or you can use DCT tool to get a complete set. But just pay attention to delete old logs before trying the sandbox, otherwise, the size could be large.

https://onevmw-my.sharepoint.com/:u:/g/personal/zzhou_vmware_com/Eb7vE6Iawk5DlVN6JtND_TQBFd6yJe5MuzF...

Your help is very appreciated. Thank you in advance！

[ohrama]

I am also facing the same issue with version 2116 and downgrading to previous version fixes the issue

[YunYiQun]

Hi Ohrama,

Could you help try this sandbox and send us the logs under %temp%/vmware-xxx/? 

https://onevmw-my.sharepoint.com/:u:/g/personal/zzhou_vmware_com/Eb7vE6Iawk5DlVN6JtND_TQBFd6yJe5MuzF...

Thank you very much!

[benseidler]

This also just started happening to the 3 MaxOS users that I just upgraded to v2111.  No issues with this before the upgrade and I have 10 users with Macbook Pros.  (I have only upgraded 3 of the 10 before rolling them back.)

[pjefferson]

Has VMWare given anymore updates on this? We patched our systems to 2111 and it was a nightmare ... everyone started having the repeating keys inside VMs. In the process of downgrading everyone as quickly as possible.

[jjefferson86]

Note that we have seen this on linux with version 2106.1.  However, it is very sporadic.  A user might see it happen once every few days.

[HMMSB]

I was able to work around the issue by switching from using VMware Blast to Microsoft RDP. This is selectable from the VM selection window.

[JRovan]

I have had the repeating key issue with Horizon Client for Linux since at least the version *before* 2106. So it did not start with version 2111 for me and switching to 2111 did not affect the frequency of the key repeat issue. The issue occurs intermittently and happens across three separate computers running Ubuntu 18.04 and Ubuntu 20.04 with different keyboards attached to each. It also happened on a desktop that was running Ubuntu 18.04 and continued when that machine was updated to Ubuntu 20.04. It does not seem to matter what application I am using within my Windows10 VM that I am accessing via Horizon Client. I notice that it happens with MS Office, text editors, and on various Linux command lines all being accessed via the VM.  I am currently running Ubuntu 20.04 with Horizon Client 2111 and the problem persists. Also, I do not experience the repeating key issue outside of Horizon Client on any of my Linux desktops.

[JRovan]

I found this VMware tech support link that may provide a solution by adjusting the VM's keyboard.typematicMinDelay parameter: https://kb.vmware.com/s/article/196 The explanation of the cause and solution seems plausible. I've created a tech support ticket at my company and will report back in a few days if it appears to solve the repeating key problem.

[RyanHardy]

@JRovan Thanks for your input! We are seeing this issue too using Blast on IGEL OS thin clients which should be using the Linux version of Horizon Client 2106. With PCoIP zero clients (PCoIP only of course) and Windows clients (PCoIP and Blast) there are no issues.

I will try raising the typematicMinDelay too and will report back if the issue was solved by that.

[JRovan]

It turns out that the remote console solution of changing the keyboard.typematicMinDelay parameter could not apply to my situation. I had mistakenly thought "remote console" meant my Windows10 VM. So no dice there. 

I did, however, try the solution posted at https://kb.vmware.com/s/article/59631 which involves setting the mks.disableTypematic and mks.disableRemoteClientTypematic parameters to TRUE in the local config file. That solution worked in that it prevented the unintentional repeating key problem from occurring, but it also prevented me from being able to intentionally cause a key to repeat. I found losing the ability to manually trigger a key repeat to be much more annoying than having an unintentional repeat happen once an hour or so. I tried alternating between TRUE and FALSE with both of those parameters, but no combination had the desired effect.

I also tried connecting with my VPN software turned off. That also did not affect the frequency of unintentional key repeats.

[BenFB]

If anyone has a VMware SR on this issue can you please send it my way? We also have a case open and are trying to associate our case with any existing ones to raise the visibility. From our testing rolling back to Horizon Client 2012 for Linux has stopped the issue temporarily until we get a solution.

[RyanHardy]

@BenFB I'll send you our case number. I am not optimistic though this will help as the only "help" I got with our support case was to disable Typematic which would make the situation even worse IMHO.

VMware really knows how to make things worse lately. But not only that: combined with not even average support experience (at least for me) this house is starting to burn - and it's burning fast.

[BenFB]

We have a PR open with engineering so this should eventually get resolved. We were asked to gather any additional SR for the issue. If you have one please also open a PR so we can try and get a quicker resolution.

For some users we've disabled typematic as a workaround where the business impact of the repeating/sticky keys was too high.

[YunYiQun]

@BenFB 

Can you send me the PR number?

I haven't seen it. 

Thank you!

[BenFB]

I PM you the PR.

[jjefferson86]

For those that have tickets open, does vmware seem to be getting anywhere with this?