VMware Horizon Community
rshahoud
Contributor
Contributor

Repeating keys issue after installing Horizon Client Version 2111 for MacOS

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.

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JWJC
Contributor
Contributor

I just had this issue reported by a user and I have it as well.

Unable to use Win7 x64 virtual machine (instant clone) with Horizon client 2111 with BLAST as pressing a key introduces delay and about 15 repeats of that key.  I know this agent is old on the virtual machine, unable to update it atm but will shortly.

HTML access works fine as does switching to RDP.

We only have several users sporadically access 1 old application on windows 7 and I don't have a lot of time to troubleshoot this issue at the moment, workaround is acceptable for now in my environment just adding my 2 cents.

 

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JRovan
Contributor
Contributor

I've also tried all combinations of the settings I've mentioned previously with both Blast and PCoIP.  There seemed to be no effect on the frequency of the repeating key problem. As I've mentioned previously, this problem has been occurring for me since before version 2111.

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vm7user
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

We also have this issue (with VMware Horizon Client for 64-bit Linux VMware-Horizon-Client-2111-8.4.0-18957622.x64.bundle)

I'm very surprised the VMware hasn't released a fixed version yet.

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jjefferson86
Contributor
Contributor

My guess is they have no clue what the problem is.  However, my suspicion, after looking at the change logs for 2106 and 2111, is that it is something to do with the newer keylogger detection system.

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Craig_00
Contributor
Contributor

Still an issue for us. Despite telling people not to upgrade, we are having to uninstall 2111 and reinstall 2106 almost daily on staff personal computers. This is having a serious impact on staff productivity and on our support team.

I have a support request open with VMWare. #22301149002

 

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VMHero4Ever
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

Hi Craig_00,

I opened a support case about this topic.
The support guy told me that there is actually no recorded information about repeating key issues with Horizon Client 2111 on Windows or Mac.
There is only something for Linux under investigation. I read a lot about issues with the latest versions of Horizon Linux for IGEL ThinClient devices. But it seems so that it happened only for PCoIP sessions not for BLAST.

In our environment we had only one external developer who complains about mouse/keyboard issue when using the latest Mac Horizon Client.

 

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jjefferson86
Contributor
Contributor

VMHero4Ever:

From my testing this indeed only happens on the Linux client.  It happens more frequently with 2111 but also affects version 2106.  It also affects both PCoIP and Blast.  I have not seen the issue on 2103 or earlier.

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Alberte1
Contributor
Contributor

Can someone from Vmware please update us on this issue?  There are multiple support tickets opened and I have confirmed Igel has one opened.  This is not limited to PCOiP as we use Blast only.

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Craig_00
Contributor
Contributor

When we first hit the issue, it turned out our horizon support contract had lapsed for a couple of weeks, or I would have opened a ticket straight away. We are dead in the water with all client PCs that install the 2111 version. Does not matter what OS version or build is on the client PC, and we have a mixture of Server 2016 and Win 10 Enterprise remote systems. We don't have the option of PCoIP, and a couple of our key applications don't perform well over RDP, so we are only using BLAST.

Any remote session is totally unusable until we roll the client version back to 2106. We don't get one or two key repeats, we get thousands, and no matter how long the session is open for, the repeats never stop. As others have said, disabling typematic does fix the issue, but makes the system unusable in other ways because key repeats are not possible at all.

Our staff are all working from home, so we can't prevent them upgrading. We've repeatedly sent out messages not to do so. We're getting a couple of support incidents a day to fix the issue on a home PC.

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jjefferson86
Contributor
Contributor

Craig_00,

Yeah, it is getting a bit crazy at this point.  This has been an issue now for 3 months and is clearly affecting a lot of people.  Baffles me that vmware is taking this long to address this problem.

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Alberte1
Contributor
Contributor

I've heard a beta fix was provided to some customers late last week that resolves this problem.  Can anyone with a support case confirm this?

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BenFB
Virtuoso
Virtuoso

We are troubleshooting the issue on Linux with VMware engineering. We haven't received any reports of it on our macOS or Windows clients.

VMware provided us with a engineering build to gather more logging to try and identify the source of the issue but it did not contain a fix.

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dejannk
Contributor
Contributor

Spoke to someone who knows more about the back end infrastructure for this. He mentioned "horizons broker" having to be in sync with the client. Seems we are currently using  "Horizon 7" version 5.5.3. So I installed that client on my home machine and it works fine. Perhaps that's a better option than using an older version of Horizon 8 client which could be missing some security patches.

This would also explain why you cannot replicate the issue at VMWare.

Perhaps some guidance is needed for the users on whether to use Horizon 7 or 8 clients.If you show b roker version in the client, people could install the correct version.

Regards
Dejan

 

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BenFB
Virtuoso
Virtuoso

Horizon 8.x Clients are backwards compatible to 7.x. The issue was introduced in a 8.x client so while rolling back would work it's difficult to do on certain platforms that use an app store like Android and iOS.

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jjefferson86
Contributor
Contributor

BenFB:  Thankfully it appears the issue is isolated to the linux versions of 2106 and 2111. 

We have "resolved" the issue by downgrading to linux  version 2103.

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Alberte1
Contributor
Contributor

8.0 or version 2006 came out back in Aug of 2020.  They broke this in version 2106 from what it sounds like.  Going back to 7.x isn't an option for our users as the linux client is bundled with the Igel firmware updates.  We don't want to test on an old version of Igel that we have never used before.

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BenFB
Virtuoso
Virtuoso

@jjefferson86 We did the same. Rolling back to 2103 or 2012 has mitigated the issue. Last week we provided engineering with log bundles from the custom client they provided us. We are waiting to hear if they've identified the issue from those.

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jjefferson86
Contributor
Contributor

BenFB:  Any update from vmware?

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Craig_00
Contributor
Contributor

I got given an 'engineering build' early last week that was meant to collect more logs. It instantly crashed as soon as I pressed any key in the remote session. I submitted the logs, then got given a different build, also for log collection. I submitted those logs on Friday. Nothing since. 

I ended up customising our Horizon landing page so the Client download link no longer points to vmware's website for the latest version. This has helped a bit, as I can direct new hires or staff getting new computers to a working version. Unfortunately, I still can't stop my staff from periodically updating to the latest build through the client itself.

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BenFB
Virtuoso
Virtuoso

Engineering provided us with a new build over the weekend that they believe will resolve the issue based on the logs we provided. We are starting to load and test it.

Just to note, we are focused on this issue with the Horizon Client for Linux. I don't know if the fix will apply or be incorporated in the Horizon Client for macOS unless someone also has a case in for that.

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