Basic Keyboard Mapping

[renowden]

I may be doing something wrong but I am having trouble finding keys on the keyboard. I am running Fusion on a Mac Pro with a wired aluminium UK keyboard. I have Win XP Pro and Ubuntu guests. I am not sure about the latter but the Windows system is set up with language option UK Keyboard layout.

What is happening is that the keys are in the physical positions that they would be on a UK PC but not where the Mac key-caps say they are. The problem keys are ", £, ~, #, |, \ and `.

My task this last month has been to migrate my work from Win to Mac and I am getting used to the new layout but I am running a few applications under Fusion and am having trouble remembering where the keys should be (I don't touch type). It is a productivity killer so I have had to stick a diagram to the bottom of my screen.

Is there any way for Fusion to map the Mac keyboard layout through to the guest so tat if I type the key marked @ it comes out as a @ not " ?

[renowden]

Bump.

Does no one have this problem? Am I doing something off the wall? Or is there just no solution and we have to live with it?

SteveUK seems to think it is a 1.1.2 problem. That was my first version so I wouldn't know.

cheers,

Rick parsons, Bristol, England

[SteveUK]

Hi Rick,

I'm not having a problem with any of the other keys (£ etc.) just the @ and " swapped and it definitely was ok before upgrading to 1.1.2. Let's hope someone can shed some light on it.

Steve.

[MandarMS]

Are you using UK Keyboard on Host Mac OS?

if Yes, then you need to Install the Latest Boot camp drivers in Windows Virtual machine using the Leopard Disk, once you installed Boot camp Drivers then in windows go to control panel --> Regional and Language Options and check the keyboard layout to

“English United Kingdom (Apple)” Keyboard and check you can use the same keyboard in Vm

[renowden]

Thnaks for your reply MandarMS.

Yes - UK keyboard on Mac Pro.

Note I am not using Boot Camp at all, not even a virualised Boot Camp partition - does your answer still apply? If so, can you guide me to installing from Leopard disk - I presume that this must be optional features that were not pre-installed. I have the discs but have never touched them.

cheers,

Rick parsons, Bristol, England

[MandarMS · Accepted solution]

Yes, Connect the Leopard disk to virtual Machine Open My computer and Double click on CD/DVD to install Boot camp Drivers

Once you installed the drivers change the keyboard layout in Windows and check

[renowden]

Thnaks MandarMS - that solved the problem.

A bit of detail for UK residents.

1. Ensure the CD/DVD devices is connected to the Windows XP virtual machine

2. Insert the Mac OS X Install Disc 1. This may auto run - but if not open it from My Computer.

3. It will proceed to install the Boot Camp drives. Many may not be relevant but some are including the keyboard drivers. It requires a reboot at the end.

4. Now a deviation from MandarMS' instructions. Control Panel/Regional and Language Options has many related things but not keyboards (with Windows XP Pro SP3 anyway). What you need is right click the Task Bar -> Toolbars -> enable the Language Bar so it has a tick by it. That should bring up a small EN on the task bar.

5. Right click the EN and go to settings which gives a window called "Text Services and Input Languages". Use Add to Select "English (United Kingdom)" and keybaord "United Kingdom (Apple)" then OK. That will add the options which you can now set as default at the top of the window then OK. You can if you wish remove the US options which avoids the possibility of it reverting at some later time which it has a habit of doing.

cheers,

Rick parsons, Bristol, England

[FutureMac]

Using Boot Camp drivers does indeed give the option of an Apple English Keyboard... thanks MandarMS

But (this is a minor annoyance) ...

Installing this on my MacBook results in a big delay at startup while Boot camp loads all sorts of other stuff. Does anyone know how to get the same result without resorting to the full Boot Camp install?

I've tried just installing the keyboard driver, exported the working Apple registry entry and re-importing -- it nearly works, but I usually end up with "Windows couldn't properly access the United Kingdom (Apple) keyboard layout"

So are there Windows gurus out there who know how to just install the Keyboard layout?

Thanks

[FoxtrotIndia]

VMWare does not send characters to the Windows running in the virtual machine, but keystrokes for an emulated keyboard.

So all keyboard layout settings have to be done in the virtual machine itself. What you can do for Windows is to use the " Microsoft Keyboard Layout Creator " to import your existing keyboard, and package it into its own installer. That should enable you to remove the bootcamp drivers again.

[DanielHarrison]

Following the advice given, I created the driver for the Windows environment that appears to work for me (I have a small bluetooth MAC keyboard with Windows VISTA running in VMWARE FUSION).

I have attached the file for those that wish to use it straight away although I reccomend the Advice given and download the 'MS Keybord Layout Creator'.

Many thanks for the advice given.

Dan

[vorlon000001]

I have had the same problems as everyone.  I couldn't get DH's installer MSI to work (it needed more supporting files), so I downloaded version 1.4 of Microsoft's keyboard designer tool (Microsoft Keyboard Layout Creator 1.4).  This allowed me to create a custom layout for my MacBook Air (should be the same for all MacBooks).  I have attached the ".klc" file, containing the keyboard map I created, to this message - see attached.  What follows is a breakdown of what I did, (and probably what DanielHarrison did, too - so I don't claim this to be original work).

Install then open the keyboard designer (MSKLC.exe). Load the attached file (VMWareFusionUKMBlayout.klc) into MSKLC.exe using "File > Load Source File..." (or use CTRL-O). The key assignments appear within the Keyboard Creator app.

Then click "Project > Build DLL and Setup Package".

You will eventually get a message saying that the installer package was built successfully, and would you like to view the created directory (...\Documents\VMWFUKMB\).  Take a look if you like...

Now move the entire directory (...\VMWFUKMB\) to somewhere your Windows VM can read it.  I used a VMWare shared directory, but you could copy the installer folder to your Windows desktop (or somewhere else) if you prefer.

Next run the MSI installer for the new keyboard layout in line with the architecture of your version of Windows.  As I'm on 64 bit Server 2008, I ran VMWFUKMB_amd64.msi.  This install will add some stuff to system32 / SysWoW64 (specifically, a version of VMWFUKMB.dll in each mentioned directory).  You may get warnings/UAC messages. Allow the installation to proceed.

Nothing good will happen until you complete this step:

Open Regional / Keyboard settings in Control Panel.  Open "Region & Language > Keyboards and Languages {tab}" and select "Change Keyboard".  Change the Default Input Language" to "English (United Kingdom) - VMWare Fusion layout for UK MacBook".  Next, on the same tab, promote (Move Up) the keyboard named "VMWare Fusion layout for UK MacBook" above that of the "United Kingdom" keyboard. Use "Apply" and "OK" to close the Control Panel dialogues.  Log off / log in your Windows VM (or just restart it).

If you now open Notepad.exe and start typing, you should find that all the mixed up keys work as they should (among these: '  "  \  |  @  € [ctrl-alt 2]  `  ~  # [SectionBreak (the 'double-S' above the TAB key)]  ¬ [Shift-SectionBreak]

*** Note: I made a judgement call on the placement of hash (#) and not (¬) keys.  The MBA keyboard has no visible location for these values.  I nominated the SectionBreak key (the 'double-S' above the TAB key, a.k.a. VK-OEM-8) to hold these values.  Thus, as supplied, SectionBreak: Unshifted - acts as 'hash' (#), Shifted - acts as 'not' (¬).  You can of course configure this to your liking, given that you have the MS Keyboard Creator app.

Hope this helps someone.

v.