OSX Swiss-French keyboard: Alt key not working on Debian 8.x VM

[splobsterman]

Running Debian 8.x VM in OSX El Cap. All my standard lower/upper case keys (à, é è, ä, ü etc.) work fine. Shift+numeric keys OK. But Alt key combinations (e.g., Alt+7 = pipe symbol) do not work. I have tried in the Debian Keyboard settings but cannot see why I can't get these to work properly. I'm pretty much of a Linux noob but have a grasp of the basics.

Language is set to English, Regional input is custom (international date/time, US units of measure, etc.). The Alt keys work properly on a RPi3 running Debian.

[parmarr]

Ensure that VMware Tools is installed and running inside the Linux Guest. For more information, see For information on installing VMware Tools in a Linux virtual machine, see:

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