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jimsnab
Contributor
Contributor

Ubuntu keyboard poor performance after upgrade to 16.2.0 build-18760230

I took a VMWare upgrade today to 16.2.0 build-18760230, and now, my Ubuntu 20.04 VM (hosted also on Ubuntu 20.04) has poor keyboard performance. An initial keystroke has a delay, and sometimes I get several repeated keystrokes. If I hold down a key, as a key repeats, there will be short pauses after 10 or so characters - the repeat is not smooth.

In general this makes it very hard to use the VM and get work done. >:-|

Can I roll back this upgrade?

 

29 Replies
ajgringo619
Hot Shot
Hot Shot

I created this post about the same issue - https://communities.vmware.com/t5/VMware-Workstation-Pro/Noticeable-typing-lag-in-Linux-VM-terminals... - but have gotten no responses. Besides my Ubuntu VM, this has randomly affected all my other Linux-based VMs.

jimsnab
Contributor
Contributor

I stumbled on something. I noticed Printer marked Connected and Connect at power on. I don't remember what these were set to before, but I don't have a local printer, so I turned them off. To my surprise the keyboard started behaving better, but not fully fixed.

Then I turned the printer back on (Connected/Connect at power on), and the key delay didn't get worse. Great.

Next I turned off USB Controller Share Bluetooth devices with the virtual machine. Ah! the keyboard works properly.

Then I turned USB Controller Share Bluetooth back on, and keyboard is still OK.

Weird stuff.

It makes me wonder if it would have been fixed by toggling any arbitrary setting in Hardware.

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jimsnab
Contributor
Contributor

Update - it's not resolved with voodoo in my last reply. It's delaying today, but strangely, instead of delaying on each key press, today it is delaying only on the last keystroke when I type a few characters. This is not nearly as unworkable, but it feels like working over a slow remote desktop.

You'd figure something as ubiquitous as a keyboard wouldn't be an issue for VMWare.

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erguny
Contributor
Contributor

I have the same issue since the last Workstation update. All of my Linux VMs has a lag when typing. Otherwise they perform normal. It is very annoying. I could not find anything wrong with the host or the VMs, and all of them were working fine. My host is also Linux.

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jimsnab
Contributor
Contributor

After the upgrade to 16.2.1, it is still not fixed. The lag I have today is at the end of a keystroke - takes about a half a second for the last keypress to appear.

Good grief.

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forgetlight
Contributor
Contributor

I also experienced this lag issue. I initially thought it's because of the distro (POP OS), but then realized it's because of the update.

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wila
Immortal
Immortal

Hi,

Are you using a NVIDIA GPU and graphics driver?
See @Jorn-H 's solution in that other thread:
https://communities.vmware.com/t5/VMware-Workstation-Pro/Noticeable-typing-lag-in-Linux-VM-terminals...

--
Wil

| Author of Vimalin. The virtual machine Backup app for VMware Fusion, VMware Workstation and Player |
| More info at vimalin.com | Twitter @wilva
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jimsnab
Contributor
Contributor

Not using NVIDIA...

VM

 *-display
description: VGA compatible controller
product: SVGA II Adapter
vendor: VMware
physical id: f
bus info: pci@0000:00:0f.0
version: 00
width: 32 bits
clock: 33MHz
capabilities: vga_controller bus_master cap_list rom
configuration: driver=vmwgfx latency=64
resources: irq:16 ioport:1070(size=16) memory:e8000000-efffffff memory:fe000000-fe7fffff memory:c0000-dffff

Host

*-display
description: VGA compatible controller
product: UHD Graphics 620
vendor: Intel Corporation
physical id: 2
bus info: pci@0000:00:02.0
version: 07
width: 64 bits
clock: 33MHz
capabilities: pciexpress msi pm vga_controller bus_master cap_list rom
configuration: driver=i915 latency=0
resources: irq:137 memory:de000000-deffffff memory:c0000000-cfffffff ioport:f000(size=64) memory:c0000-dffff

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wila
Immortal
Immortal

Hi,

Ok, that's pretty much ruled out then.

Another stab...

With Workstation Player 16.2 there's another big change for Linux.

As the release notes show, it now adds support for a Vulkan renderer and it will use that by default for a number of GPU's including Intel.
See:
https://docs.vmware.com/en/VMware-Workstation-Pro/16.2.0/rn/VMware-Workstation-1620-Pro-Release-Note...

From the looks of it the Intel UHD Graphics 620 is indeed available for Kaby Lake.

Please check this:

https://wiki.vi-toolkit.com/index.php?title=Vmx_hacks#Linux_Host_-_switch_back_from_Vulkan_to_X11

also read the link back to VMTN as it has more details.

Now to be frank..
Personally I don't know why this would make a keyboard slow and if that happens I would imagine that simply turning off 3D acceleration also fixes this.
But then again.. also don't know why this would be an issue for NVIDIA. However as these issues might be related, I'd figured to give you this tidbit of info as another thing to try and/or rule out.

Good luck!
--
Wil

| Author of Vimalin. The virtual machine Backup app for VMware Fusion, VMware Workstation and Player |
| More info at vimalin.com | Twitter @wilva
jimsnab
Contributor
Contributor

Thanks Will, this led me to a fix. I tried the suggestion in the link (go back to X11) but it didn't help. But disabling 3D acceleration seems to work. Fortunately I don't need it.

 

JMA100
Contributor
Contributor

I also have this problem with 16.2.0 and 16.2.1.  I can verify that turning off 3d acceleration works around the problem.  But I don't think Vulkan is directly responsible for the issue.  I have an Nvidia Pascal generation video card (1070ti) which is not supported by VMware's Vulkan Translation, but instead, uses the old OpenGL code path.

I've re-installed 16.1.x for now and hope they get around to fixing this one for the next version.

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kostenko
Contributor
Contributor

Same problem.

Host: Win11, Thinkpad T580, 48Gb RAM

Guest: Ubuntu 21.10

Reboot of Guest helps for some time

Version: 16.2.1 build-18811642

 

Nothing useful in logs

Alexander4
Contributor
Contributor

The workaround "turning off 3d acceleration" solved the issue on my CentOS guest hosted on vmware workstation 16.2.1. Thanks.

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JMA100
Contributor
Contributor

I've re-read through the posts about this issue today and decided to test the latest 16.2.3 release.  The issue persists.  This time I tested two different systems (both linux) :

1 - My desktop with AMD CPU and Nvidia 1070ti.

2- My laptop with Intel CPU and Intel Video.

On both systems, the issue is present - (putting to rest the thought that it's GPU drivers on the host machine.)  To reproduce, create a new virtual machine, enable accelerate 3d graphics, and do a fresh install of 20.04.  Open a terminal or a text editor and you'll see it right away.

If you open a terminal and run glxgears the issue totally goes away as long as it runs.  It appears that keeping the display busy prevents the issue from happening.  Some people have reported doing odd things (voodoo) that can make the issue go away (at least for awhile.)  I believe the busyness of the system has a lot to do with it.  

peterjg
Contributor
Contributor

The hack worked for me

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bahmanp
Contributor
Contributor

I upgraded the VM itself also to be compatible with 16.2; the problem seems to be solved. Note that After upgrading the workstation to 16.2, you can see something like "Upgrade VM hardware" under the change/edit setting in the window right before turning on the VM that you should click, follow the steps, and in the last page choose version 16.2.

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JMA100
Contributor
Contributor

Hi Bahmanp, I gave your suggestion a try.  I installed VMWare Workstation 16.2.4.  I upgraded an Ubuntu 22.04 virtual machine I created with 16.1.2 through Workstation's GUI and then tried it with Workstation Player 16.2.4.  No change for me. Did I miss something?

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APaes
Contributor
Contributor

In my case, using an ubuntu derivative (Kali Linux) I get absolutely no keyboard once X session is started. This was working nicely before 16.x and only after upgrading the issue started. I've upgraded the VM so now I can't even go back... Anyway to solve this? I get no keyboard at all, neither USB externally connected nor laptop builtin.

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wila
Immortal
Immortal

@APaesthere's been some reports on this that it happens when you assign too many vCPU's to the VM.

From what I've seen this happens when monitor mode is ULM and you're thus using the Microsoft WHP API instead of VMware's native hypervisor.

--
Wil

| Author of Vimalin. The virtual machine Backup app for VMware Fusion, VMware Workstation and Player |
| More info at vimalin.com | Twitter @wilva