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vab3
Contributor
Contributor

Strange super button behaviour in Ubuntu 12.04 with win7 guest

I'm running Workstation 8.02 on Ubuntu 12.  When I run a Windows 7 guest os, if I hit the "super" (or windows button) in the guest OS, it causes the unity task bar to show the little numbers that appear when the super button is held down, and the list of shortcut keys to display.  The only way to make it go away is to click the dash home button, bring up the unity launcher, and then dismiss it.  This make the shortcut keys go away, but  the little numbers that appear on the icons in the ubuntu don't go away.  Any suggestions?

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mfelker
Expert
Expert

Try insatlling KDE or LXDE (don't use Xfce so I don't know) .  Youcan't remove Unity but then again you can't completely remove the Windows underlying GUI either .his is slightly O.T. but I really hate Unity.  Gnome 3 works fine on Ubuntu as do other Windows mamangers.

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AlanaA
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

I'm testing out Workstation 9 on an Ubuntu 12.04 host and I'm experiencing this exact behavior with both Ubuntu 12.04 and Windows 7 guests in both windowed and full screen modes. It seems that the keys aren't being fully "grabbed" by the guest and when the super/Windows key is pressed the event is sent to both the host and guest.

Is anyone else experiencing this? Is this a bug?

Thanks.

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AlanaA
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

During my 30 day support period for Workstation 9.0.0, I filed a support request about this and they filed a bug report. I was told this will be fixed in the next maintenance release. Too bad it's still there in 9.0.1.

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AlanaA
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

Just wanted to add that the ALT key also gets incorrectly sent to both the host and guest. When I just press the ALT key on an Ubuntu 12.04 host and Ubuntu 12.04 guest, the HUD display shows up on both the host and guest.

So both the Windows/Super and ALT keys are being sent to both OS's.

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vab3
Contributor
Contributor

The problem is no longer on a fresh install of 12.04.  It *might* have been due to the LXDE desktop being installed alongside Unity, but I can't remember exactly when the probem went away.  Anyone else have LXDE installed?  I also have 8.04 running instead of 8.02. 

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AlanaA
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

I don't have LXDE installed. During my support request with VMware, I even clean installed Ubuntu 12.04 on the host. After running updates, I only installed Workstation 9. I then created a new Ubuntu 12.04 guest VM, ran the updates and installed the VMware tools. I still got the same results.

I attached some screenshots of what I'm getting. If it helps, this is on a Lenovo X230. It has an Ivy Bridge based chipset with HD Graphics 4000. I'm using Unity 2D but with Unity 3D, I get the same screenshot as the OP. The Keyboard Shortcuts overlay doesn't show up in Unity 2D.

Looks like someone with a Windows 7 host is experiencing a similar issue as me: http://communities.vmware.com/thread/418940

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benace
Contributor
Contributor

Hate to bump an old thread, but I was wondering if you ever got a solution to this? I have almost the same setup:

Lenovo T400, integrated graphics

Fresh install of 12.04.1, all updates applied

Install VMware-Workstation-Full-9.0.1-894247.x86_64.bundle

Fire up Win XP SP3 guest, install 9.0.1 tools

Press WIN key in either windowed or full screen when the guest has focus, and I get both the windows guest start menu, and the linux host app chooser

Same thing happens if I press CTL-ALT in full screen, I get the VMware unpinned menu, and the linux host "type your command" drop-down

Very frustrating!

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mfelker
Expert
Expert

Same thing happens to me and is mosst annoying when I'm using a KDE desktop on the host. The focus is in the guest so keystrokes   should be isolated from the host It sometimes gets so annoying that I remove the "Run command" widgeet etirely     Perhaps this  does have something to   do with a bug in teh VMware Tools  as people also have problems with cut-and-paste with Tools installled.  Pure speculation of course

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AlanaA
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

I have not found a solution. I went back to 8.0.5. I was told that a fix was going to be in 9.0.1 but, of course, it wasn't. Maybe in 9.0.2?

For the ctrl+alt issue, I press alt and hold first and then ctrl. I don't remember if I had to do this but then release the keys in the opposite order. That seems to make sure alt doesn't go to the host.

I wonder what other keys are being directed at both the host and guest.

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