Anyone else experiencing a bug regarding keypresses after upgrading to VMware Fusion 8.5.7?

[kylehawkes]

After upgrading to 8.5.7 professional this morning any keypress I make inside a VM (I've tested on multiple) is held indefinitely, or at least until a new keypress is made. There seem to be some exceptions such as arrow keys, backspace, alt, windows key (generally all system keys by the looks of it). I've tried restarting both the VM, VMWare Fusion, my Mac, reinstalling VMWare Tools on each VM, and still this issue persists. This makes it near impossible to work, any ideas on how to resolve this?

I'm on Professional Version 8.5.7 (5528452), running macOS Sierra Version 10.12.5 on a MacBook Pro.

[dariusd]

Hi kylehawkes,

That's an odd problem.  I've not heard any similar reports at all.

Do you recall which version of Fusion you were using previously which did not have this problem?  (i.e. Did the problem start with an upgrade from Fusion 8.5.6 to 8.5.7, or from Fusion 7.x to 8.5.6, or from something even earlier?)  Anything else you have changed at the same time?  (e.g. Upgraded macOS or changed some hardware on your host Mac.)  Are you using the MacBook Pro internal keyboard with no external keyboard attached?

Which guest OSes are you using inside the virtual machines?

If you select a powered-off virtual machine and go to the Virtual Machine menu and choose Power on to Firmware, is it possible for you to tell whether the same problem exists in the firmware setup screen?  (i.e. Press the "+" key once and see if it increments the "hours" of the system clock by one, or increments repeatedly, assuming that "+" is one of the affected keys.)

Cheers,

--

Darius

[vmxmr]

I have seen a variant of this bug myself. I suspect it has the same root cause.

My bug is only temporary. If I attempt to type inside a guest OS too soon after startup, sometimes a typed key will appear to "stick" as if it were held down. The key repeats and doesn't stop. If I press the delete key, it stops. I can't remember what happens if I press another key, but I think it takes over and is the one to repeat, until the delete key is pressed.

Frankly, it happens once in a while and it does not bother me. I never reported it before.

I am running VMware Fusion 8.0.2 under OS X 10.11. 6 El Capitan. I wish I could remember which of the many guest operating systems has shown this problem, but I can't. I have many versions of Windows, Linux, macOS, and a few oddball guests (including virtual appliances). I have seen it on multiple versions of guest OSs (e.g., different versions of Windows).

I have seen this bug for a while, but again I can't remember which versions of VMware Fusion I saw it. Perhaps the 7.x series and the 8.x series up to 8.0.2, but again, that's just a guess.

Sorry I can't remember more, but it is one of those bugs I never worried about, because it never interfered with my work. I hope this helps.

[TECH198]

Not happening here.  On Widows 7 SP1 VM on Macbook Pro Retina Early 2015.. Running 10.12.5

[kylehawkes]

Nice to at least hear that I'm not the only one that has experienced this, though it's very peculiar that yours is only temporary as mine seemed to persist through restarts. Thanks for the info, vmxmr!

[kylehawkes]

Hi dariusd,

I can't be certain but I usually kept as up to date as possible, so I'm relatively sure it was whichever the previous release was before that (so I would assume 8.5.6?), sorry I couldn't be more help there.

VMware Fusion was the only thing I upgraded at that time, I usually use an external keyboard while working but this issue happened with both the external and internal keyboard (both if the external keyboard was attached, and with no external keyboard attached). I found this happened with all three of my guest OSes, which were - Windows 10 x64, Windows 7 x86, and Windows 8 x64.

Unfortunately as I needed to continue working I uninstalled VMWare Fusion and reinstalled from a fresh download, which seems to have solved the issue or I would have tried that to see if I could help. Could have maybe been a botched update on my machine.

Thanks,

Kyle