VMware Player and Ubuntu 8.10 keyboard mapping issues

Yesterday I installed VMware Workstation 6.5 on my fresh install of Ubuntu 8.10. After powering on a Windows XP vm, I realized that I could not use the arrow keys properly. On hitting the left arrow key, start menu was being displayed and other arrow keys had similar issues. Also, using VMware player was completely impossible as ctrl-alt-del wasn’t working.

After searching around a bit I found that many others had faced similar issue. Apparently it is not a bug with VMware Workstation. Due to some updates to Ubuntu 8.10, the keyboard mappings were screwed up. I found good amount of information in the VMware communities forum.

To fix this issue, you simply need to run the following command,

echo 'xkeymap.nokeycodeMap = true' > ~/.vmware/config

and if VMware Player/Server/Workstation was running, just restart it.

You should then be good to go…

mapping, player, Ubuntu, VMware

This entry was posted on Wednesday, November 12th, 2008 and is filed under Linux/Unix. You can follow any responses to this entry through RSS 2.0. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

#1 by Andre Chies on November 13th, 2008

Just wat I need. Many thanks.

Quote

#2 by Artur Martins on November 16th, 2008

Yes…. Marvelously fixed my gigantic problem
Thanks

#3 by Artur Martins on November 16th, 2008

Oh god… Fixed my arrow problem but not my keyboard layout.

Not working for PT layout :/

#4 by Carlos on November 19th, 2008

Add the following code to your /etc/vmware/config file:

xkeymap.keycode.108 = 0×138 # Alt_R
xkeymap.keycode.106 = 0×135 # KP_Divide
xkeymap.keycode.104 = 0×11c # KP_Enter
xkeymap.keycode.111 = 0×148 # Up
xkeymap.keycode.116 = 0×150 # Down
xkeymap.keycode.113 = 0×14b # Left
xkeymap.keycode.114 = 0×14d # Right
xkeymap.keycode.105 = 0×11d # Control_R
xkeymap.keycode.118 = 0×152 # Insert
xkeymap.keycode.119 = 0×153 # Delete
xkeymap.keycode.110 = 0×147 # Home
xkeymap.keycode.115 = 0×14f # End
xkeymap.keycode.112 = 0×149 # Prior
xkeymap.keycode.117 = 0×151 # Next
xkeymap.keycode.78 = 0×46 # Scroll_Lock
xkeymap.keycode.127 = 0×100 # Pause
xkeymap.keycode.133 = 0×15b # Meta_L
xkeymap.keycode.134 = 0×15c # Meta_R
xkeymap.keycode.135 = 0×15d # Menu

#5 by Artur Martins on November 19th, 2008

Thanks Carlos but it did not fixed my keys..

?£ and ?ß?° and those…

the “7″ and “/” is fine, but the “special” keys (~?ß-_’`?°) dont work :S

Any ideas ?

#6 by Luuk on November 23rd, 2008

Thanx will try this!

See if it works! I·?ø on a standard US layout so things should be fine!

#7 by Artur Martins on November 23rd, 2008

Yes, i think the only problem is with PT_PT

Damn-weird-hard-language

#8 by Chris on November 25th, 2008

superb man… kudos
i searched high and low and your answer was simply and it worked

THANK YOU

#9 by sajal on November 26th, 2008

awesome. that fixed it…

wasnt too bothered about the issue untill i needed to mess with the bios of a vm…

#10 by Rene on November 26th, 2008

Thanks – I was unable to select entries in the Grub boot menu of the physical disk I assigned to a VM. Now it’s working again!

#11 by C?©sar on November 28th, 2008

Hey Nalin!
Thank you a lot!!!
This is very useful

#12 by P.Silva on December 5th, 2008

Thanks, it fixed my arrow keys problem on my toshiba laptop.
AltGr key not working but i can go around it by using Alt + Ctrl keys.

#13 by madsage on December 12th, 2008

Thank you very much!

Fixed my problem as well.

cheers

#14 by Mark D. on December 16th, 2008

Thanks for posting this simple fix!

#15 by John McCormick on December 21st, 2008

This was the answer I was looking for. Simple and effective. Thanks.

#16 by Paul C. on December 22nd, 2008

This also helped me out, thanks a lot!

#17 by mc.god on December 29th, 2008

Great hint! In vmware sever 1.08 I had to copy the string into /etc/vmware/config for it to work, but pay attention, use the “>>” and not “>” for echo, i overwrote the entire config file and nedeed to launch vmware-config.pl to turn back ^^;
Thank you

#18 by webgrafia on January 11th, 2009

Thanks it worked!

#19 by l3ehrooz on January 14th, 2009

It worked. Thanks a lot dude

#20 by Edgar on January 21st, 2009

Thank you Carlos!

#21 by james on February 1st, 2009

Worked like magic on vmware player, ubuntu 8.10.
Amazing!! Thank you!

#22 by cyb0rg on February 3rd, 2009

Great post. Been looking for an easy solution and your one line command just sorted it all. I just knew there had to be a config line for this. Thank you for a great post which ranks nicely on Google using the phrase “ubuntu 8.10 vmware workstation keyboard problem”.

Cheers!

#23 by Per Lundholm on February 3rd, 2009

Thank you! I just started a virtual machine to be able to run JavaFX and it was so frustrating program without a proper keyboard.

#24 by David Fry on February 4th, 2009

Excellent, that is the answer in a nice easy way to understand

#25 by Pedro Bastos das Neves on February 16th, 2009

I made this changes in my ~/.vmware/config file and the portuguese special keys (¬?¬™~^?ß?á¬¥`\|’?¬´¬ª) work fine.

xkeymap.keycode.61 = 0×035 # -
xkeymap.keycode.61 = 0×5f # _
xkeymap.keycode.47 = 0×027 # ?ß
xkeymap.keycode.47 = 0xc7 # ?á
xkeymap.keycode.48 = 0×028 # ¬?
xkeymap.keycode.48 = 0xaa # ¬™
xkeymap.keycode.51 = 0×02b # ~
xkeymap.keycode.51 = 0xfe52 # ^
xkeymap.keycode.34 = 0×01a # +
xkeymap.keycode.34 = 0×2a # *
xkeymap.keycode.35 = 0×01b # ¬¥
xkeymap.keycode.35 = 0xfe50 # `
xkeymap.keycode.20 = 0×00c # ‘
xkeymap.keycode.20 = 0×3f # ?
xkeymap.keycode.21 = 0xab # ¬´
xkeymap.keycode.21 = 0xbb # ¬ª
xkeymap.keycode.49 = 0×029 # \
xkeymap.keycode.49 = 0×056 # |

#26 by Mark on February 19th, 2009

Amazing. Thankyou!

#27 by x on February 22nd, 2009

arrow keys don’t work in ubuntu, kubuntu, mint, left and up and down and right are not respecting speed repeat rates of rest of keyboard… making coding annoying

#28 by rui rosa on February 22nd, 2009

Obrigado Pedro Bastos das Neves,

encontrar este post foi mesmo um luxo

#29 by vencic on February 26th, 2009

Exactly what I need. Many thanks.

#30 by jh on March 4th, 2009

wonderful, thanks!

#31 by parthiv on March 22nd, 2009

thanks it really worked…

#32 by gerwulf on March 27th, 2009

Thanks a lot, exactly what I needed!

#33 by Rahul on April 3rd, 2009

I’m no linux expert (in fact I just installed ubuntu 8.10 and am having keyboard issues) but shouldn’t the command have a >> instead of > ? You wouldn’t want to overwrite the config file…

#34 by Lepe on May 18th, 2009

I didn’t notice it was a “>”, so… by default is there anything at the config file?
I agree with Rahul, it must be “>>” instead of “>”.
Anyway, it solved my problem! thank you!

#35 by marc on August 24th, 2009

i love you. needed safe mode in win xp vm but arrow keys did not function. thanks!

#36 by selena on September 15th, 2009

arrow keys don‚Äôt work in ubuntu, kubuntu, mint, left and up and down and right are not respecting speed repeat rates of rest of keyboard‚Ä¶ making coding annoying

#37 by brian on November 11th, 2009

You rock 100 times over…Thanks for posting this…you saved my ass.

#38 by tnhn on February 1st, 2010

Thanks A LOT! I am an ubuntu 9.04 user; and the problem has flown away thanks to you!

NULL.in