Upgrade to Ubuntu 10.04 LTS in VMWare Fusion – Keyboard issues

Written by

I upgraded my VMware Fusion image to Ubuntu 10.04 LTS over the weekend, and everything went well except for the keyboard. It wouldn’t work.

So here’s how I found out how to fix it:

Go to the Accessibility Preferences at the bottom of the screen, and tick on screen keyboard.
You have to reboot because for some unknown reason, it doesn’t start unless you do.
You can now type in your password on screen. Once logged in, your keyboard works
Go to terminal, and reconfigure your console:

sudo dpkg-reconfigure console-setup

Reboot, and you’re done.

Comments

22 responses to “Upgrade to Ubuntu 10.04 LTS in VMWare Fusion – Keyboard issues”

May 3, 2010

Ed

Thanks! I was banging my head against the wall over this one.
May 3, 2010

steve

Thanks for posting this. Worked for me, too.
May 4, 2010

Pekka Viljanen

Thank you, it did work !

I need to wait for a fix of this feature with VMware Workstation 7 with all display resolutions. Right now I’m lacking of some higher resolutions in 10.04 LTS version. So, I snapped back to previous 9.10 version.

thank you and best regards
Pekka
May 4, 2010

ahfeel

You’re my hero or the day ! thanks for the tip, I really had no idea how to get this keyboard working..
May 4, 2010

Jimmy

I tried VNC connections, giving the bluetooth controller to the VM (reset it back with a vnc). Nota

Your fix worked like a charm, brilliant

Tanks
Jimmy
May 12, 2010

Flok

Thanks, you are the man!!! or the girl 😀
May 12, 2010

vanderaj

Man 🙂
May 12, 2010

Fabrizio

Thank you.

Work also for me !
May 14, 2010

mark

Thanks!
May 20, 2010

David

Thanks a lot, mister! I haven’t got time to fight with my computer today, so I really appreciate your help.
May 21, 2010

gyffes

Yeah, this is great — unless, as is the case with ALL my virtualized 10.04s (UNR, Xubu, Ubuntu), you have no keyboard, even once you log in.

And the onscreen vanishes, ne’er to return, it seems, once logged in.

I can access terminal, I can paste in code, but I cannot paste in a carriage return that the terminal will then act upon.

Suggestions, anyone?
May 24, 2010

Trevor

Thanks, worked perfectly for me as well. 🙂
May 26, 2010

Muh

Manyyyyy Thankkksssss….
May 26, 2010

Leo Torres

I have a iMac and I dont have a green button and so I have not been able to follow. But id does seem that I Have the same issue that everyone else is having.

I have VM Version 3.1.0 for mac

please help

Thank you!
May 26, 2010

vanderaj

Not sure what you mean by “green button” as I don’t describe such a thing in my instructions.

How far do you get?
May 29, 2010

casper

There is a another, much simpler workaround:

1. Dump your overpriced Apple Hardware,
2. Buy some fair priced, high value hardware
3. Install Ubuntu 10.04 LTS.

–> Everything just works (TM)
May 30, 2010

vanderaj

When it comes to laptops, when you spec up tier 1 competitors to be

a) as light and as small as either of my Macs for the screen size
b) as quiet (if possible)
c) as many ports (I have a bunch of USB, Firewire, DVI/HDMI outputs, Bluetooth mice and keyboards, etc)
d) with as fast a processor, RAM, and disk (fast Core Duo2’s are rare except in the most expensive of PC laptops)

… PC laptops are always more expensive than a similar Mac. By the time you’ve formatted over Windows and put Ubuntu on there, got 3d video and all the periphals and network services to work properly, I’ve been using my Mac for hours.

It’s just cheaper, especially if you go from Vista to Win 7 like my wife’s laptop. Yes, I know Ubuntu is “free”, but it’s not free if I have to spend my time looking after it.
May 31, 2010

lapsed.cannibal

Many thanks. This did the trick.
August 9, 2010

Edwin

Thanks very much! This will help a lot!
September 24, 2010

Thilina

What a generous thought…Thnx… This saved my time
December 14, 2010

kailas

Thanks! Exactly what I was looking for, indexed appropriately.

woot!
December 14, 2010

kailas

Actually, it almost works for me. I login, but my keyboard still doesn’t work.

I had to change the layout to macbook pro. It was a clever game of cut and paste between OSx and the VM