Ctrl Alt Shift keys not matching host, and not working

[RickCHodgin]

AMD64 Linux Mint 17 host
32-bit Windows Server 2003 guest

When I restore a VM previously saved to disk, the ctrl alt and shift keys do not work until I minimize the guest, go to the host, open a text editor or some other app, and press every ctrl alt and shift key through once, and then return to the guest. This makes the guest unusable at first, and a bit of a hassle to workaround as it requires loading, minimizing the guest, launching some other host app, cycling the keys through, closing the host app, and then restoring the guest windows.

This was happening sporadically in the 4.3.x series using Linux Mint 16 on a Dell Latitude E6530 notebook, but it never occurred one time on my Gigabyte AMD64 desktop machine in Linux Mint 16. Now in 4.3.14 it's happening on my Gigabyte AMD64 desktop machine sporadically as well using Linux Mint 17. The guest was originally booted and saved in 4.3.12 and Linux Mint 16. Since then it's been restarted and used multiple times in 4.3.14 using Linux Mint 17.

My host has one custom keyboard option set: "Shift+numpad keys work as in MS Windows".

[RickCHodgin]

I have since been able to determine I only need to minimize the guest, cycle the ctrl, alt, and shift keys on the desktop, and then go back to the guest.

[Michael Thayer]

Can you reproduce this with a Linux guest too? If so, can you use xev(1) inside the guest to see if the guest is seeing anything when the non-responding modifier keys are pressed?

Could you also try setting the environment variable "VBOX_RELEASE_LOG=+gui.e.l3" when you start your virtual machine? Then you should get entries in the log file (among many others) similar to "VBoxKeyboard: converting keycode X to scancode Y\n". Can you check whether pressing the non-responding keys produces any new lines?

Thank you.

[RickCHodgin]

I do not have any Linux guests to try it out on. For Linux-related stuff I use the Linux host. When I press the keys I do not get new lines. It's as if they are not hooked up to the keyboard. Pressing them or not inputs the same keys that would be there were I not pressing them. For example, Alt+F is a common "file menu" feature in Windows. Pressing Alt+F inputs a "f" into whatever has keyboard focus. Pressing Shift+F inputs "f" as well. It's like those keys simply don't work.

I will try VBOX_RELEASE_LOG=+gui.e.l3, but I have not done so yet.

Recent upgrades to Linux Mint 17 and/or 4.3.16 may have solved the problem. I have not reproduced the error for some time. The changes I've made are applying normal periodic Linux Mint upgrades (every few days), and installing 4.3.16.

[Michael Thayer]

Installing an Ubuntu guest is really a very quick procedure - I have probably installed more than a hundred of them over the years. Another thing which occurs to me is that xev output on your host might be interesting too.

[aeichner]

Please reopen if still relevant with a recent VirtualBox release.