Workstation 17.5.0: (enhanced?) keyboard driver problem

[Korbinian]

Hi,

this is for anyone having the same trouble after upgrading to 17.5.0; I did the standard in place upgrade, and - as allways- installed the enhanced keyboard driver.

After that I started up my vm and did some work in IDEA. Shortly after I edited some code at once a whole line got erased instead of just 1 click on the remove key. You could literally see the line beeing draged leftwards and dissapear letter by letter.... At first I was ok... well.. wtf... after 2 mins the same again. I rebooted my laptop and restarted my work. Suddenly after 4 mins the whole system removes line by line and this time it even didnt let me use my own keyboard anymore... didnt stop... and tried to delete further even after the code file was already empy (thanks git... no worries here 😄 ). Also the whole system hung without beeing able to press any key - only way out was a complete hard reset of the hardware.

I tried to fix this for some time but only after I did a complete uninstall and reinstall with reboots and lefting out the "enhanced keyboard driver" the problem seems gone.

So, if you have any problems with your computer typing or deleting on its own: get rid of the "enhanced keyboard driver"!

For Vmware in case you're interested:

Betriebsystemname Microsoft Windows 10 Pro for Workstations
Version 10.0.19045 Build 19045
Systemhersteller Dell Inc.
Systemmodell Precision 7760
Prozessor Intel(R) Xeon(R) W-11855M CPU @ 3.20GHz, 3187 MHz, 6 Kern(e), 12 logische(r) Prozessor(en)
BIOS-Version/-Datum Dell Inc. 1.23.0, 07.06.2023
Installierter physischer Speicher (RAM) 64,0 GB

[Blazinfatherted]

In my setup I have set the enhanced keyboard to off, note it has a warning that the enhanced keyboard isn't installed on the host/ And I have the problem.

[karahu]

Same problem with windows 11 host and ubuntu guest (enhanced keyboard disabled). Experience is random UI freeze on keyboard press and only way to recover is restart guest. Started after installing 17.5 version and fixed by rolling back to 17.0 version.

[ssill2]

I must be lucky then. Since I set the vm to no attempt to use enhanced keyboard I've not seen the issue with windows 11 host and rocky 9 guest.  That was over a week ago now.   it was happening a few times a day.   I'm still on 17.5 with the enhanced driver installed, but I just have any vms set to not try to use the enhanced keyboard.

[mysterylie]

Yeah, I turned off the enhanced keyboard and used the 'Change/Modify' option in the installer to (attempt to?) remove it completely but the issue remained after a few reboots for good measure. It does seem that disabling this works for at least some people, so maybe we've got two variants of the issue.

[Blazinfatherted]

The results are inconclusive but here goes:

Last night installed a fresh ubuntu and redhat instances so far no issues working perfectly 

I have now deleted my other VMs - kali and csi linux and re added them so far so good but it could be several hours until a failure - so its too early to say if this has worked.

It would be nice if others try the same.

Note the fresh builds do not have open-vm-tools installed yet

[Blazinfatherted]

Just an update first lock out of the day on one of my pre 17.5 builds 😞

Updating the VM tools did not resolve the issue

One thing I have noiced is that during a failure it can repeat the last character could be anything from letters numbers or any of the arrows, or control keys but the new installs are yet to see t the issue I really hope I don't have to rebuild all my environments 

[Arjan56]

Did anyone happen to report this with vmware support ?

[0x48756773]

We can’t. You need a support agreement with VMWare and none of us have one. Their solution for people without support agreements is to post on the community forums so they can subsequently ignore it. 

[Technogeezer]

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@0x48756773 wrote:

We can’t. You need a support agreement with VMWare and none of us have one. Their solution for people without support agreements is to post on the community forums so they can subsequently ignore it. 

---

There is another option.

If you are running Workstation Pro, you can purchase per-incident support "vouchers" from the VMware's online store https://store-us.vmware.com/per-incident-support-workstation-pro-5424560200.html and then use that to open a support request.  It's not ideal that you have to spend your own money to open a support incident to get action on a bug, but that's unfortunately the way VMware has chosen to support its products.

The community forums are just that - a community of users of the product. It isn't frequented by VMware employees looking for problem reports as part of their day jobs. There should be zero expectations that a VMware employee will take action on anything posted here - if by chance they do, then you're extremely lucky.

[bremenpl]

Running VMWare Workstation 17.5.0 build-22583795 here. I have just noticed that my issues with mouse and keyboard started right after I upgraded...

Basically, after some time the Linux guest (I am using Ubuntu Mate) stops receiving keyboard and mouse inputs. What I need to do then, is to manually disconnect my mouse/ keyboard USB connections from the host and connect them to the guest, just so I can gracefully close everything and restart the VM...

This seems like a joke :|.

Did any of you guys find out a workaround for this, to somehow reactivate the inputs?

[ssill2]

OK, well I thought I had a work around.  I was over a week since seeing the issue.   Then it just happened again.  Downgrading to 17.0.2 again.  This is annoying.  it really makes me want to take a look at alternatives now.

[ssill2]

add me to the nameless rabble that have had to downgrade to fix this issue

[Arjan56]

I'm curious if there are any common factors other than 'Linux' and 'open-vm-tools'

My VM is using KDE Plasma with X11, anyone running with Wayland or Gnome and also having these issues ?

X11 has become a little wonky since about a week or so as well with subtle freezes here and there.

[bremenpl]

My freezes happen on Ubuntu mate guest.

[xuyenphungngoc]

I am also seeing this behaviour but I do not have the enhanced keyboard driver installed.

It appears to be related to the arrow keys and holding one pressed down for too long after a certain amount of time.

The button will remain pressed inside the VM and the VM refuses all other keyboard / mouse input but is not actually locked up.

In my case I could ssh into my vm and reboot it, I'm assuming RDP also works on windows VM's.

This behaviour started immediately after the last 17.5.0 update.

[bremenpl]

Its sort of the same behavior for me. The only thing tgat stops working is input from the mouse/ keyboard. But, the one handled by vmware. If I manually connect the usb mouse to the guest, I can use ot inside the guest. Of course this is a poor workaround...

Also, when the vm is dormant, so I dont use any inputs on it, the bug wont appear. So it seems it happens while inputs are activelly used.

[Kinnison]

Hello,

Curious, yesterday this thread spread over four "pages", today they have become three.

Regards,
Ferdinando

[Arjan56]

It's still 4 for me. But that's not really important, still trying to figure out what is causing this behaviour.

[Kinnison]

Hello,

You're right, mine was just a curiosity at the time.

Then, if we want to see it in slightly more practical terms, reading the various comments expressed, I doubt you will find an effective remedy to the problem exposed here, other than trying to go back to the immediately previous version.

Regards,
Ferdinando

[Blazinfatherted]

I starting to get really frustrated with VM workstation really impacting my work, I've result to use Hyper-V the humanity! 

Not a peep out of VMware not even! we are trying to fix" I get the whole create a ticket, but this is of their own doing.

Shoddy poor effort from once a might company.