Red Hat Bugzilla – Bug 214168
Bad keyboard mapping in xen graphical console
Last modified: 2008-02-26 18:39:08 EST
Description of problem: The keyboard mapping in vnc grapical console is wrong with fr-latin1 keyboard. I can't setup the network interface while creating a new virtual machine because I can't type the IP. Version-Release number of selected component (if applicable): virt-manager-0.2.3-2.fc6 How reproducible: always Steps to Reproduce: 1. set host keyboard mapping to fr-latin1 2. run virt-manager 3. create a new virtual machine 3. during the installation process, choose us keyboard or fr-latin1 4. try to configure the network interface Actual results: Can't type the IP. Key press produces non-consistent results Expected results: Get 1 while using the key "1"
Is the host keyboard set to the same layout as the guest keyboard ? (ie, both fr-latin1) The VNC widget does straight passthrough of the keysymbols from the host to the guest, so unless the layouts match you may see wierd behaviour.
Both host keyboard and guest keyboard are using fr-latin1. Host keyboard has been configured as fr-latin1 using system-config-keyboard.
I've been trying to track down this problem without much success - not helped by the fact that I only have access to a US layout keyboard. I set both my host & guest keyboards to 'fr-latin1' and compared the behaviour. On host - If I press the key labeled '1', then i get a '&'. - If I hold Shift & press key labeled '1' then I get a '1' On guest - If I press the key labeled '1', then i get a '&'. - If I hold Shift & press key labeled '1' then I get a '1' So, if I have both host & guest in fr-latin1, then the results are comparable. So, is both my local desktop & Xen / VNC guest correct, or both wrong ?!?! I think i really need to find a french keyboard to test on properly....
Using xenguest-install without graphics support, the install doesn't ask for the keyboard (/etc/sysconfig/keyboard is not be created) and the keyboard mapping is perfect. Using xenguest-install with graphics support, the keyboard mapping is ok when you choose the language and it goes wrong once you choose the keyboard mapping.
It may be, in fact, an anaconda bug. Anaconda doesn't ask for keyboard during console installation (Headless installation ?) and it shouldn't during Xen vnc installation.
I have the same problem and in the moment the only solution is to use the xenguest-install without graphics support... on the other hand the graphics support during the install of the the xen guest doesn't work for me at all...
I used 256MB RAM for the guest system and because of that the graphics support failed, with at least 384MB it works but of course there is still the problem with the keyboard layout, it's unusable. I couldn't find a workaround for that (expect not to use graphics support).
FYI, in Xen 3.0.5 there is now support for setting the keymap for the VNC servers. Fedora Core 6 though is only Xen 3.0.3, and we'd also need libvirt, virt-install & virt-manager support for setting the keymap, so I'm not sure that it is really practical to backport the keymap code from latest Xen for FC6. The keymap support will likely be included in Fedora 7 though. I'll leave this ticket open until we've definitely got it supported in either F7, or figured out a backport plan, whichever comes first.
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This report targets FC6, which is now end-of-life. Please re-test against Fedora 7 or later, and if the issue persists, open a new bug. Thanks