[Solved] How to use a Metasploitable VM without the X and W keys

[robertdawson]

The X and W keys are non-functioning on my physical keyboard. On my main MacOS machine and even on most of my VMs, this is not too much of an annoyance as I still can copy & paste or change the software keyboard mapping.

On my Metasploitable virtual machine however, I see no way out. Unless I missed something, I cannot paste stuff from outside of the VM, and since Ctrl-X is usually the command to quit a text editor, so I cannot launch text editors because I would be unable to quit them, and I cannot change the built-in keyboard.

Any ideas ?

[socratis]

Any ideas ?

Get a new keyboard?

No, seriously, virtual machine does not include a virtual keyboard, you have to have a physical one. And a mouse. And a monitor. Unless you RDPing in the VM. But a VM cannot help you with the lack of physical hardware.

[robertdawson]

No, seriously, virtual machine does not include a virtual keyboard, you have to have a physical one. And a mouse. And a monitor. Unless you RDPing in the VM. But a VM cannot help you with the lack of physical hardware.

Luckily for me, you are being a bit over-pessimistic here. I found out that the "Keyboard Viewer" on my Mac allows me to do anything I want (even in a VM) as long as I have a mouse, without using the keyboard at all.

[socratis]

Sure, but that's not a VirtualBox issue

Funny thing? I use the keyboard viewer all the time (I have it in the toolbar) since I'm using a triple keyboard (US/Greek/Unicode). I thought that it was only what it said: a Viewer. Not once did it cross my mind that this thing was clickable. They should be calling it "Keyboard layout". Glad you thought of it, it didn't even register with me.

Luckily for both of us you didn't give up...