Keyboard's maniacal repeating

[PenguinLust]

I'm running a Suse 10.2 guest on a Suse 11.1 host. Sometimes I find a keystroke that should just be one character long turns out to be 7. I've installed the Guest Additions--it didn't help. It's gotten so bad, that I usually try to ssh into the machine, and just operate it from there.

I also have a WinXP guest that doesn't have this problem.

I had this problem with VMware also, and never solved it.

Edit: I suppose it's also worth mentioning that my guest and host are 64-bit

[Sasquatch]

Check your repeat keys settings on the Host. And the Guest too. As you state that you had this with VMW too, it has to be a host configuration somewhere, it can't the program's fault.

[PenguinLust]

And what do I check for when I check them? They seem moderate.

I should also point out that this problem is sporadic and inconsistent in magnitude. If the problem was this bad with every keystroke then it would simply be unusable.

[Sasquatch]

I use Xfce, so things might vary. But in my Host, I have Key Repeat enabled, with a delay of 500 and a speed of 30. This is the default settings.

[PenguinLust]

I don't know what Xfce is, but I have a 660ms delay and 25 character repeat on both host and guest. I'm quite certain it's not a matter of what these figures are.

[Cirroz]

I have same trouble.
Host OS is Ubuntu 8.10 i386, guest is same OS.
When X starts I open, for example, Nautilus window and press a <Tab> key once, but focus is running on the window until I press <Esc> key.

[iloveto]

Same problem:
Host w2k3 server + SP2
Guest MDK 2009.1
Guest additions installed
At random moments there is a rapid keyboard repeat in the guest of the currently pressed key.
Did fiddly a bit with keyboard settings in both host and guest. No success

[iloveto]

doing "xset r rate" in the guest seems to fix it.

[Cirroz]

I've found what was wrong with keypressing.
The xneur application have troubles with VBox.

[abject]

Code: Select all

xset r rate 500 3

in my Centos 5.5 guest / Debian Lenny host seems to cure it for me, thanks.

Does that setting magically persist? If not, where/how do you put that in the guest to get it set for every session?

Thanks,

[mcnaz]

I remember seeing another thread here that describes this same problem (and it often happens to me).

The issue was down to using the keyboard and mouse at the same time... for example, press the c button in guest then move the mouse around... it interferes with the key. Sometimes a key gets stuck (i.e control key is stuck). Sometimes characters repeattttttttttttttttttttttttt

The solution is to upgrade to the latest 3.1.x or 3.2 as the issue has been addressed there. Sadly I can do neither as both these builds still fail to save snapshots correctly if the snapshot directory is configured not to be the default directory - a bug since 3.0.12

My other solution was to use more keyboard and less mouse

[Sasquatch]

Odd that you can't use snapshots on non-default location. I have no problems with that.

[mcnaz]

I'm not the only one with this issue. See http://www.virtualbox.org/ticket/5656, which remains open.

[ocalld]

I had this problem with a Ubuntu 10.04amd64 host with Redhat AS4 x32 guest.

I also had windows7 and RedHat 5 guests (all 32 bit) that did not have the repeat problem.
RedHat AS4 32bit had this random key stroke repeat problem.

The virtualization setting in the BIOS was disabled ( i could only make 32 bit guests).

Enabling the Virtualization in the BIOS solved the keyboard repeat problem.
All my guests now run correctly.

Cheers
Dan

[dbwhitaker]

I'm having the same problem with 64-bit CentOS 5.5 guests on VirtualBox 3.2.10. I've tried this on two separate machines, one host is 64-bit Ubuntu 10.04, the other is 64-bit Ubuntu 10.10. The 64-bit CentOS 5.5 guests are unusable because of the maniacal repeated keystrokes. It's so bad that it's difficult to log in. I've tried changing BIOS settings, as well as guest keyboard settings, but with no luck. I'm have numerous other guests that are not causing me problems (e.g. 32 bit CentOS 5.3, Windows, etc.). Fortunately I've had no problem running 64-bit CentOS 5.5 guests on these machines using VMware Player 3.1.2.