Various SHIFT keys stuck after switching to host

[qwerty017]

OK.

Perryg,
I am willing to send you any logs you want if it will get this problem looked at and solved. It has been happening to me with a Windows7 Guest on Both a Windows 7 and Windows 8 host.

[Perryg]

OK.

Perryg,
I am willing to send you any logs you want if it will get this problem looked at and solved. It has been happening to me with a Windows7 Guest on Both a Windows 7 and Windows 8 host.

First I need to see the guests log file (as an attachment).
Then I need a detailed description of the issue. Exact and how to reproduce it.
Also hardware information from the host and whether you have special key mappings or not.

[qwerty017]

OK.

Perryg,
I am willing to send you any logs you want if it will get this problem looked at and solved. It has been happening to me with a Windows7 Guest on Both a Windows 7 and Windows 8 host.

First I need to see the guests log file (as an attachment).
Then I need a detailed description of the issue. Exact and how to reproduce it.
Also hardware information from the host and whether you have special key mappings or not.

I can reproduce the issue everytime by taking the following steps.
Move mouse onto VM so it is active.
Hit WIN+l
On host system that is now locked, enter the letter "u" in the password box.
The Ease of Access menu will pop up.
This will keep happening until the Windows key is tapped at which point you can enter the letter "u" in the password box.

The only change I made in my Win7 Guest was follow the instructions to turn off Win+l workstation locking through the registry so I wouldn't have to re-log into both the host and the guest.

No other special key mappings or anything else. Currently using Win8 as Host but the instructions worked in Win7 host as well. Host is running on an Asus UX21E with 4gb of RAM and 128 GB SSD.

Do you need anything else?

[Perryg]

@qwerty017,

OK I see your issue which is nothing like the topic header by the way of Various SHIFT keys stuck after switching to host

What you are seeing is a host/guest that share the same hot key and the host is capturing the key press instead of the guest.

Some things to actually try are:

• click inside the guest instead of just moving the mouse over it. (better focus)
• See if you can change the key on the guest so they are not equal.

Other than that you would need to post a topic at bugtracker. I don't see this because I don't use Windows hosts any more so I am not sure exactly what to tell you past this.

[michael]

Could I please have a quick update here from anyone for whom this issue is still current? Other than qwerty017 of course, who posted yesterday (unless it has vanished since then). Preferably with reproduction scenarios. Win + L seems to be a common theme here, which makes me think that switching desktops (e.g. to the screen saver desktop) may be the issue here, but I would be interested to find out if there are other themes too.

[Lmat]

Every time (at least 90% anyway) I go back to mine host, a modifier key is stuck. Usually it's alt, but sometimes it's the host key. Rarely is it the super key.

Mine host is Windows 7 64-bits. I run a guest Ubuntu or Arch Linux (frame buffer only, no X). Guest additions installed.

I press host key, then super key and nothing happens. I tap the alt key and nothing appears to happen (this unsticks the ALT key), then press super key and it works as expected. It is nice to have a workaround (tap alt every time I go from the virtual machine), but 1) this doesn't work every time, sometimes I have to go around and press all the modifier keys (because I don't know which one(s) is stuck), and 2) it's buggy.

VirtualBox is excellent and I recommend it to all my friends.I read that it's "not reproducible" and I envy you

[bluskye]

Hello,
I experienced loosing the v key as well on my host Win 8. I am sure I lost some other keys, but didnt try them all. I started using Virtualbox this week =). I was shocked to see a similar report.

[temptemp]

@Perryg

OK I see your issue which is nothing like the topic header by the way of Various SHIFT keys stuck after switching to host

Not trying to be funny, but it seems to me this issue is exactly like the topic header.

I can see why danf84 must be pissed off. I am too. This issue's been around for years now, and I accept that it may need looking into: I just can't believe it's being ignored.

Could I please have a quick update here from anyone for whom this issue is still current?

Me.

Every time (at least 90% anyway) I go back to mine host, a modifier key is stuck. Usually it's alt, but sometimes it's the host key. Rarely is it the super key.

Exactly this.

As many with the same issue have stated, VirtualBox is an excellent piece of software and a better alternative to many others like it out there. It's just small issues like these that need ironing out.

[michael]

I made a change yesterday which I hope may fix certain issues of stuck keys on Windows hosts when VirtualBox is in use. If anyone would like to try it out a test build is available:

http://www.virtualbox.org/download/test ... 36-Win.exe

[Lmat]

I made a change yesterday which I hope may fix certain issues of stuck keys on Windows hosts when VirtualBox is in use. If anyone would like to try it out a test build is available:

http://www.virtualbox.org/download/test ... 36-Win.exe

Michael, would you put a link to the diff (or attach the patch or whatever is appropriate)?

[michael]

The relevant change set (on trunk that is) is 45683<1>.

<1> https://www.virtualbox.org/changeset/45683/vbox

[kijin]

I made a change yesterday which I hope may fix certain issues of stuck keys on Windows hosts when VirtualBox is in use. If anyone would like to try it out a test build is available:

I found this thread while looking for a fix to a problem that had been annoying me for YEARS. The Windows key would get stuck after switching from the guest to the host. But I'm happy to report that this seems to be fixed in the test build. Thanks!

I'd also like to ask whether anyone else who has experienced the same issues uses a non US-English keyboard layout, either in the host or in the guest. I use a Korean keyboard layout, and I wonder if that has anything to do with the stuck keys. If the bug is related to non US-English keyboard layouts, it might explain the extreme delay in fixing the issue, since most Oracle employees would only ever work on machines with the US-English keyboard layout.

[mpack]

At a hardware level there is probably no difference between Korean and English layouts. However if Korean typing requires you to use the modifier keys a lot then you may see the problem more often.

[michael]

The reason for the delay in fixing this is that, while it is doubtless annoying for the people who experience it, it never seems to have been an issue for the majority. I actually fixed it blindy by guessing what the cause might be as I don't have it myself.

And off-topic, but 1) I suspect but haven't checked that less than half of the VirtualBox team uses a US layout (but probably also less than half uses a Windows host as their main development system); and 2) as far as I know, all normal PS/2-style keyboards from different countries are roughly the same from a hardware point of view (give or take a few keys) except Korean ones, which have two keys which do not work like any keys on known non-Korean keyboards.

[Jon Bennett]

Any more info on this?
I'm seeing this too.
Ubuntu 12.10, Intel Core I-5, 23 Gb ram. Almost no load on the machine.

I'm running a CAD probram in a Win 7-64 guest and frequently when I press a key it seems to get stuck and repeats essentially forever.
I can usually switch to another Ubuntu app, click the mouse around the Unity desktop outside of the Guest window, and sometimes I can get it unstuck. This happens so often that Vitrualbox is almost unusable.

*** Important note: I did not have this problem until the latest update to 4.3.6. Prior to that I was running Virtualbox 4.2.

Since I can reproduce this easily every time I run Virtualbox (in fact I don't seem to run a single session without this problem) how can I help with troubleshooting?

Thanks so much for your help.
--
Jon