[SOLVED] VMDK with Windows XP: keyboard & mouse doesn't work

[ricardofunke]

Hello,

I managed to start a vm with windows XP from a VMDK image, but the mouse and keyboard doesn't work.

I tried to run a "repair install" using the CD instalation but it doesn't show the "repair" option, only the reinstallation which I don't want to do since I have an oracle installation on this vm.

Does anybody have any suggestions for me?

Note: The Windows XP CD installation I'm using is not the same used to install at VMWare and I don't have this one.

Thanks in advance.

[Martin]

If this vmdk was built on VMware and includes the VMware tools (which contain VMware specific keyboard and mouse drivers) you need to find a way to remove/uninstall the VMware tools.
Did you try to start the XP guest in safe mode (F8 key at the first start screen of XP)?

[ricardofunke]

Thanks for the answer Martin,

The keyboard and mouse doesn't work in safe mode too.

I have no knowledge on VMWare, this VM wasn't built by me, so I have to research about these VMWare Tools.

Thanks

[ricardofunke]

Hello Martin,

I managed to remove VMWare Tools from the VM, but the keyboard and mouse still doesn't work.

So I boot the VM in VMWare Player again just to disable login prompt. I though the windows will install keyboard and mouse if it logs in with administrator, but no way...

[JKyleOKC]

This may or may not have any relation to your problem, but I had an identical symptom in the past several days and found the fix for mine.

I have almost a dozen VMs on this host, with various o/s on them (all 32-bit, as is the host): Debian, Xubuntu, WinXP, and Win2K. All of the VMs were created with the VT-X option enabled, but that feature was disabled in the BIOS of the host, unbeknownst to me.

I then needed to install a 64-bit version of Xubuntu as a test system to try some experimental code without risk to my production systems, and at that point discovered that VT-X was not enabled in the BIOS. I enabled it, installed the 64-bit VM, and did the testing successfully.

However when next I tried to use one of the other VMs (most of which reside in "saved" state when not actually in use) I found that neither the keyboard nor the mouse had any effect. When I attempted to verify that this was true for all of them, I got an error message that advised me to power off the machine rather than continue attempting to run it. With the VM powered off, I was able to clear the system -> acceleration settings to "disabled." After doing that, the VM ran normally when re-started.

I recall seeing somewhere in the docs that these settings must not be changed for a Windows VM after its original installation. However I seem to have encountered a special case in which the "change" actually happened when I enabled the feature in BIOS, and changing the setting in vbox restored the conditions in effect when the machine was created.

I then discarded the saved state for each VM in turn, cleared the VT-X and associated settings, verified that this restored the VM to normal operation, and saved its state anew to avoid the start-up delay when using it.

As I said, this may have no relation at all to your VMDK installation, but it might be worth a try...

[ricardofunke]

Thanks @JKyleOKC,

But the problem was solved. I just reestart the VM in VirtualBox using automatic admin login, this time windows could install the drivers for mouse and keyboard and now it works.

Thanks!

[ktreese]

Thanks Jim Kyle -- I disabled one of the CPU settings and that fixed my problem. Now the keyboard is working!

ktreese

[osantos]

Could you be so kind to explain which CPU setting did you change.

I am facing similar problem but can't figure out what the reason is.

Thanks