Hi DRC,
thanks for your response. Currently I'm slightly confused by these many
different key mappings. And your script solution seems to be not really
practical to me. I have decided to subsequently transfer all the workspaces
I currently use inside the VM to its host. So, when this is done, I won't
need the VM anymore and will delete it. This will be a much better solution
for me than the script. Until this is done, I can live with the wrong key
interpretation inside the VM. However, many thanks for your detailed
analysis on this issue!
Kind Regards
Torsten
Am Montag, 21. Mai 2018 22:35:23 UTC+2 schrieb DRC:
>
> It seems the basic problem is that, by running VirtualBox in a window
> manager window, an additional level of key mapping is introduced.
>
> To explain how TurboVNC normally works in this regard:
>
> The actual key symbol transmitted to the TurboVNC Server depends on the
> client's keyboard layout, so if your client has a German layout, pressing
> the key corresponding to '/' on an English keyboard will send '-', pressing
> the key corresponding to 'Z' on an English keyboard will send 'Y', and
> pressing the key corresponding to '[' on an English keyboard will send
> umlaut U ('ü'). Since the baseline, unextended RFB protocol transmits key
> symbols instead of key codes, the server will interpret those key events as
> (respectively) '-', 'Y', and 'ü', regardless of the keyboard layout that is
> selected in the TurboVNC Server session.
>
> Focusing on just those three keys, what I observe is the following when
> running VirtualBox in a window manager window:
> - Client layout: English, TurboVNC Server layout: English, Windows guest
> layout: English
>
> 'Z' key on English keyboard => 'Z' in TurboVNC Server and Windows guest
> '/' key on English keyboard => '/' in TurboVNC Server and Windows guest
> '[' key on English keyboard => '[' in TurboVNC Server and Windows guest
>
> - Client layout: German, TurboVNC Server layout: English, Windows guest
> layout: English
> 'Z' key on English keyboard => 'Y' in TurboVNC Server and Windows guest
> '/' key on English keyboard => '-' in TurboVNC Server and Windows guest
> '[' key on English keyboard => 'ü' in TurboVNC Server, nothing in Windows
> guest
>
> - Client layout: English, TurboVNC Server layout: English, Windows guest
> layout: German
> 'Z' key on English keyboard => 'Z' in TurboVNC Server, 'Y' in Windows
> guest
> '/' key on English keyboard => '/' in TurboVNC Server, '-' in Windows
> guest
> '[' key on English keyboard => '[' in TurboVNC Server, 'ü' in Windows
> guest
> - Client layout: German, TurboVNC Server layout: English, Windows guest
> layout: German
> 'Z' key on English keyboard => 'Y' in TurboVNC Server, 'Z' in Windows
> guest
> '/' key on English keyboard => '-' in TurboVNC Server, 'ß' in Windows
> guest
> '[' key on English keyboard => 'ü' in TurboVNC Server, nothing in
> Windows guest
>
> - Client layout: English, TurboVNC Server layout: German, Windows guest
> layout: English
> 'Z' key on English keyboard => 'Z' in TurboVNC Server, 'Y' in Windows
> guest
> '/' key on English keyboard => '/' in TurboVNC Server, '&' in Windows
> guest
> '[' key on English keyboard => '[' in TurboVNC Server, '8' in Windows
> guest
>
> - Client layout: German, TurboVNC Server layout: German, Windows guest
> layout: English
> 'Z' key on English keyboard => 'Y' in TurboVNC Server, 'Z' in Windows
> guest
> '/' key on English keyboard => '-' in TurboVNC Server, '/' in Windows
> guest
> '[' key on English keyboard => 'ü' in TurboVNC Server, '[' in Windows
> guest
>
> - Client layout: English, TurboVNC Server layout: German, Windows guest
> layout: German
> 'Z' key on English keyboard => 'Z' in TurboVNC Server, 'Y' in Windows
> guest
> '/' key on English keyboard => '/' in TurboVNC Server, '&' in Windows
> guest
> '[' key on English keyboard => '[' in TurboVNC Server, '8' in Windows
> guest
> - Client layout: German, TurboVNC Server layout: German, Windows guest
> layout: German
> 'Z' key on English keyboard => 'Y' in TurboVNC Server and Windows guest
> '/' key on English keyboard => '-' in TurboVNC Server and Windows guest
> '[' key on English keyboard => 'ü' in TurboVNC Server and Windows guest
>
> Conclusions:
> - When running VirtualBox in a window manager window, the keyboard layout
> in the guest O/S determines which key symbol is actually received by
> applications running in the guest. That means that a German keyboard
> layout must be selected in the Windows guest in order for the guest O/S
> to properly interpret certain German key symbols.
> - The client keyboard layout must match the TurboVNC Server session's
> keyboard layout in order to avoid keyboard mapping errors.
>
> You can also run VirtualBox without a window manager, by creating a script
> and passing it to vncserver using the -xstartup option. For instance, here
> is a script I use:
>
> # cat ~/3dscript
> vglrun -nodl VirtualBox --startvm "Windows 7" --fullscreen
>
> # /opt/TurboVNC/bin/vncserver -xstartup ~/3dscript
>
> When started in this manner, the default behavior is the same as if an
> English keyboard layout had been selected in the (non-existent) window
> manager, because the TurboVNC Server defaults to a US XKEYBOARD layout
> (this can be changed in custom TurboVNC Server builds by altering the
> XKB_DFLT_* CMake variables.) At run time, you can change the layout to
> German by adding 'setxkbmap -layout de' to the custom xstartup script prior
> to launching VirtualBox.
>
> Note that there is a proposed feature (
> https://github.com/TurboVNC/turbovnc/issues/108) that will allow for
> optionally sending key codes from client to server instead of key symbols,
> which means that only the keyboard layout in the TurboVNC Server session
> would matter. There are benefits to that approach in terms of overall
> keyboard compatibility, since TurboVNC would not have to translate
> O/S-specific or Java-specific key events on the client into X11 key
> symbols. Sending key codes would most likely prevent this situation with
> VirtualBox. At the very least, it should make it so that VirtualBox
> behaves the same within a TurboVNC Server session as it does on the local
> display. Unfortunately, however, that feature is in need of funding, so it
> won't make it into TurboVNC 2.2. Hopefully it will be in 2.3. In the
> meantime, use the workaround described above.
>
> DRC
>
> On 5/4/18 12:25 PM, torsten wrote:
>
> Hi DRC,
>
> Am Freitag, 4. Mai 2018 16:22:27 UTC+2 schrieb DRC:
>>
>> I'm not sure I'm clear on exactly what is happening. When you say
>> "wrong layout", what is the visible symptom of the problem? Do you mean
>> that the keys are not translated correctly between client and server?
>> Or is the layout within the guest operating system actually changing?
>>
>
> No, all OSs involved here (the guest OS, the host OS and the Client OS)
> think, they use the german layout. There is no change in keyboard layout
> configuration. Fact is, I get the characters in this table (hope you can
> read this table format):
>
> | Key pressed on keyboard | character appearing in VM |
> | zZ | yY |
> | & | / |
> | ( | ) |
> | * | ( |
> | \ | # |
> | > | : |
> | + | ` |
> | # | § |
> | - | ß |
> | " | Ä |
> | / | - |
> | ) | = |
> | = | ' |
> | ? | _ |
> | ' | ä |
> | _ | ? |
> | : | Ö |
> | ; | ö |
> | { | Ü |
> | [ | ü |
> | ] | + |
> | } | * |
> | \ | # |
> | ~ | ° |
> | @ | " |
> | yY | zZ |
>
> Keep in mind to search these keys on a german keyboard! For some of them
> Shift or AltGr has to be hit additionally. Some keys (like Ä e.g.) normally
> providing a character do nothing in the VM.
>
>
>> Also, when you run VirtualBox within TurboVNC, are you running it
>> exclusively, or are you using a window manager as well?
>
>
> The VM runs in a window managed by the window manager of the host.
>
>
>> (what are the
>> contents of your ~/.vnc/xstartup.turbovnc file?)
>>
>
> I found this file, but I never did any changes to it. It is in its
> original state like created by TurboVNC. And it is older than the
> installation of VirtualBox and the VM. It is attached here.
>
> Kind Regards
> Torsten
>
>
>>
>> On 5/4/18 5:28 AM, torsten wrote:
>> > Hi,
>> >
>> > on the host I'm connected via TurboVNC I have a VirtualBox VM. Inside
>> > this VM I obviously get the default english keyboard layout instead of
>> > the german one I'm really using. When I sit at the console and work
>> with
>> > the VM without using the TurboVNC session, all keys are correct. All
>> > other software on the host accessed via TurboVNC gets the correct keys
>> > too The wrong layout comes back, when I use the local TurboVNC Client
>> > connecting the same session and start the VM within it. Is there a way
>> > to get the correct keyboard layout in the VM accessed via TurboVNC?
>> >
>> > Kind Regards
>> > Torsten
>>
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