I don't know how to make it any more clear. This is a limitation of the
RFB protocol, and the only way to overcome that limitation is to
implement the aforementioned RFB extension that sends key codes instead
of key symbols. It is not necessary to use a script. I was just
pointing out that use case for completeness, because other people may
stumble upon my answer via Google.
In a nutshell, you can continue to use TurboVNC as you are currently
using it. You just need to ensure that:
- The German keyboard layout is selected in the guest operating system
that is running inside the VM
- The keyboard layout in the TurboVNC Server session and on the client match
That's it.
On 5/22/18 2:32 PM, torsten wrote:
> 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
> '/' keyon 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' keyon English keyboard => 'Y' in TurboVNC Server and Windows guest
> '/' keyon 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' keyon English keyboard => 'Z' in TurboVNC Server, 'Y' in
> Windows guest
> '/' keyon 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' keyon English keyboard => 'Y' in TurboVNC Server, 'Z' in
> Windows guest
> '/' keyon 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
> '/' keyon 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' keyon English keyboard => 'Y' in TurboVNC Server, 'Z' in
> Windows guest
> '/' keyon 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' keyon English keyboard => 'Z' in TurboVNC Server, 'Y' in
> Windows guest
> '/' keyon 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' keyon English keyboard => 'Y' in TurboVNC Server and Windows guest
> '/' keyon 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
> <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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