Grabbing Keyboard and Mouse Input from Virtual Machines

To direct input to the virtual machine, VMware GSX Server grabs the keyboard and the mouse so all keystrokes, mouse moves and button clicks go to the virtual machine. You can choose when VMware GSX Server starts grabbing input:

When you click the mouse in the virtual window. In this case, VMware GSX Server grabs the keyboard and mouse on the first mouse button click in the virtual machine's window. The first click in the window is not sent to the virtual machine.
When you type in the window. In this case, VMware GSX Server grabs the keyboard and mouse on the first keystroke in the virtual machine window. The first keystroke is sent to the virtual machine. When the window is active and on key press is selected, you cannot use the normal application and system accelerator key sequences.
When you click or type in the window. In this case, VMware GSX Server grabs the keyboard and mouse on the first mouse button click in the virtual machine's window or upon the first keystroke in the virtual machine window.
When the mouse passes into the window. In this case, VMware GSX Server grabs the keyboard and mouse when the cursor passes into the window.

You can also determine VMware GSX Server's behavior when it ungrabs or releases the keyboard and mouse so that keystrokes, mouse moves and button clicks return to the host operating system. You can set the cursor so it:

Ungrabs when the cursor leaves the window
Disappears when it ungrabs
Scrolls when it approaches the window edge

These last three options only have an effect when VMware Tools is running in the virtual machine.

Note: You can also use the Ctrl-Alt Hot-Key combination to direct VMware GSX Server to ungrab input manually.

When working with grab and ungrab, you may encounter the situations described in the following table.

Situation	Explanation
Pressing Ctrl-Alt to release the mouse and keyboard causes a laptop to go into suspend mode.	VMware GSX Server uses Ctrl-Alt to release the mouse and keyboard. Some laptops use this same key combination to suspend the host machine. In these cases, try using Ctrl and Alt on the right-hand side of the keyboard. VMware GSX Server recognizes both sets of Ctrl and Alt keys, while laptops usually only recognize left-hand keys for the suspend function.
After pressing Ctrl-Alt to release the mouse and keyboard, the keyboard does not function properly within the host operating system.	Sometimes VMware GSX Server causes the host operating system to lose keyboard events. This causes the host operating system to think that keys are being pressed when they are not. If you notice strange keyboard behavior in the host operating system after leaving VMware GSX Server, then press and release each of the modifier keys individually, including Ctrl, Shift and Alt. This should release the keys that are stuck in the host operating system. If this does not work, then try other special keys including the Windows key, Esc and Caps Lock.
Pressing Ctrl-Alt does not release the cursor.	It could be that the modifier keys are mapped under X in unexpected ways. For example, perhaps the left Ctrl key is mapped to Caps Lock or an Alt key is generating special keystrokes. Please run `xmodmap -- km -- kp` and submit a support request at http://www.vmware.com/requestsupport that includes the output.

Grabbing Keyboard and Mouse Input from Virtual Machines

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