[Bug 1787267] Re: Can't type | ( pipe ) over vnc

Thu Sep 27 14:55:18 UTC 2018

Tested with:
qemu-system-x86_64 -m 1G -vnc :1 -cdrom ubuntu-18.04.1-live-server-amd64.iso

Prior to the update the key expected for | returned only > 
With EN-layout enabled and trying all keys I found no pipe symbol.

Update:
$ sudo apt install qemu-block-extra qemu-kvm qemu-system-common qemu-system-x86 qemu-utils
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree       
Reading state information... Done
The following package was automatically installed and is no longer required:
  grub-pc-bin
Use 'sudo apt autoremove' to remove it.
Suggested packages:
  samba vde2 ovmf
The following packages will be upgraded:
  qemu-block-extra qemu-kvm qemu-system-common qemu-system-x86 qemu-utils
5 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove and 68 not upgraded.
Need to get 6782 kB of archives.
After this operation, 8192 B of additional disk space will be used.
Get:1 http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu bionic-proposed/main amd64 qemu-utils amd64 1:2.11+dfsg-1ubuntu7.6 [868 kB]
Get:2 http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu bionic-proposed/main amd64 qemu-system-common amd64 1:2.11+dfsg-1ubuntu7.6 [661 kB]
Get:3 http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu bionic-proposed/main amd64 qemu-block-extra amd64 1:2.11+dfsg-1ubuntu7.6 [39.0 kB]
Get:4 http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu bionic-proposed/main amd64 qemu-kvm amd64 1:2.11+dfsg-1ubuntu7.6 [13.2 kB]
Get:5 http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu bionic-proposed/main amd64 qemu-system-x86 amd64 1:2.11+dfsg-1ubuntu7.6 [5201 kB]
Fetched 6782 kB in 1s (7023 kB/s)         
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Setting up qemu-kvm (1:2.11+dfsg-1ubuntu7.6) ...

After the update:
Able to type the | with EN layout enabled on the place it is expected.
Shift+# on the German keyboard (EN layout applied).

Setting verified.

** Tags removed: verification-needed verification-needed-bionic
** Tags added: verification-done verification-done-bionic

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https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/1787267

Title:
  Can't type | ( pipe ) over vnc

Status in qemu source package in Bionic:
  Fix Committed
Status in qemu source package in Cosmic:
  Fix Released

Bug description:
  [Impact]

  After upgrading from 16.04 to 18.04, users are unable to type a | or >
  in their virtual machines when accessing them via vnc.  This happened
  because upstream added a key to the keymap that can also produce these
  symbols and exists only on European keyboards, but it uses different
  modifier keys to produce these symbols so trying to type a | or a >
  results in a < instead.  Simply removing this new non-existent scan
  code from the keymap resolves the issue.

  [Test Case]

  Start a virtual machine and connect to it via vnc.  I am using "tightvnc" on Windows, and upstream indicated that some vnc clients send the raw scan code instead of keysyms, in which case this issue would not arise.
  That doesn't have to start a lot and can be as trivial as :
  $ qemu-system-x86_64 -vnc :1 -cdrom <path to ubuntu iso>
  $ vncviewer 127.0.0.1:5901
  # no need to fully boot that, just go to the menu
  # now on a system with us keyboard (or just en_us input layout) try to use a | which will not work.

  With the fix you will be able to type the chars again as you'd expect
  it.

  [Regression Potential]

  There should be no regression potential for actual en-us keyboards
  since this key does not exist.  European keyboards may be unable to
  use this other key they have unless they set the correct keymap, but
  all of its symbols are duplicates from other keys on the keyboard,
  rendering it fully redundant.

  [Notes]

  Upstream has already added logic to pick the mapping the matches the
  current modifier keys to resolve this, so cosmic should be unaffected
  and so this patch only applies to bionic.

  This was stalled a while due to other SRUs being in flight, in the meantime other Distros picked the same giving this some extra confidence:
  - Arch: https://aur.archlinux.org/cgit/aur.git/tree/remove-problematic-evdev-86-key-from-en-us-keymap.patch?h=qemu-minimal
  - Fedora: https://src.fedoraproject.org/rpms/qemu/c/f81be8f0261cce74799f946e99f23d57f8db7e17?branch=master

  [Original Description]

  I tried booting some Ubuntu images today on my Xen server where I use
  VNC to remotely access the VM, and am unable to type a | ( pipe ).  I
  opened the keyboard layout utility and when I press the \ key, it
  recognizes it, but when I hold shift and press the key, it claims that
  I am pressing some key between left shift and Z that does not actually
  exist on US keyboards, and that types a > instead.

  This did not used to happen, and probably started when I upgraded the
  server from 16.04 to 18.04 a while back and I just haven't been
  testing VMs since then.

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