Caps lock state of VM (Windows XP using KVM) gets reversed in 10.10

[Kendall Gifford]

Ubuntu 10.10 w/virt-viewer 0.2.1-1ubuntu2 (and virt-manager 0.8.4-7ubuntu1.1)

Using KVM, managed by libvirt using the virt-manager package, I created a Windows XP installation on my local workstation. I use the virt-viewer to interact with said virtual machine.

Every so often, when I open up virt-viewer to view my already-running VM, I find that the VM thinks that Caps Lock is already on. It isn't. I _never_ touch that key. In fact, it's been remapped so that Caps Lock is just another Ctrl key for me (though this problem manifested itself both before and after this mapping).

Normally, this would just be a minor annoyance since turning Caps Lock _on_ makes the VM think it's off. However, I find the Caps Lock key _very_ annoying and have changed my keyboard mapping (as I mentioned above) so that it's just another Ctrl key. Now when this happens, I have to press Shift every keypress in the VM to get lower-case characters _or_ change my keyboard mapping to get Caps Lock back (and turn it on so the VM thinks it's off).

This happens unpredictably but with great regularity. As such, I can't tell you how to reproduce it _exactly_ except to create this environment, start said VM and log into Windows (XP) all w/Caps Lock _off_. Then, close virt-viewer and let the VM continue to run for some time, keeping Caps Lock _off_ the whole time. Finally, after some period of time, open virt-viewer to view the VM's screen (with Caps Lock _still_ off). This problem will then present itself some percentage of the time (~25% for me) by the fact that typing into any of the VM's program windows behaves as if Caps Lock is _on_ (though it's still off).

Anyhow, now sure where the problem is (what upstream package) but I searched for reports using Red Hat's system for the virt-manager (and virt-viewer) packages and didn't find anything. I know it may also be in the gtk-vnc widget used by virt-viewer or a problem in the underlying libvirt and/or KVM/qemu. Either way, figured the appropriate thing is to report it here first.

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 10.10
Package: virt-viewer 0.2.1-1ubuntu2
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 2.6.35-30.56-generic 2.6.35.13
Uname: Linux 2.6.35-30-generic x86_64
NonfreeKernelModules: nvidia
Architecture: amd64
Date: Wed Aug 17 14:52:25 2011
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 10.10 "Maverick Meerkat" - Release amd64 (20101007)
ProcEnviron:
 LANGUAGE=en_US:en
 PATH=(custom, user)
 LANG=en_US.UTF-8
 SHELL=/bin/bash
SourcePackage: virt-viewer

[Serge Hallyn (serge-hallyn)]

I need to set up a machine on which to test this, but as SDL+capslock has given us trouble before I wouldn't be surprised if qemu-kvm is the problem.

Just to be sure, when this happens, I assume that just hitting caps-lock again does not unset it? On my oneiric system, if I hit caps-lock (which is remapped to control) by itself it doesn't set/unset capslock in the guest, but if hit caps-lock plus some letter (i.e. i wanted to hit ctrl-u), then it does. I can always unset it by hitting capslock-l.

[Serge Hallyn (serge-hallyn)]

Not the exact same sequence as the bug reporter, but just qemu-kvm -vnc : 1 and gvncviewer can muck with capslock (when capslock is disabled) on my maverick victim. Marking confirmed.