You are here: Home / Archives for keyboard

Cursor keys not working in Ubuntu 8.10 VMWare client

February 10, 2009 By 2 Comments

After last week’s problem with the Terminal Services client, I also experienced problems with the cursor keys in the VMWare client for Ubuntu 8.10. This was particularly annoying, since I use Quicken in a VMWare machine, and the selection of categories is much easier with the cursor keys than with the mouse.

It turns out that this is a bug in Ubuntu Intrepid 8.10. None of the patches since October 2008 have addressed this issue, but the manual fix is very simple:

  • Open a terminal window
  • Type the following in the terminal:

    echo ‘xkeymap.nokeycodeMap = true’ > ~/.vmware/config

After entering this you have to restart your VMWare client session. If it doesn’t work, try restarting the VMWare server, however, since this is a client setting, it shouldn’t affect the server or be affected by server settings.

Filed Under: Linux Tagged With: , , , , , ,

Cursor keys not working in Ubuntu Terminal Services client

January 26, 2009 By Leave a Comment

I’m using VPN and the Terminal Services client pretty frequently to access my computer at work. As discussed in this article, the Ubuntu VPN setup is much simpler in 8.10. However, when using the Terminal Services client, I had some problems with some of the function keys, in particular the cursor keys.

Now, being an old Unix hack, I managed to use the hjkl keys to navigate around the vi screen, but in some of the applications, this became an issue. With some Googling, the solution turned out to be fairly simple.

When you start up the Terminal Services client, go to the Local Resources tab. Under the keyboard heading, select as your keyboard language en-us instead of us. Now connect to the remote computer, and all the keys should function as they were intended.

Hope this helps somebody!

Filed Under: Linux, Network, Windows Tagged With: , , , , , , ,

I spilled milk on my keyboard – now what?

July 28, 2008 By 7 Comments

My wife posed this question to me about a week ago. She spilt some milk on her keyboard, and wondered what was the best way to handle it.

A little bit of Googling revealed the following steps:

  1. UNPLUG your keyboard. No ifs buts or whatevers.
  2. Try and get as much of the spilled beverage out of the keyboard.
  3. If it was water, let the keyboard sit and dry for at least a day, preferably a couple of days. You should be OK after that.
  4. If it was anything else (especially sticky liquids), try the dishwasher. Place it in the dishwasher (top rack if you feel brave and want to use the heated drying – I wouldn’t).
  5. Add soap. You don’t need any of the additives, to make glasses sparkle etc. and it may actually be harmful to your keyboard.
  6. Close the dishwasher and turn it on. Don’t use the heated dry cycle – it may melt your plastics.
  7. Remove the keyboard from the dishwasher once the cycle is completed.
  8. Shake out any left-over water.
  9. Let the keyboard dry for a week. You may want to remove the keys to allow the board to dry faster, but I think a week in a fairly dry environment should take care of it.
  10. Plug and pray.

I claim no responsibility for any keyboards harmed during this process, but if your keyboard is not working around step 3, you might as well try this.

Filed Under: Miscellaneous Tagged With: , , , , , ,

How secure is your wireless keyboard?

January 15, 2008 By 5 Comments

So, with all the dangers lurking out there, we all use https connections to our servers, have SSL sessions, use PGP keys to sign and encrypt our email, and run a plethora of scanners to keep our computers virus- and adware-free. But how about a keylogger that picks up your wireless keyboard transmissions?

This is not a new problem. A man in Norway saw his neighbor typing on his screen, because his wireless keyboard’s receiver was picking up his neighbor’s keyboard. In this case it was the same brand computer, and the same brand wireless keyboard. Encryption would prevent that from happening. But now that the Swiss security firm DreamLab Technologies has discovered that the popular Microsoft Wireless Keyboards use an encryption that can be cracked by a simple PDA, using even a so-called secure wireless keyboard becomes a serious security risk.

In the white paper mentioned in the press release, the two researchers describe in broad terms what happens between a wireless keyboard and the receiver, and how easy it is to eavesdrop on a session. The frequency used is in the 27MHz band, for which a large number of receivers is available. Most keyboards should have only a limited range, but under the right circumstances and with the right antenna distances of a mile have been achieved.

Not all wireless keyboards have the same problems, however. Logitech uses a different technology to encrypt the communication between keyboard and receiver. Also, Bluetooth keyboards are possibly more secure. The two researchers (Max Moser and Philipp Schroedel) are continuing to investigate the security of the different wireless keyboards.

In the mean time, I suggest not using your wireless keyboard for anything but the most innocent of traffic. If you want to control your media center with it, that’s fine. Just don’t go online with your bank, without hooking up a keyboard cable.

There is a demo video on the Dreamlab Technologies website, showing their exploit in action. Within a minute the viewer is watching two different keyboards being picked up and cracked.

Filed Under: Network, Windows Tagged With: , , , , ,