Symptom: Keys not functioning in any vmware product running under ubuntu 8.10 upwards.
 
Solution: Add the following to VMware’s configuration:
 
xkeymap.nokeycodeMap = true
 
 
vmware config file is normally located in /home/[your username]/.vmware/config
 

or run the following:
 
echo 'xkeymap.nokeycodeMap = true' > ~/.vmware/config
 
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For more help and infomration on this problem see:
http://communities.vmware.com/thread/177321