noVNC Keyboard input Issue

DDura

New Member
Aug 16, 2019
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I am facing problem with noVNC interface keyboard input.
Recently I created one VM from proxmox and while installing OS from noVNC interface, I faced weird situation. If I press "Shift" key more than 10 second and release then noVNC interface take as "Caps Lock" and all the key letters I input take as Capital letter. Shift key is not working as it should be. Problem for creating password as I cannot see the letter. Would some body help me. noVNC interface for node is fine only problem is for virtual machine's noVNC interface.

Thank you
 
Hi,
I am not able to reproduce the issue you are describing. What version of PVE are you running `pveversion -v`? What OS is running inside the VM? Is this limited to one VM or do you see the same behavior for all VMs?
 
Thanks for reply, The version is PVE 6.0-4 and I tried with Centos. I tried few VMs and the behavior is same for all VMs. May be pressing shift about 20 seconds can reproduce the issue. Sometime I need to press more seconds to see the issue.

Update:
proxmox-ve: 6.0-2 (running kernel: 5.0.15-1-pve)
pve-manager: 6.0-4 (running version: 6.0-4/2a719255)
pve-kernel-5.0: 6.0-5
pve-kernel-helper: 6.0-5
pve-kernel-4.15: 5.4-6
pve-kernel-5.0.15-1-pve: 5.0.15-1
pve-kernel-4.15.18-18-pve: 4.15.18-44
pve-kernel-4.15.18-17-pve: 4.15.18-43
pve-kernel-4.15.18-16-pve: 4.15.18-41
pve-kernel-4.15.18-14-pve: 4.15.18-39
pve-kernel-4.15.18-12-pve: 4.15.18-36
pve-kernel-4.15.18-11-pve: 4.15.18-34
ceph-fuse: 12.2.12-pve1
corosync: 3.0.2-pve2
criu: 3.11-3
glusterfs-client: 5.5-3
ksm-control-daemon: 1.3-1
libjs-extjs: 6.0.1-10
libknet1: 1.10-pve1
libpve-access-control: 6.0-2
libpve-apiclient-perl: 3.0-2
libpve-common-perl: 6.0-2
libpve-guest-common-perl: 3.0-1
libpve-http-server-perl: 3.0-2
libpve-storage-perl: 6.0-5
libqb0: 1.0.5-1
lvm2: 2.03.02-pve3
lxc-pve: 3.1.0-61
lxcfs: 3.0.3-pve60
novnc-pve: 1.0.0-60
proxmox-mini-journalreader: 1.1-1
proxmox-widget-toolkit: 2.0-5
pve-cluster: 6.0-4
pve-container: 3.0-4
pve-docs: 6.0-4
pve-edk2-firmware: 2.20190614-1
pve-firewall: 4.0-5
pve-firmware: 3.0-2
pve-ha-manager: 3.0-2
pve-i18n: 2.0-2
pve-qemu-kvm: 4.0.0-3
pve-xtermjs: 3.13.2-1
qemu-server: 6.0-5
smartmontools: 7.0-pve2
spiceterm: 3.1-1
vncterm: 1.6-1
zfsutils-linux: 0.8.1-pve1
 
Last edited:
May be pressing shift about 20 seconds can reproduce the issue.
Still no luck to reproduce this here. What browser are you using? Is this reproducible on different browsers?
 
I’ve seen the same type of issue before where I’ve had two noVNC windows open to different servers and one of them thinks the shift key is always pressed (capitalising all letters and changing 1-9 to their shift symbols). I never got to the bottom of why this was the case and, if I remember correctly, even restarting the noVNC session had no effect and I had to restart the underlying VM?
 
I could not reproduce the problem either. Holding shift for 10, 20 or 30 seconds did not turn caps lock on (Firefox 60.8 with PVE VM).
 
Hi, I'm a collegue of DDura, so talking about / working with same servers as he is.

What we're working with it a 3 server cluster, running on Proxmox 6.0-4.
Using noVNC on any of the nodes, there are no issues.
Using noVNC on any client (on any node), either a Debian installation or a CentOS installation, either the completed installation or the 'live CD' image, the problem with shifted characters occurs.
Both while using noVNC directly from the nodes, and while opening noVNC through a reverse nginx proxy, same issue.

Issue is that when opening the noVNC console to the VPS, the shift buttons act as a Caps Lock.
Not continuesly, but very regularly. It's not happening all the time, but about 8 out of 10 times, yes.
Where DDura goes wrong in his description is the time he says that is needed to press the shift.
For me when I press shift (either right or left shift, although more with the left shift button) for maybe 1 or 1.5, max 2 seconds then the keyboard acts as if the caps-lock has been pressed. All letters go uppercase. When this happens then a short tap on the left-shift switches off the caps-lock situation. But pressing the shift (mostly the left-shift) again a little too long, and caps-lock seems to switch again.

This happens from various clients (Windows 7, Firefox 60.8.0esr (64-bit), Chrome Version 76.0.3809.100 (Official Build) (64-bit) and with DDura also on the lastest version of the regular Firefox release (also Windows 7). I did not try MS IE since this has other issues for me.

# pveversion -v
proxmox-ve: 6.0-2 (running kernel: 5.0.15-1-pve)
pve-manager: 6.0-4 (running version: 6.0-4/2a719255)
pve-kernel-5.0: 6.0-5
pve-kernel-helper: 6.0-5
pve-kernel-4.15: 5.4-6
pve-kernel-5.0.15-1-pve: 5.0.15-1
pve-kernel-4.15.18-18-pve: 4.15.18-44
pve-kernel-4.15.18-17-pve: 4.15.18-43
pve-kernel-4.15.18-16-pve: 4.15.18-41
pve-kernel-4.15.18-14-pve: 4.15.18-39
pve-kernel-4.15.18-12-pve: 4.15.18-36
pve-kernel-4.15.18-11-pve: 4.15.18-34
ceph-fuse: 12.2.12-pve1
corosync: 3.0.2-pve2
criu: 3.11-3
glusterfs-client: 5.5-3
ksm-control-daemon: 1.3-1
libjs-extjs: 6.0.1-10
libknet1: 1.10-pve1
libpve-access-control: 6.0-2
libpve-apiclient-perl: 3.0-2
libpve-common-perl: 6.0-2
libpve-guest-common-perl: 3.0-1
libpve-http-server-perl: 3.0-2
libpve-storage-perl: 6.0-5
libqb0: 1.0.5-1
lvm2: 2.03.02-pve3
lxc-pve: 3.1.0-61
lxcfs: 3.0.3-pve60
novnc-pve: 1.0.0-60
proxmox-mini-journalreader: 1.1-1
proxmox-widget-toolkit: 2.0-5
pve-cluster: 6.0-4
pve-container: 3.0-4
pve-docs: 6.0-4
pve-edk2-firmware: 2.20190614-1
pve-firewall: 4.0-5
pve-firmware: 3.0-2
pve-ha-manager: 3.0-2
pve-i18n: 2.0-2
pve-qemu-kvm: 4.0.0-3
pve-xtermjs: 3.13.2-1
qemu-server: 6.0-5
smartmontools: 7.0-pve2
spiceterm: 3.1-1
vncterm: 1.6-1
zfsutils-linux: 0.8.1-pve1



# localectl status
System Locale: LANG=en_GB.UTF-8
VC Keymap: n/a
X11 Layout: us
X11 Model: pc105


Proxmox GUI => Datacenter => Options => Keyboard Layout : English (USA) (en-us)

What other information could I give that might give you an indication what could be causing this?
 
Also, please try to set the VC keymap by adding /etc/vconsole.conf with the content
Code:
KEYMAP=uk
 
I'm also facing weird issues with linux and windows OSes. Caps lock and normal mode is changed many times without my input. Sometimes I get crazy with that. My guest os has caps lock and when I change back to my main system I always have to change the caps key. Several weeks ago I installed the latest version of proxmox on a clean machine. Nevertheless proxmox is the best solution ever after trying this FreeN..... shit where nothing seems to work what I want!
 
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have to change the caps key.
that means suddenly capslock is off in your main system and you want to turn it on again? Does the capslock light on your keyboard remain illuminated? Does this happen with the embedded noVNC and with the pop up?
 
The LED on the keyboard stays the same in both systems, but I have to press caps lock manually, so the VM has little letters when caps lock is on and when I turn it off the VM has big letters for example . This happens with the embedded noVNC. I don't know what you mean with popup. Fullscreen?

Very strange. I tried to reproduce it today, but I can't. This problem often happens when I'm switching, clicking, typing and changing windows very fast (too fast?) between some VMs and the proxmox browser-GUI and when I really don't need it.
 
Today I did some same steps as some week ago and now I remember, what I had done. It has something to do with holding the SHIFT key and typing some capital letters and then release the SHIFT key, now something goes wrong and I have to press it again.

Background: I used clonezilla ISO image to restore and old system to be used as VM. At some point I have to input a remote server path where my old image is stored, and this path has a foldername in it that has only capital letters.
 
I too have the issue - it seems to be very specifically for me if I hold the right shift key ONLY for around 3 seconds. All input into the VM will be capitals until I can manage to toggle it by holding the shift key down again, and it takes a couple of attempts to switch it off.

EDIT : caps lock doesn't illuminate but switching CAPS LOCK on/off toggles the text in the opposite direction.
 
If I hit the left or right SHIFT key 5 times on windows (7) it gives me the "windows sticky function", maybe that bug has something to do with that? But we hold the key instead of hitting it 5 times.
 
I am having similar issues. I'm noticing it during password entry where I hold shift for special characters. It will act like the shift key is permanently held in the VM so letters become capitalized and numbers et al. become special characters.
 
I don't think noVNC is turning on CAPS in the VM. It's acting as though SHIFT is being held. For those that think they solve it with the caps-lock: you can verify if it's the SHIFT key by inputting numbers. Are you still seeing special characters? If so, the VM is still holding shift and now would act as the opposite by making your now-defaulted CAPS to lowercase.
 
I have a work a round. Use ping plotter to try and determine IP address of VM. Then use external SSH client. I used Tera Term.
I'm sure Putty would work.
 
There is a new version of novnc-pve novnc-pve: 1.1.0-1 which should fix some keyboard issues. Does the problems persist also with this new version?
 

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