Client system: iPad 4 running iOS 8.1.1
Client language/locale: US English
Client app: MRD 8.1.5
Server system: 64-bit Windows 8.1 Pro
Server language/locale: US English
Problem: client-side keyboard in MRD 8.1.5 does not work properly within VMware Player 6 console only

When interacting with VMs through the VMware Player 6 console app on the remote Windows 8.1 host, the client-side iPad keyboard for MRD 8.1.5 is not properly mapped. Letter keys and the top-row number keys send function keys or non-standard key scan codes that aren't used by traditional PC keyboards. The spacebar sends the D key, and some keys send nothing at all. Many other keys work properly, including the client-side numeric keypad, and uppercase letters sent by using the Shift key (but not the iPad up-arrow shift key). The only way to send the proper keystrokes to VMware Player from MRD 8.1.5 is to not use the client-side iPad keyboard and instead switch to the on-screen keyboard provided by the remote Windows server.

This problem only occurs within the VMware Player console app, and only with RDP connections that use the MRD 8.1.5 client on iOS. I do not encounter the problem with other iOS RD clients such as iFreeRDP by Thinstuff or Pocket Cloud Remote Desktop by Wyse.

Steps to reproduce:

1. Connect to Windows 8.1 Pro system from the MRD 8.1.5 client for iOS 8.1.1
   
2. Using the client-side iPad keyboard within MRD 8.1.5, bring up the Run dialog by typing Windows-R
3. Launch Notepad by typing notepad.exe in the Run dialog and pressing Enter on the client-side iPad keyboard
4. Type some sample text in Notepad until you're confident that the client-side iPad keyboard is functioning properly
5. Launch VMware Player 6 and start up a VM (mine was Windows Server 2008)
6. Open the sign-on prompt in the VM by sending Ctrl-Alt-Ins from the client-side keyboard or by pressing the Ctrl-Alt-Del icon in VMware Player
7. Touch or click in the password field in the VM to ensure it has keyboard focus
8. Using the client-side keyboard, try to type letters or numbers in the password field, and notice that dots generally do not appear for most keypresses
9. Switch to the server-side on-screen keyboard and delete the contents of the password field if it is not already empty
10. Use the server-side on-screen keyboard to sign on to the VM
11. Inside the VM, open Notepad or some other text editor
    
12. Enter text into the editor from both the client-side and server-side keyboards to verify that only the server-side keyboard is functioning properly within the VM

This issue is the only problem I'm having with MRD for iOS, and I hope it is resolved soon.

Thanks,

Fred

Hi Fred,

Thank you for posting in Windows Server Forum.

As you have commented that this issue occurs only with VMWare Player 6 console app. Here might happens that there is some compatibility issue with particular application to run with MRD IOS. For further research you can contact application customer care. 

In addition if you find any error then you can also have some log for further research.

Hope it helps!

Thanks.

Hi,

As this case has been quiet for a while.I need to close the case and will mark it as Answer. If this case is still unresolved,I suggest you ask in a new thread. 

Thanks for your Support & understanding!

Regards.

Where at Microsoft should I submit the details of the iOS MRD 8.1.5 bug I described in this thread? I do not consider the issue to be a defect of VMware Player because I do not experience the problem when using other RD clients, including the Mac OS version of MRD (v8.0.10, build 25189).

Clicking the support link for Mac OS and iOS versions MRD takes me to this forum, so I would expect any reproducible bug reports posted here to be reviewed by MS support staff for resolution in an upcoming release of the app.

Is Microsoft interested in reproducing the iOS MRD bug I documented in this thread?

• Edited by db2fred Wednesday, December 03, 2014 6:45 PM

Hi,

Thanks for your feedback, i will forward your concern to the product group for further research for your issue.

Regards.

Thanks. If there are any questions about my operating environment or difficulty reproducing the issue, please post a reply here. Does the iOS MRD app publish any logs or other diagnostic data? If so, let me know how to capture it and I will post the info here.

Hi,

Yes, you can get the log from MRD IOS with following steps.

IOS
Settings > Send log via email > After this you can place over here

Thanks.

I don't see an option to send logs via email in the settings for iOS 8.1.1 or in the MRD 8.1.5 app.

Hi,

Sorry to say but it was a mistake, in newer version of MRD IOS we cant get any log file. 

Thanks for your understanding and Support!

Regards.

Client system: iPad 4 running iOS 8.1.1
Client language/locale: US English
Client app: MRD 8.1.5
Server system: 64-bit Windows 8.1 Pro
Server language/locale: US English
Problem: client-side keyboard in MRD 8.1.5 does not work properly within VMware Player 6 console only

When interacting with VMs through the VMware Player 6 console app on the remote Windows 8.1 host, the client-side iPad keyboard for MRD 8.1.5 is not properly mapped. Letter keys and the top-row number keys send function keys or non-standard key scan codes that aren't used by traditional PC keyboards. The spacebar sends the D key, and some keys send nothing at all. Many other keys work properly, including the client-side numeric keypad, and uppercase letters sent by using the Shift key (but not the iPad up-arrow shift key). The only way to send the proper keystrokes to VMware Player from MRD 8.1.5 is to not use the client-side iPad keyboard and instead switch to the on-screen keyboard provided by the remote Windows server.

This problem only occurs within the VMware Player console app, and only with RDP connections that use the MRD 8.1.5 client on iOS. I do not encounter the problem with other iOS RD clients such as iFreeRDP by Thinstuff or Pocket Cloud Remote Desktop by Wyse.

Steps to reproduce:

1. Connect to Windows 8.1 Pro system from the MRD 8.1.5 client for iOS 8.1.1
   
2. Using the client-side iPad keyboard within MRD 8.1.5, bring up the Run dialog by typing Windows-R
3. Launch Notepad by typing notepad.exe in the Run dialog and pressing Enter on the client-side iPad keyboard
4. Type some sample text in Notepad until you're confident that the client-side iPad keyboard is functioning properly
5. Launch VMware Player 6 and start up a VM (mine was Windows Server 2008)
6. Open the sign-on prompt in the VM by sending Ctrl-Alt-Ins from the client-side keyboard or by pressing the Ctrl-Alt-Del icon in VMware Player
7. Touch or click in the password field in the VM to ensure it has keyboard focus
8. Using the client-side keyboard, try to type letters or numbers in the password field, and notice that dots generally do not appear for most keypresses
9. Switch to the server-side on-screen keyboard and delete the contents of the password field if it is not already empty
10. Use the server-side on-screen keyboard to sign on to the VM
11. Inside the VM, open Notepad or some other text editor
    
12. Enter text into the editor from both the client-side and server-side keyboards to verify that only the server-side keyboard is functioning properly within the VM

This issue is the only problem I'm having with MRD for iOS, and I hope it is resolved soon.

Thanks,

Fred

I'm experiencing exactly the same problem. Is there a solution yet?

>I'm experiencing exactly the same problem. Is there a solution yet?

Not as of iOS RD Client 8.1.6.150115.0.0, which Microsoft released today. The latest version still has the same iOS keyboard problem when typing into VMware, but other Remote Desktop client apps for iOS are available as a workaround for that.

I've confirmed that RD Client for iOS 8.1 is sending different scan codes for the alphanumeric keys than what is sent by other Remote Desktop clients from Microsoft. Running Aqua'S Key Test on a remote Windows 8.1 Pro system showed that iOS RD Client is sending 0x61-0x7a for keys a through z, while other clients are sending the traditional BIOS key scan codes 0x10-0x32 (QWERTY arrangement). The remote Windows system is translating these keystrokes through a filter or driver, but it isn't happening for some programs such as VMware.

This explains why the affected programs are interpreting the iOS space bar as the d key, since the Unicode code point (or BIOS low byte) for space is 0x20, which happens to be the BIOS scan code for the d key. Similarly, the codes between 0x61 and 0x7a, which RD Client is sending for a through z, are interpreted as function keys combined with either CTRL or ALT.

I don't know what the root cause is of this unfortunate mapping behavior, nor do I know of any workarounds that would make RD Client for iOS work properly for all the programs I access over Remote Desktop. Nothing I've seen in iOS or RD Client appear to have any control over this behavior. If Microsoft adjusted RD Client for iOS to send the same key scan codes as their Remote Desktop clients for Mac OS or Windows, I bet it would solve this problem.