Apple keyboard shortcuts not captured in fullscreen mode without mouse-capture enabled

[Lillecarl]

Certain keycombinations are not working, for example meta(command)+arrow keys. I noticed this because meta+arrow keys is the default (and sane) combination for quick-tiling windows within KDE.

How to reproduce

Start a VM, enter full-screen mode, press command+arrow keys

Expected functionality

Keys presses are passed into the VM

Current functionality

You hear an Apple "notification bong" that your operation is invalid.

There's a link below with quite a few default Apple keybinds which can't seem to be unbound by me as an end user, and the command+arrow keys supposedly moves the cursor within an input field, which there are none of in the UTM full screen window, see the following Apple support link: https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201236

I'm quite certain this can be overridden as this was functioning under VirtualBox, though I wouldn't know where to begin.

OT: Great job building UTM, QEMU > VirtualBox any day! 😄

[conath]

To pass these kinds of macOS system keyboard shortcuts to the VM, you first need to "capture" the input. Press control and option/alt together, or click the "capture cursor" button in the toolbar. This locks your mouse and keyboard input to the VM, until you press the same key combination to release the input again.

Now all key combinations (other than ctrl-option/alt) are forwarded to the VM. Feel free to re-open if this doesn't work for you.

[osy]

I think we can improve UX by automatically capturing system keys in full screen.

[Lillecarl]

@osy That sounds like an UX improvement :)

[jjw24]

Hey @osy, I see this removed from v3.1 milestone, is automatically capturing system keys in full screen still planned?

[jjw24]

Upgraded to UTM v4.3.4, the automatically capturing system keys when entering full screen doesn't seem to be working.

MacOS: Ventura 13.1
M1 chip

When I click on 'Enter Full Screen' on the VM window, the 'Capture input devices' icon should be automatically set, this should be the expected behaviour right?

[osy]

Yes, when you enter full screen the capture system key button should be selected and marked as active. Are you running a macOS VM?

[jjw24]

Hi there, I am running a Windows 11 Pro VM.

[osy]

This issue only applies to Apple VMs. In hindsight I should have also implemented it for QEMU VMs but it didn’t cross my mind. Feel free to open a new issue requesting it.

[jjw24]

Will do, thanks :)