Why can't I access the virtual terminal tty1 under VMware Workstation?
- Enter full-screen mode first with Ctrl+Alt+Enter
- Click inside the Ubuntu VM (to make sure input is grabbed)
- Then try entering tty1 with Ctrl+Alt+F1
Works great for me here.
Check if that keystroke combo is not being passed to Windows (host OS) instead. I have has similar issues with VirtualBox.
Note: You are still running the standard Ubuntu binary code, but on quite different 'hardware'. It is actually running on the VMware 8 emulation of a PC, not your desktop PC. Some keystrokes are (by default) retained for passing commands back to the host.