Arrow keys being treated as numeric keypad in MS Remote Desktop on Mac OS X
This is a confirmed bug in VirtualBox 4.3.8 but should of been fixed in 4.3.10. You may want to try an older version or the "test" version in the first link.
I am also having the same issue. MacOS (10.9.5) RDP (8.0.13 Build 25377) VirtualBox (4.3.20r96996) running on Ubuntu 12.04 Host with a RHEL5 guest running in fullscreen.
For me it is triggered by hitting the caps lock or the num lock keys.
Using EkriirkE's tip, I am able to get the arrow keys back by toggling num-lock back off. (Using a real keyboard on the linux box or an onscreen keyboard, and then the arrow keys work, but only on the real keyboard). It will get stuck again if I use any key in RDP just like LRE said, unless I close the RDP session (Command-Q or Command-W) and then reconnect the RDP session.
So in summary, my workaround:
- Toggle Num lock off in the VM (in linux I can use the command
numlockx off) - Close the RDP session
⌘Qor⌘W(you must do this before sending any more keystrokes to the VM) - Reconnect to the RDP Session
This will reset the num lock states in both the VM, and the poorly synced state in RDP.
- A more automated fix would have an AutoHotKey script, or Bash script turn off num lock when you reconnect before you type in any keys remotely.
- You could also just never use CapsLock / NumLock or disable them for RDP.
Can you try using the OnScreen keyboard (OSK) on the remote machine (Accessories,Accessibility) And toggle the num lock key and try again? I've had this issue with Linux+Windows RDP, however my linux machine has an actual num lock I just have to toggle a couple times to sync the state, where the mac missing one created a second problem- the OSK should work.
Microsoft has released an experimental version of RDP client that fixed the issue with the arrows: http://blogs.msdn.com/b/rds/archive/2015/08/11/introducing-the-new-microsoft-remote-desktop-preview-app-for-mac.aspx