VMware uses the Ctrl+Alt key combination to switch between the virtual machine and your host (physical) machine. So pressing Ctrl+Alt+Del will open the task manager in your HOST system. To over come this you need to use Ctrl+Alt+Insert when inside the Virtual Machine to bring up the Task Manager in it. This is fine with Windows Operating Systems, but what about Linux ?
I recently installed Debian Linux on one of my Virtual Machines with Windows 7 as my Host Operating System. By default after installation Linux booted in the GUI mode I wanted to access Terminal 1 so I pressed Ctrl+Alt+F1 but nothing happened I tried keys F2 to F6 but the terminal did not show up. I tried doing the same with Linux as the Host Operating System and pressing Alt+Ctrl+F1 fired the Terminal 1 on the host operating system!!!!
After Googling for sometime I found the solution. The following has to be done to switch terminals in Linux installed in a Virtual Machine.
- Press Ctrl+Alt+Space
- Release ONLY the [Space bar] keeping Ctrl+Alt pressed
- Press a key from F1 to F7
And now you’ll see the required Terminal 🙂
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