It appears that 8.10 hosed the key mapping in guest machines running in VMWare workstation or player on an 8.10 host. Credit for providing the fix belongs:
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/intrepid/+bug/289098
http://nthrbldyblg.blogspot.com/2008...rd-effect.html
However, I would like to add the following...
I applied the fix by entering the line "xkeymap.nokeycodeMap = true" to /etc/vmware/config using a text editor. I did put "true" in quotes to match the other values in the file. This fixed the key mapping in my XP guest on Ubuntu 8.10 host with VMWare workstation 6.5.0.
When I upgraded to Workstatio n 6.5.1 I lost access to the network from my guest machine. /dev/vmnet0 missing.
Long story short... the workstation install first uninstalls the existing version. However, it did not remove /etc/vmware/config (perhaps because I had edited it?). Anyhow, by running the uninstall portion of the upgrade then deleting /etc/vmware and then allowing the install of 6.5.1 to continue (then editing /etc/vmware/config again) all is well.