Virtualbox-iso: boot_command shift key getting stuck

Packer
1

Hi,

Just quickly seeing if this is a common issue before opening in github.

I’m using HCL to kickstart CentOS images, I’m using a hack to pass shell-style params to /proc/cmdline and I’ve noticed a few recent builds have started to fail, the cause seems to be that the shift key is not being released, so:

MY_VAR=foo

will get turned into:

MY_VAR+FOO

I can only repro in headless CI, ubuntu bionic with VirtualBox 6.1.18 (still in 6.1.22) and packer 1.7.0, can also repro in Ubuntu desktop. Can not repro in Windows 10.

I just recently expanded the length on my boot_commands, and make a migration to HCL, so can’t quite figure out the cause. In ubuntu desktop you can feel slowness as the keystrokes are input. Bumping the interval helps, but is not foolproof.

I tried workaround the issue by stripping all params of chars requiring shift (no _ or uppercase) but still had results like ‘proxy=http:??!(@>!^*>)>!&%’.

Any help appreciated.

2

Can also repro on focal desktop with vbox 6.1.16 ubuntu pkg.

ATM I’m working around the issue by using EFI instead of bios for VMs, before I was kickstarting a bios and EFI VM in parallel, EFI never (so far) exhibits the issue, perhaps the issue is between the host’s and bios key scan codes.