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Issue: Unable to type in the Hyper-V console (Debian/Ubuntu) on Windows 2025

Anonymous
2025-03-06T09:57:39.0266667+00:00

Hello,

I am experiencing an issue with Hyper-V on Windows 2025. When I launch a virtual machine running Debian or Ubuntu, I cannot type anything using my keyboard in the Hyper-V console.

I have tested both Generation 1 and Generation 2 VMs, but the problem persists. The mouse works fine, but no keyboard input is recognized.

I have checked several things:

  • The keyboard works correctly on the host machine.
  • The keyboard layout is properly configured in the VM.
  • I have tried enabling and disabling the "Enhanced Session Mode" option.
  • I have tested different versions of Ubuntu and Debian, with the same result.

Has anyone encountered this issue before, or does anyone have a possible solution?

Thanks in advance for your help!

Windows for business | Windows Server | User experience | Other
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  1. Henry Mai 6,930 Reputation points Independent Advisor
    2025-07-28T09:45:38.1833333+00:00

    Hello Axel, I am Henry and I want to share some insights about your issue.

    I haven't encountered this issue before, but I've done some research and found a related document.

    It appears that Hyper-V emulates the legacy i8042 keyboard controller, while its modern virtual BIOS also reports the same device via ACPI Plug and Play (PnP). This results in the Linux kernel detecting both interfaces simultaneously, which causes a conflict. The modern PnP probe clashes with the legacy driver’s attempt to initialize the device, preventing the keyboard driver from loading properly.

    So my recommendation is to force the kernel to use a legacy probing method by adding a i8042.nopnp kernel boot parameter. This tells the Linux kernel to not use PnP for the keyboard controller, which resolves the conflict. For reference, you can check the documentation here: https://www.kernel.org/doc/Documentation/admin-guide/kernel-parameters.txtUser's image

    Below is detail:

    1. Boot the VM. Since your keyboard doesn't work, you'll need to use one of these methods to open a terminal and enter commands:
      • On-Screen Keyboard: If you installed a desktop environment (like standard Ubuntu), use your mouse to go to Settings > Accessibility > Screen Keyboard and enable it.
      • SSH: If you know the VM's IP address and have SSH enabled, connect to it from your host machine using PowerShell or another SSH client (ssh user@<vm-ip-address>).
    2. Edit the GRUB Configuration File. Run in text editor: sudo nano /etc/default/grub
    3. Modify the Kernel Command Line. Find this line in the file: GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="quiet splash" Change it by adding i8042.nopnp inside the quotes. It should look like this: GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="quiet splash i8042.nopnp"
    4. Save and Update GRUB.
      • Press Ctrl + X to exit nano.
      • Press Y to confirm you want to save the changes.
      • Press Enter to confirm the filename.
      • Now, apply the change by running: sudo update-grub
    5. Reboot the VM. sudo reboot

    Hope this points you in the right direction for troubleshooting.

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