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I have a Virtual Box machine with Ubuntu. I need to send Ctrl+Alt+F1 to guest machine, but when I press them it is captured by host. How can I fix it ?

Sooraj S
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ceth
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    http://unix.stackexchange.com/questions/64155/how-to-send-ctrl-alt-fn-to-virtual-box-guest-linux – muru Oct 27 '14 at 16:34

2 Answers2

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Right Ctrl+F1 worked for me without going into fullscreen

ismisepaul
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    right control f1 didn't work for me, fullscreen or not because my machine grabbed it first, but right control f2 did work and got me to a terminal which is all I wanted. – stu Dec 09 '15 at 17:16
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    This should be marked as the correct answer – krispy Apr 25 '16 at 23:01
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    Just in case anyone needs, if one needs to send Ctrl + Alt to a guest machine (just those two keys together, without a third one), one can simply press Ctrl + Alt (the wanted keys themselves). https://forums.virtualbox.org/viewtopic.php?f=8&t=69058 – Antônio Medeiros Jul 11 '16 at 11:51
  • Right Ctrl + F1 did not seem work for me, but in fact it was because gues OS loaded at 1st vt by default, so it did nothing. Right Ctrl+Fn worked. – max630 Jan 17 '18 at 21:03
  • Right Ctrl + Left Alt + F1 worked for me. – vrde Apr 01 '18 at 17:37
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    This is not necessarily R-Ctrl + F1, but instead Host + F1, or Host + ? whatever, which sends Ctrl Alt + ?. – Pawel Veselov Jun 14 '18 at 20:48
  • For me it only worked after I enabled Auto Capture Keyboard in Input -> Keyboard Settings – szx Oct 11 '18 at 18:37
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You can go to fullscreen in the guest OS by pressing Host+F1. The default host key is Right Ctrl.

Once inside the full screen of Guest OS, try sending Ctrl+Alt+F1. It should be captured as desired.

astrob0t
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    i used Host+F to enter fullscreen, but Ctrl+Alt+F1 was still captured by the host – Jayen Jan 19 '16 at 01:13
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    Doing Host + F1 took me to the Ctrl + Alt + F1 screen in the VM! – zenw0lf May 17 '17 at 19:07
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    Doing Host+F1 works indeed, but when the Host key implies another helper key (often labeled fn), one must be careful to release that key before pressing F1, else the host will catch fn+F1, which may be anything, from nothing to suspend host system, turn of wifi/display/audio, and fail to send Ctrl+Alt+F1 to the guest. Releasing Fn after pressing the Host key works wonderfully. – Stéphane Gourichon Oct 11 '18 at 17:42