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I am installing Ubuntu on my virtual drive and when I get to the 'Who Are you?' section of the process I am unable to type any text into the boxes.The cursor clicks into each box such as username and password but won't let me type anything therefor I can't proceed and click continue.

I came across similar questions about the who are you? but not about being unable to even type the text in.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

dlin
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Hackman
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    What size of memory did you allocate to the vm? – George Udosen Oct 01 '17 at 19:49
  • 2391mb. Should it have been higher? – Hackman Oct 01 '17 at 19:51
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    As you say, this differs from [previous questions](https://askubuntu.com/q/14168) as you can't type *anything*, which is odd. Have you [checked](https://help.ubuntu.com/community/HowToMD5SUM) if the image you're booting from is corrupted? Does it boot in the VM and give you a usable live desktop if you select Try Ubuntu (instead of Install Ubuntu)? Does keyboard input work there? For example you could open the text editor, or press Alt+F2 and start typing a command. If you run the installer from that desktop, is the problem the same? What Ubuntu version is it? Please **[edit]** with this info. – Eliah Kagan Oct 01 '17 at 22:56
  • are you on linux? – Budget Tech May 29 '19 at 00:54
  • The host is using Windows 10 Pro – xil3 May 29 '19 at 14:30
  • did you find the solution @Hackman – rhoitjadhav Mar 07 '20 at 14:18
  • I was able to get past this problem and freezing at other points in the installation process by restarting my (real) computer and attempting the install again. Rebooting the VM and all the fixes here didn't work – Andrew Puglionesi Jun 10 '21 at 21:12

8 Answers8

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I just had this issue as well. I'm upgrading from Ubuntu 15.10 to 19.10. I couldn't type anything, but the mouse worked. I couldn't click in the text box, but I could click "Log in automatically" and "Require my password to log in".

I was able to fix this by right clicking on a text box, then click "Insert Emoji", then click a random emoji. Now all the text boxes work and I have no issues.

I hope this helps someone.

the.steve.o
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I experienced the same problem. I was trying to install ubuntu using Virtual Box and created the empty vm and started it. I was prompted for the startup disk and browsed to the iso. When I got to the "who am I" screen I was unable to enter anything - the controls were disabled.

I did the exact same thing, just instead of supplying the iso when prompted, I inserted the iso into the CD rom before launching the VM. This fixed the problem for me.

Aidan
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I realize this is an older thread, but thought I'd comment as I just had this exact same issue. I deleted the vm and started over, this time allocating more RAM. I doubled the recommended amount and it worked like a charm.

Melissa
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If you are using Virtualbox, power off the VM and change the "Video Memory" under the Display module to 128 MB.

Anonymous Platypus
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Peter
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I had a problem like this. What happened was my window was small, and it was not showing the buttons to go forward. So I TABbed myself out of it. I clicked one field and tabbed myself till I went to the last field. Then I pressed TAB two more times and pressed ENTER and it worked.

I hope this solution helps.

MD SADUN HAQ
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I just randomly copy & paste, then will come out a VirtualBox random text, then I just copy and paste for my password and username.

Ming Zhong Tan
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I had this problem, except that the text areas wouldn't even take focus. The 'insert emoji' trick didn't work -- the emoji were inserted but I still couldn't type anything. Rebooting the VM fixed the problem. This, and the fact that the solutions offered above are all different, would suggest that this is a randomly occurring bug, and that rebooting the VM should be all that you need to do.

Alex Chapman
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I just resolved the issue on my laptop my disabling Hyper-V in Turn Windows features on or off.

Shiva K
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