I recently had to install Debian on VMware Fusion (a product similar to VirtualBox) for the work I was doing. Everything went smooth until I started using the command line. My favourite key on *nix world ‘THE PIPE’ wasn’t mapped correctly.
It easy to correct and this is how its done. Install console-data package and configure the key-map with the right type. As I use MacBook Pro with American keyboard I had to do this.
$ sudo apt-get install console-data
Once the command completes installing the package, you will get a series of screens to configure. Pick ‘Select Key map from full list’ and choose key map as appropriate.
Once the configuration is done, it won’t be reflected until you restart the virtual machine or press ctrl+alt+del. At least thats what I did to get the key-map to work as I wanted.