This post describes a quick fix to enable arrow, delete, ins, end and other special keyboard keys in a VMWare Workstation 6.5 for linux like the norwegian/norske letters/bokstavene ÆØÅ.

Solution #1

echo 'xkeymap.nokeycodeMap = true' > ~/.vmware/config 

This has been tested successfully on Windows hosts.

Solution #2
Another solution is to paste the following code into ~/.vmware/config

xkeymap.keycode.108 = 0x138 # Alt_R
xkeymap.keycode.106 = 0x135 # KP_Divide
xkeymap.keycode.104 = 0x11c # KP_Enter
xkeymap.keycode.111 = 0x148 # Up
xkeymap.keycode.116 = 0x150 # Down
xkeymap.keycode.113 = 0x14b # Left
xkeymap.keycode.114 = 0x14d # Right
xkeymap.keycode.105 = 0x11d # Control_R
xkeymap.keycode.118 = 0x152 # Insert
xkeymap.keycode.119 = 0x153 # Delete
xkeymap.keycode.110 = 0x147 # Home
xkeymap.keycode.115 = 0x14f # End
xkeymap.keycode.112 = 0x149 # Prior
xkeymap.keycode.117 = 0x151 # Next
xkeymap.keycode.78 = 0x46 # Scroll_Lock
xkeymap.keycode.127 = 0x100 # Pause
xkeymap.keycode.133 = 0x15b # Meta_L
xkeymap.keycode.134 = 0x15c # Meta_R
xkeymap.keycode.135 = 0x15d # Menu

This code comes instead of the line added in Solution #1.

Source
The solution was found on the VMWare Forums in a thread named Keyboard in bad shape with Workstation 6.5 running under Ubuntu Intrepid 8.10
Another interesting page about this problem can be found on http://nthrbldyblg.blogspot.com/2008/06/vmware-and-fubar-keyboard-effect.html