Keyboard auto-repeat not working with Windows 98 VM

[magoo99]

Issue description
Keyboard auto-repeat not working or not possible with Windows 98 VM.

Configuration

• UTM Version: 4.7.5
• macOS Version: 26.5
• Mac: M4 MacBook Air, with internal or external USB keyboard (same problem regardless of keyboard used)
• VM guest OS: Windows 98 SE (emulated)
• VM settings within UTM:
  • "Force PS/2 controller" = checked
  • Input: USB support = disabled
  • QEMU extra Argument: -usb -device usb-tablet

Detail
The problem is that keyboard auto-repeat is not working in Windows 98 VM's. As far as I understand, the Mac host only sends a single "key down" or "key up" event, even if the key is pressed for a long time. Many newer Windows versions automatically generate the auto-repeat internally in such situations. I can confirm this to be working for Windows XP, 7 (= after some registry tweaks), 10, 11.
But it seems that Windows 98 expects repeated keypress events when a keyboard key is kept pressed (which on a Mac host will not happen). It does not generate auto-repeats itself.

My suggestion is to add a feature inside the UTM's VM settings to optionally insert an extra code layer for the keyboard, which implements auto-repeat when a key is seen pressed for a long time. It must be possible to enable this feature only for Windows 98, but not for newer versions of Windows (XP, 7, 10, 11).

[efegea]

I have the same problem but with an MS-DOS 6.22 guest. If I check "force PS/2" the keys never repeat when hold, which is a real problem in many places. If I uncheck "force PS/2" and activate USB, repeat works but the keyboard layout is wrong (my keyboard is spanish). The keyboard layout is fine with "force PS/2", but without key repeat. I tried the qemu flag "-k es" without any luck. It seems to be a problem of the UTM user interface not translating inputs from macOS correctly.