[ale] Very Weird! keys become 'hot' in tightvnc under Ubuntu-10.04

[johnmills at speakeasy.net (John Mills)]

ALErs -

I just set up ubuntu-10.04 'desktop' and it went very easily, but 
something strange happens when I try to access a VNC session on the new 
machine: ordinary, useful keys ('s', 'm') typed into a console window are 
interpreted as control keys and bring out window-control dropdown menus 
like 'logout/shutdown/restart'. Not very useful!

I've seen the problem from viewers on MsWin Vista and Fedora Linux so I'm 
convinced it's going on at the server. Ordinary console sessions on the 
X11 desktop have no such behavior.

I installed 'tightvnc-1.3.9' using 'aptitude install vncviewer' and just 
took what I got.

At first I was pleased that 'tightvnc's server used my personal desktop 
and window manager, but maybe that's the problem.

Has anyone seen such behavior? Better, has anyone _controlled_ this 
behavior??

TIA.
  - Mills