The keymap entry in the respective xml file is being ignored when starting qemu. It should be honoured in src/qemu_conf.c when setting up argv in function qemudBuildCommandLine in case keymap is set and vnc has been chosen. Ignoring the keymap (not issuing -k ...) will make vnc impossible to use for many international keyboards. I've filed a bug report (https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=390461) Cheers, Chris