I don't use VMware and I know that many have had issues with TKL on more recent versions of VMware ESX/vSphere (although I'm not sure whether that is just because of it's popularity or because TKL and VMware are not as cleanly compatible as they ideally might be...). Many of the previous issues have been issues in the interaction between between hardware, VMware and TKL (to a degree I personally would call these VMware bugs although others may think that is unfair).

I suggest that you try the obvious options open to you (as you mention - setting the OS as Debian or Ubuntu) and see whether that helps. However TKL v12.x is based on Debian Squeeze (aka 6) so it seems there isn't a specific option for that...

Another possiblity is try installing from ISO or the other VM(ware) format (instead of the OVF). Not sure if that'll help or not but could be worth a try. Be great to hear how (if) you manage to work around it as it may help others.