[ale] KVM or alternative

[Synco Gibraldter]

actually, 2-port kvm switches were a *lot* cheaper than switches with 4
ports and they seem to get exponentially more expensive... try to price a nice
10-port one.  i don't really understand why they're so expensive... i
could probably make one from radio shack parts for about $30, but it would
be ass ugly.

i have the same problem... keep getting new machines, but i've found the
best way (for me anyway) is to just boot them from the network and load
the root fs from NFS... then i can ssh/rsh to any of the machines on my
lan easily... that also gives you some flexibility as far as what you'll
be using the machines for.

for instance, to run your distributed processing cluster, you could load a
certain NFS root, but if you wanted your machines to do their normal
everyday jobs, they could load their own individual or group-based NFS
root.  of course this can all be done from a single machine.  kvm switches
don't give you that kind of flexibility.

just a kvm-switch alternative for those of you as broke as me.




On 13 Feb 2003, Josh Freeman wrote:

> I wouldn't get a 2 port KVM unless they are substantially cheaper than
> the 4 port. I don't know about you, but I keep having more and more
> machines show up on my desk, and I kept an extra set of wires so I could
> hook up a machine when my [mom's | friend's ] machine broke and showed
> up on my doorstep
>
>
> On a somewhat related note, has anyone had any luck with USB KVM
> switches? I got one at work, but every time I switched away from the
> linux box, I lost the connection to the mouse and keyboard. It was a
> cheap KVM switch, so it may not have had the keyboard emulation that
> nicer switches have.
>
> Thanks,
>
> Josh
>
> --
> Josh Freeman
> Technical Manager
> Center for Assistive Technology and Environmental Access
>
> _______________________________________________
> Ale mailing list
> Ale at ale.org
> http://www.ale.org/mailman/listinfo/ale
>

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