[ale] KVM switches

[Greg]

I am using a Linksys Proconnect 4 way switch and it handles old stuff (486)
and new (Athlon 2400) stuff.  All os's are supported (linux, bsd, windows).
The only thing not is my SunBlade 100 with USB keyboard.  I use a MS scroll
mouse with everything and it is ok.  For my servers, I get a mechanical type
4 way kvm from Microcenter on Powers Ferry in Marietta for about $14.00.  I
have used these hooked together and separately with OpenBSD, RH, and Debian.
The hw they support is old (486) and new (modern Athlons).  They only
support ps2 and I have never had any trouble from them.  They are a great
low cost solution for what is mainly server monitoring and maintenance
related work.

The only trouble with the Linksys is sometimes the funky key combinations to
switch would be identical to a games key combination and instead of fragging
a dragon, I would be switched to another box - and upon returning to my game
I would be KIA - so that feature is disabled.

Greg

> -----Original Message-----
> From: ale-bounces at ale.org [mailto:ale-bounces at ale.org]On Behalf Of
> Robert Heaven
> Sent: Friday, March 26, 2004 1:27 PM
> To: Atlanta Linux Enthusiasts
> Subject: Re: [ale] KVM switches
>
>
> I have a Belkin OmniCube 4-port KVM switch. (PS/2 only) When I first
> bought it, I had a wired keyboard and a wired 3-button ball mouse and
> everything worked great. Linux, Winblose, FreeBSD, they all worked fine.
>
> Untill, however, I started playing around with wireless and optical
> devices. With a wireless keyboard, every time I changed the channel, I
> would have to unplug the keyboard connector and plug it back in. With an
> optical mouse, it doesn't matter if I have wired or wireless, every time
> I change the channel, I have to do the CTL+ALT+Backspace to kill X and
> restart it bacause the mouse protocol goes wacky.
>
>
> Trey Sizemore wrote:
>
> >I know there was some discussion on this a while back, but I can't for
> >the life of me find them or remember which month(s) they occured in the
> >archives.  I've got 3 machines (p200, p2 400, and a p4 2.8GHz) that I
> >would like to share keyboard, mouse, video (hence the KVM switch ;-))
> >
> >I've not used one of these before, so I just wanted to know what to look
> >for and what to look out for.  My current keyboard is PS/2, mouse is USB.
> > My P4 has both ports as does the P2.  The older Pentium 200 is socked
> >away, so I can't remember if it has USB or not.  Should I get a KVM
> >switch with PS/2 then, just to be safe?  I have the USB to PS/2 adapter
> >that came with the mouse.
> >
> >Also, is the switching done by hardware or software (and if software, are
> >Linux systems supported well?)?
> >
> >Thanks for the feedback.
> >
> >
>
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