[geeks] Unusual Problem with KVM

[Shannon Hendrix]

On Jan 11, 2008, at 2:28 PM, Sridhar Ayengar wrote:

> Shannon Hendrix wrote:
>>>> Can you "hot plug" a second mouse or keyboard into the sleeping
>>>> computer?
>>> I suppose I could, but that would basically negate any convenience  
>>> of
>>> using the KVM switch.
>>>
>>> I was a bit unclear.  The machine isn't actually asleep.  It's just
>>> thurned the monitor off.  The machine is still running.
>>
>> If that's true, then a keypress should wake it up.
>>
>> It sounds to me like something is borked.
>
> A keypress won't wake up the computer if the KVM switch won't switch
> over to the machine.  Please read my original message.

I did read your message.

If the KVM will not switch because of video, then it is broken by  
design.

A lot of KVMs came out and were called "smart" KVMs, but in reality  
the idea is pretty stupid because there are too many failure cases, as  
you've seen.

You can't count on video signal as an indicator of the status of a  
machine.

A good KVM will let you switch no matter what.

There are some little black boxes you can get to fix this problem,  
that go inline between KVM and video card, or at least there used to  
be.  They would basically force bad KVMs to switch anyway.



-- 
Shannon Hendrix
shannon at widomaker.com