[rescue] USB KVM with my Octane: possible?

[Sridhar Ayengar]

John Floren wrote:
>>> | I've tried simply plugging a PS/2<->USB adapter in, and I wasn't able
>>> | to get any type of output on the screen, or even have the keyboard
>>> | LEDs light up.
>>>
>>> Well, that sounds like the right answer, but all the PS/2<->USB
>>> adapters I have take a PS/2 keyboard and mouse and adapt them to a USB
>>> computer.  What you need is the opposite -- something to adapt a USB
>>> keyboard and mouse to a PS/2 computer.
>>>
>>> I've never seen an adapter like that.
>> Raritan, I believe, makes one, but it isn't cheap.
> 
> Wait, an adaptor that goes from USB to PS/2? Hell, I got one of those
> included when I bought my El Cheapo USB keyboard, unless you're
> talking about a somehow *different* USB to PS/2 adaptor.
> If I remember right, my friend has a whole bag of them sitting in the
> back of her car.

That adapter doesn't actually adapt USB to PS/2.  There is some 
circuitry in your cheapo keyboard that can detect that adapter and 
switch its interface to a PS/2 mode, which corresponds to the input and 
output pinouts on that adapter.

Not exactly the same thing.

Peace...  Sridhar