[geeks] Q: IOGEAR USB KVM (model GCS632U)

[Jonathan C. Patschke]

On Wed, 18 Jan 2006, Lionel Peterson wrote:

> Subject: [geeks] Q: IOGEAR USB KVM (model GCS632U)
> 
> Anyone have exp. with the above USB KVM?

We use a few of these here at $ork.  The typical scenario is a Sun Blade
1500 on one port, and a Windows PC on the other, with a Sun keyboard and
Sun mouse plugged into the console-side of the KVM.  The Windows side
tends to work flawlessly, except some machines occasionally have trouble
seeing the mouse right away.  Windows seems to find it's way after a few
seconds, so who knows where the problem is.

The Sun side of things is a bit more...interesting.  Solaris tends to
work just fine.  OpenBoot doesn't.  Keys behave as if they are held
down, so if you pause to check command-lines before hitting enter,
you'll type things like:

   boot disk /flash-updateeeeeeeeeeee

Backspace behaves similarly, which makes things tricky.

Also, we've had a high incidence of these things merely "blowing out"
after a few months.  Typically, the keyboard port just goes dead on
them.  Out of 20 or so, we've had two fail within five months of
installation.  That's not a high number, but high enough to make a
person wonder.

> What I want to do is string my Ultra 20 and a PC behind it, with my
> Sun keyboard & mouse.

Since those are both PCs, it'll probably work fine. :)

> BestBuy has this for about $69, and the unit actually specifies it
> supports "special keys on mac and sun workstations"... (it also claims
> 2048x1536 resolution support, but I don't have such needs)

They do, indeed, support Mac and Sun "special" keys.

> The manual is mum on two particular scenarios - using a Sun keyboard
> on a PC, and using a Sun keyboard on a Mac...

Sun keyboard on PC works just fine.  However, since a Sun keyboard
plugged directly into a PC also works just fine, that's unsurprising.
I'd suspect the same of a Sun keyboard on a Mac.  I've even used a Sun
keyboard on an HP 9000/785.  I don't think the KVM has to do much in the
way of acrobatics to stitch things together.

-- 
Jonathan Patschke    )   "A man who never dreams goes slowly mad."
Elgin, TX           (      --Thomas Dolby, "Valley of the Mind's Eye"