[PLUG] KVM switch

[Geoff Burling]

On Sun, 27 Jul 2003, Rich Shepard wrote:

>   As I set up my new workstation/server I want to use the same keyboard,
> monitor and mouse with it and the old box. There seem to be quite a few
> brands available for these switches.
>
>   Does anyone have experience with them and can provide thoughts on what to
> get or what to avoid?
>
Where I'm currently working, we use a fair number of KVM boxes made by
Cybex & others connected to flat screen monitors. Which combination has
produced an interesting problem:

Take machine connected to a KVM box, boot from either a RedHat install
CD or a Knoppix CD, & watch the system go thru the usual messages as the
OS starts. Until the booting comes to starting the X server, when an
error message stating that the server can't start, at which point everything
shuts down.

I've seen it twice, & both times pulling the KVM out of the setup solves
the problem. I admit I haven't researched this issue (except to suspect it
lies with some bug in XFree, rather than either distro or the window
manager), but it *is* something to be aware of.

And, no, Windows in the same hardware configuration has no problems.

I'm not fishing for a solution for this problem, but would be happy to
help in troubleshooting this odd problem.

Geoff