KVM Help and Recommendations for FC3

[Kevin Freeman]

On Tue, 2005-11-15 at 15:44 -0500, Matt Roth wrote:
> List members,
> 
> I am experiencing compatibility problems with a Belkin OmniView PRO 
> 8-Port KVM switch and Fedora Core 3.  Any help you could provide 

A few years back I tried to use an 8-port ps/2 OmniView in a rack with
HP servers running Windows 2000 Server.  The mouse/keyboard was not
being properly emulated (even though the marketing blurb stated it was)
and resulted in quickly losing console control after a couple of
switches, until we rebooted the servers.  The "emulation" was so poor
that servers would not boot unless the KVM was switched to the server
while booting (educational test, of course all server BIOS settings by
default ignore keyboard errors on boot, well maybe now they do ... ).  I
tried a replacement OmniView with the same results.  So I tried a
Starview (StarTech brand) 8-port model and never had a problem again.
Maybe Belkin still uses the same flaky hardware/firmware.

I never experienced a flickering screen with the above problems, just
loss of control.  I am sure you have verified snug cable connections.
And I am baffled at how a "frozen screen" on the KVM can make the server
lock up.  Maybe you can find a firmware update from Belkin to address
these issues.

At home I have used an IOGear 2-port USB KVM for many years with no
trouble at all with various flavors of Redhat / Fedora and Windows.
i.e. I don't think the fault lies in the OS.

If you want to try new hardware, this model
http://startech.com/ststore/itemdetail.cfm?ProductID=SV831D&mt=  appears
to be similar to what I have installed.

Good luck!

Kevin Freeman