On Thu, Jun 30, 2022, 10:48 Rich Shepard <rshep...@appl-ecosys.com> wrote: > I want to purchase a KVM switch that allows me to switch an HP Compaq > LA1951g monitor between two desktop workstations. One workstation has a > Radeon Pro WX 4100 video card with 4 mini-displayports, the other has a > Radeon Pro WX 2100 video card with 2 mini-displayports and 1 displayport.
I use DVI monitors, so I'm unqualified to recommend displayport switches. For DVI, I've had good luck with IOGEAR GCS932UB switches, because they retain and provide monitor "EDID" records (if powered), very useful when changing/rebooting computers. I buy these switches "open box new" from eBay. Such older hardware matches older reviews and accumulated (10% useful) Q/A on the web. A second IOGEAR replaced a two port DVI switch (free to an evil home) that does NOT remember EDID. In between was another cheap switch that "remembered" a preset EDID record for runtscreen (aka "widescreen") monitors. That did not work at all with my favored Planar 1910 4x5 monitors. One computer's video card is dual displayport; I have dongles converting that to DVI for the switches. On Thu, Jun 30, 2022 at 11:05:13AM -0400, Tomas Kuchta wrote: > I find kvm switches to be nothing, but a frustration with modern desktop. > Most kvm will keep one of the computers disconnected at all times. This > results in not activating graphics card output or some desktop size issues. Tomas' use case seems simpler than mine and Rich's. As I write this, I am migrating from ancient Redhat distros and decades of accumulated production processes (back to BSD4) to an Ubuntu 20.04.3 distro with MANY new (and often irksome) behaviors. Soon, 22.04.1, after that matures. A lot of "de-snapping" - I do NOT need yet another limited package provisioning system. I may be driven to pure Debian, forget the Canonical bells and whistles. I run two screens switched between two computers to perform MANY A/B comparisons ... always the perennial question, "why did it work before and not now?" Indeed, some of the displays and comparisons are "virtual" and can be enabled by SSH, but too many of the oldest apps are custom, fragile, and network-unaware. I'm guessing Rich (who, like me, is no spring chicken) has a similar legacy accumulation of ancient and custom tools. For months, I've been porting and failing and tweaking and (re)discovering flaws and workarounds. I hope to create work platforms that I can maintain into advanced old age. I ponder my 104yo father-in-law; how can I keep using my tools when I am his age? How can I dotage-proof my systems? Someday, I may forget how to push the little buttons under each monitor to switch between computers, but they are much easier to understand than ssh. At this very moment, I am migrating moinmoin wiki content from version 1.9.8 to 1.9.11. Mostly easy, except that the ancient user password encryption method I've used since moinmoin 1.4.x has been dropped; extracting old passwords and updating them to the new method is vexing. A planned finishing touch is designing a homebrew toolbar icon that reminds me which computer and distro is driving which screen. For now, I do that with the desktop background, but my working desktops are littered with dozens of open windows and apps covering the background. This will all be easier, and A/B switching will be rarer, after I complete this vexing migration (on these two computers, six laptops, and an offsite virtual server hosting a dozen URLs). But this won't be the last obsolescence-driven migration, so I plan for more challenging future migrations when I have even less mental capability. I stockpile spares and write notes on the house wiki, printed to a file of paper in case of computer or screen failure. ----- Some of the advanced systems I design won't be complete for *centuries*, so I also attempt to anticipate the needs of owners/users/victims whose great-great-grandparents haven't been born yet. But then, I still use some of my great grandfather's hand tools, brought to Oregon from Sweden by my grandfather in 1911. ( http://keithl.com/ticket1.png ; Tomas - save your first US arrival plane ticket for your own future grandchild ) Keith -- Keith Lofstrom kei...@keithl.com
