Anyone have experience with "KVM" switches?

General Discussion
1

I have two PCs (one Linux the other Windows) on the same network, which serve different roles. (They are both using SMB shares on TrueNAS for different reasons, but that’s not really relevant to this off-topic question.)

Because of limited desk space, I have a single mouse, keyboard, and monitor.

The mouse and keyboard use a single USB receiver (Logitech “unified”).

The monitor has two HDMI ports in the back.

Currently, I have to physically unplug and replug the USB receiver from one PC to the other, as well as cycle through the “input” selector on the monitor.

To “switch” to my Linux PC:

flowchart TD

pc1[("Linux")]
pc2[("Windows")]
display[["Monitor"]]
logitech("Mouse and Keyboard")

style pc1 stroke:green,stroke-width:4px
style pc2 stroke:blue,stroke-width:4px

pc1 ===>|to HDMI port 1\ninput selected| display
pc2 -..->|to HDMI port 2\ndisabled| display
logitech === pc1

To “switch” to my Windows PC:

flowchart TD

pc1[("Linux")]
pc2[("Windows")]
display[["Monitor"]]
logitech("Mouse and Keyboard")

style pc1 stroke:green,stroke-width:4px
style pc2 stroke:blue,stroke-width:4px

pc1 -..->|to HDMI port 1\ndisabled| display
pc2 ===>|to HDMI port 2\ninput selected| display
logitech === pc2

This actually works, but it gets a bit tedious when I want to quickly switch back-and-forth between the two PCs.

I have held off on a hardware KVM switch in the meantime, since the last experience I had with them was negative: I lost the functions of my special keys on my Logitech keyboard.

For some reason, the KVM switch didn’t support any keys beyond “basic keyboard”. :flushed:

My question for those who use hardware KVM switches: Do you know which ones fully support keyboards and mice (including special buttons and switches)?

My mouse and keyboard
  • Keyboard: Logitech Wireless K540
  • Mouse: Logitech Wireless M510

They use the same Logitech “unified” USB receiver.

2

Other than work, it has been a long time since I used KVMs. (At work we have network KVMs… silly when SP/BMC/IPMI is better…)

At home I have a monitor with 3 ports, 2 x DisplayPorts and 1 HDMI. Two prior jobs had me use a work laptop, so I bought a USB3 switch. It has 4 inputs, 2 computer ports and a remote switch that I taped to be below my monitor. (I think special keys would also switch destinations, but I’ve never bothered to learn them.)

Works reasonably well. I used to have a wireless Logitech mouse in that setup. (Used to because I wore out the buttons and have not got a Round TUIT replacement).

Can’t get the brand / model, as it’s tied down, (it likes a bit of bondage :grinning:. However, a quick search on Amazon for “usb switch” found more than a dozen items.

3

It’s been a while since I used an actual KVM switch too and, from what I remember it sucked. I think the last time I tried to do something like that I used a software kvm and it was okay (better than the actual hardware versions). …is there a reason why Remote desktop or a software kvm switch or even a dual boot wouldn’t work?

4

Does it work with special keys, such as these?

lg-keys-thru-kvm
lg-keys-thru-kvm1173×492 84 KB

I always assumed that a hardware KVM switch was “dumb”, and would simply pass the connection to the relevant device, unfiltered.

5

Different hardware, different purposes, both need to be powered on at the same time. I don’t want them tethered to each other via virtualization (besides, it’s pointless when I already have the dedicated hardware).

The Windows PC is portable enough to be carried to another location, which adds to its flexibility.

“Remote desktop” and “virtualization” is out of the picture, and I avoid VMs when possible (including on my TrueNAS server.) Funny enough, I currently use no VMs whatsoever, anywhere.

To put it another way: I currently am doing my own method of “switching”, by physically plugging the USB mouse/keyboard receiver to whichever PC, and by changing the input selection on my monitor.

I’d rather just have a single “switch” that can effortlessly do this, without unplugging anything and without having to switch the input selection on my monitor every time I want to switch between the two PCs.