TCLUG Archive
[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Date Index][Thread Index]

RE: [TCLUG:3491] Many boxes -- One monitor





> -----Original Message-----
> From: Richard Seymour [mailto:rseymour@anarchysoftware.com]
> Sent: Sunday, January 17, 1999 6:29 PM
> To: Twin Cities Linux User Group List
> Subject: [TCLUG:3491] Many boxes -- One monitor
>
>
> I've seen gizmos that allow multiple computers to share a single monitor
> and keyboard. Has anyone used this kind of a setup with mulitple Linux
> boxes? How about with Linux and Windows?
>

	Kind of a late reply here, but we use boxes made by Apex to run up to 8
servers on one keyboard, monitor and mouse.  You can even chain the boxes
together to run more, if you like, but we haven't needed to bother with that
so far.
      Operating system compatibility isn't an issue with the ones we have
(netware, NT, DOS and Linux happily share ours) -- hardware is.  It works
best with PS2 ports.  Serial mouse connections need to be run through a
little tranceiver (also made by Apex) called a "mousetrap".  Old MS busmice
(not PS/2) don't work at all.
	We did have problems with PCs with power management -- when they went to
sleep, we were unable to wake them without plugging a keyboard directly into
them.  So we just disabled power management on everything connected to this
thing.
	Also, these things aren't particularly cheap.  But they probalby cost less
than a falf-dozen monitors, plus the space to put them.  They're also
rack-mountable, if that makes any difference to you.