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Adventures & experiences in contemporary technology
During a recent upgrade from Linux Mint 18 to Linux Mint 18.1 on a secondary machine, I ran into bother with my Startech KVM (keyboard, video, mouse and audio sharing) switch. The PC failed to recognise the attachment of my keyboard and mouse so an internet search began.
Nothing promising came from it apart from resetting the KVM switch. In other words, the solution was to turn it off and back on again. That was something that I did try without success. What I had overlooked was that there USB connections to PC’s that fed the device with a certain amount of power and that was enough to keep it on.
Unplugging those USB cables as well as the power cable was needed to completely switch off the device. That provided the reset that I needed and all was well again. Otherwise, I would have been baffled enough to resort to buying a replacement KVM switch so the extra information avoided a purchase that could have cost in the region of £100. In other words, a little research had saved me money.
I am referring to computer pointing devices, of course. This may sound a daft thing to do but I have two mice attached to my main PC. One is my ergonomic Evoluent, a device that I am growing to like a lot. To explain the set up of the other mouse, I am going to have to say that I use a Belkin OmniCube 2-port KVM switch so that I can have two PC’s controlled with the same keyboard, mouse and screen: the main machine and a backup for when things go awry. To the switch, I have attached the base unit for a Logitech MX700, my usual mouse at home until my hand troubles began (the symptoms now seem to be easing, thankfully).
Strangely, I cannot have just have the KVM cable for the keyboard attached to my main computer or the keyboard itself seems to lose contact. Alternatively, I cannot seem to get the KVM switch to recognise the Evoluent either. The result is that I two mice attached to a PC and the thing will not boot up in those circumstances. Unplugging the Evoluent and doing a cold boot seems to do the trick; the wonders of USB mean that I can always hook it up when all is running fully. I still must sort out my set up, though…