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The Peculiarly Quiet Decline and Fall of the KVM

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Re: The Peculiarly Quiet Decline and Fall of the KVM

#131

Post by copperx »

Fnoord wrote: post #127
grzm wrote: post #114

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thanks for the pointer. I wasn't happy with my phrasing. I should have just referenced a dictionary. MW's sense d is what I intended to convey: > "a person with whom one shares an intimate relationship : one member of a couple" https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/partner

I use that term because its gender neutral and relationship neutral. I find it irrelevant to a discussion whether we are married or not, or a member of the LGBT community or not. However I don't hide my gender or my partner's gender (ie. I use he and she forms due to practical reasons).

I have always assumed "partner" either means "business partner" or that the person is signaling both (1) "I'm gay" without being overt and (2) "I'm resent society's prevailing idea of marriage." at the same time.

One can use "spouse" or "significant other" to avoid the perception of being passive-aggressive.

Re: The Peculiarly Quiet Decline and Fall of the KVM

#132

Post by grzm »

copperx wrote: post #131
Fnoord wrote: post #127

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I use that term because its gender neutral and relationship neutral. I find it irrelevant to a discussion whether we are married or not, or a member of the LGBT community or not. However I don't hide my gender or my partner's gender (ie. I use he and she forms due to practical reasons).

I have always assumed "partner" either means "business partner" or that the person is signaling both (1) "I'm gay" without being overt and (2) "I'm resent society's prevailing idea of marriage." at the same time. One can use "spouse" or "significant other" to avoid the perception of being passive-aggressive.

I'd encourage you to give others the benefit of the doubt. Without other evidence, that "perception of being passive-agressive" is only that, a perception.

Re: The Peculiarly Quiet Decline and Fall of the KVM

#133

Post by revelation »

mark-r wrote: post #122
Animats wrote: post #112

One of the big remaining users of display switching is the military. When something important is happening on one screen, others need to look at that screen. The military wants switching so they don't get everybody jammed around the screen with the action and abandoning their own stations. Here's the current incarnation of NORAD HQ in Cheyenne Mountain.[1] Such switching goes all the way back to NASA during Apollo. T…

If the military needs to spend $1000 on a KVM switch, they won't bat an eye. That's not true for most of the rest of us.

I've seen such kind of "control rooms" where everything was running on VMs anyway and the individual computers were just remote desktops. It's like they say, when it gets too difficult, just add a layer of abstraction. They just went up to software.

Re: The Peculiarly Quiet Decline and Fall of the KVM

#134

Post by jestar_jokin »

megaman22 wrote: post #50
gambiting wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The easiest solution is to just buy an HDMI switch(there's loads of them, even ones which work with 4K signal, and they don't disrupt DHCP) and a USB switch. Total solution should fit in about 40-50 dollars.

Are there any that don't suck bogwater? We've tried a handful for our conference rooms, and they are all universally flaky, with signal dropping randomly all the time.

I have a passive switch that works fine. It's pretty much equivalent to unplugging the cable and plugging it in to a different source/output.

http://www.cablechick.com.au/cables/4-port-hdmi-switcher.htm...

(I have also tried a simple powered switch with an IR remote control, but it caused signal degradation & glitches.)

Re: The Peculiarly Quiet Decline and Fall of the KVM

#135

Post by petecox »

gaius wrote: post #120
snarfy wrote: post #23

All of our meeting rooms have computers with KVMs in case someone wants to use their laptop on the big screen. Or they can just remote in. It's kind of dumb.

How do you "just remote in" with no (working) OS?

'Smart' displays?

Where I worked they wall-mounted large screen TVs. Windows 10 casted to them over wifi just fine.

Re: The Peculiarly Quiet Decline and Fall of the KVM

#136

Post by dboreham »

drzaiusapelord wrote: post #115
dboreham wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I could never understand why the makers of KVM the virtual machine thing didn't realize they had overloaded an acronym. It isn't as if they weren't likely to have come across KVMs in their work. Were they non-native-English speakers perhaps?

Software devs aren't sysadmins, I imagine most of the people involved here never have been responsible for actual production physical servers before and never had to use one.

Web front end developers sure. Kernel hackers though??

Re: The Peculiarly Quiet Decline and Fall of the KVM

#137

Post by BenjiWiebe »

DashRattlesnake wrote: post #74
theothertom wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've never really understood the desire to use the button on the display to turn off monitors - does allowing the monitors to be switched off by the OS not solve basically the same problem ?

> I've never really understood the desire to use the button on the display to turn off monitors - does allowing the monitors to be switched off by the OS not solve basically the same problem ? Right now, my monitor is in my bedroom. If I let the OS shut off the monitor, it still shows a little white pulsing light to show it's in sleep mode. That's really annoying when I'm trying to sleep.

And my monitor has an extremely bright pulsing white LED. I have a piece of orange electrical tape over it, and it is still on the bright side. Dell e2414h if anyone's curious.

Re: The Peculiarly Quiet Decline and Fall of the KVM

#138

Post by arghwhat »

djsumdog wrote: post #125
arghwhat wrote: post #105

Earlier quoted context omitted.

At work, we have at least the first 30 racks with good 'ol VGA KVM's (no IP) and tray monitor/keyboard/touchpad, despite at least half of the servers having IPMI. Ain't going anywhere anytime soon. And no, no one needs 4k where a KVM belongs (which is in a server room).

I needed a 4k switch. I had a nice monitor and a Linux and Windows laptop. I used the Win laptop for gaming and the Linux machine for pretty much everything else. Everything I tried was garbage: http://penguindreams.org/blog/4k-uhd-kvm-switches-the-starte... There are a few in the $500+ range I have not tried, but you are wrong, there are use cases for 4k switching. I mean, do you really want to have two 4k monitors…

Do you really want to have two computers where only one is ever in use, when you could have just one for half the cost?

Your setup is rather peculiar, and wastes a computer. It is usually done with dual-booting or virtualization, while multiple inputs (which I bet your screen has) or HDMI switch could handle it as well (although without handling keyboard/mouse).

KVM's were designed for server environments, sold to server environments, and only take server environments into consideration where VGA+USB will remain the status quo for years to come.

If you're really set on a KVM, take a 4k-capable standalone HDMI switch, a USB "switch" (https://www.amazon.com/IOGEAR-Computer-Peripheral-Sharing-GU..., or a USB KVM), and an arduino to strap it together as a unit. Unless servers do away with VGA (hahah, no), I doubt you'll find a product for an affordable price that does what you want.

Re: The Peculiarly Quiet Decline and Fall of the KVM

#139

Post by arghwhat »

fian wrote: post #128
djsumdog wrote: post #125

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I needed a 4k switch. I had a nice monitor and a Linux and Windows laptop. I used the Win laptop for gaming and the Linux machine for pretty much everything else. Everything I tried was garbage: http://penguindreams.org/blog/4k-uhd-kvm-switches-the-starte... There are a few in the $500+ range I have not tried, but you are wrong, there are use cases for 4k switching. I mean, do you really want to have two 4k monitors…

Does the 4k monitor have multiple inputs? If it does, then connect both laptops to different input channels and switch inputs on the monitor as needed. Then presumably all you would need is a USB switch for keyboard and mouse input. I have often wondered why no one offers wireless keyboard/mouse combos with multiple USB fobs and a switch on the keyboard to change which fob it talks to.

https://www.amazon.com/IOGEAR-Computer-Peripheral-Sharing-GU...

Re: The Peculiarly Quiet Decline and Fall of the KVM

#140

Post by daemin »

ztjio wrote: post #106
daemin wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What I had learnt from investigating this issue is: * It's been a problem since at least 2012 * HDMI cables have an active-low connection pin, therefore it's easier to fool the video card into thinking the monitor is still connected. * DisplayPort is an active-high signal, therefore if the monitor powers off, it's the same thing as the cable being physically disconnected. Ideally I would be able to switch the monitor…

Is it necessary to you that the display actually be disconnected from power? I use display port on most of my displays and don't have the issue with simply turning off the monitor. But, that's because the monitor doesn't REALLY turn off. It just goes into an ultra low power mode. If that satisfies you, perhaps you need to get a different monitor is all.

Perhaps. I should take a look at the monitor configuration and see if there's a setting I can change. Something like "monitor power button puts monitor to sleep" rather than "monitor power button turns power off to monitor".

I don't turn the power off at the source, i.e. unplug the monitors.

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