Re: [tlug] Hardware Issue

[Joe Larabell <larabell@???>]

On Sun, 11 Jul 2004, Lyle (Hiroshi) Saxon wrote:

> >>I use a couple of Dell OptiPlex computers, and one of them - about 40%
> >>of the time - when booting up displays an error message saying it didn't
> >>detect a keyboard.
>
> Actually, I'm using the same keyboard, mouse and monitor with four
> computers, running through a KVM switch.

For what it's worth, I've had trouble with two different KVM switches on
boot-up. The one I use at home, if I recall right, is an "ATEN" and when I
used it with an RH8 system it apparently reported something different on
boot depending whether the switch was "looking at" that computer or not.
If the switch was switched to some other computer while the RH machine was
booting, kudzu would fire up and decide there was no keyboard attached.
The only way to convince it there really was a keyboard attached was to
reboot and leave the switch pointing to that machine until after the H/W
detect had run.

At work I have a corega KVMU. If I boot my ThinkPad while working on the
Lunix machine, the laptop will come up in a very brain-dead graphics mode
(like 640x480 / 8 color). I suspect this is also related to the KVM's
inability to properly probe and convey the specs of the peripherals when
said peripherals are busy doing something else. Although not keyboard
related, per-se, it seems to be a general problem with KVM switches that
they have trouble reporting the plug-and-play info of their peripherals
correctly in all cases.

I would suggest paying close attention to the switch setting when the
problem happens. My bet would be that the error happens when the switch is
selected *away* from the failing machine and when you later see the error
and reboot you then stick with that computer to try to observe the cause
(and thus, unfortunately, removing the cause).

Or try attaching a keyboard directly to the "flaky" machine for a while
and see if the problem goes away.

--
Joe Larabell -- Synopsys VCS Support      US: larabell@example.com
http://wwwin.synopsys.com/~larabell/   Japan: larabell@?jp