I have one of those fancy MSI gaming monitors, with a built-in KVM. It’s pretty infuriating. If there’s no video input, it stops forwarding keyboard and mouse commands. No way to switch keyboard and mouse via the keyboard. You have to use the toggle button on the monitor buried under multiple menus.

I’m looking for a nice KVM that people can recommend. I mostly care about the keyboard and mouse switching. I guess that’s a KM. Ideally it wouldn’t take multiple seconds for the USB to register on the new device when I switch. Bonus points if I can switch just using a keyboard combination.

https://github.com/debauchee/barrier Is an open source software option, that basically forward your keyboard and mouse over the network between machines. It’s interesting.

I have some very sensitive systems, and I wouldn’t be comfortable installing binary blobs on them, and a few are off the network entirely. So this solution would be less than ideal, but it’s really cool.

What’s your favorite KVM? How many machines do you have hooked up right now to the computer using?

  • @PlushySD
    3•1 year ago

    I hook my keyboard and mouse to a USB hub that can switch between two machines.

    If both machines are on, they have their own monitors (one is a laptop) and a software (Multiplicity from Stardock) will handle the k&m through network as if it’s a single machine with multiple monitors. Usually the main PC is the primary machine.

    If only one machine is on, I switch k&m with a button on the USB hub.