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?

  • Dandroid@dandroid.app
    2·
    10 months ago

    I have this one, and so far it has been solid. It does take a couple of seconds to switch, and afaik, there isn’t a way to do it with a keyboard combination. My requirements included USB C from the devices to the KVM switch for video and USB data, and charging my laptop at full speed.

    My only complaint is that if my laptop dies, it won’t power on if I plug it into the KVM switch. I need to unplug the power adapter and plug it directly into the laptop, power it on, then plug both back into the switch.