I use a 2 port KVM with USB connectors just fine at my desk with a Windows and QNX machine.
A usb -v command executes properly and shows the keyboard and mouse hid devices.
Now, we bought a dual display 8 port KVM with USB connectors for our system we ship to customers.
On this particular KVM, a usb -v command fails saying ‘device 1 I/O input errors’. Running sloginfo says that attaching mouse descriptor reports failed.
Interestingly enough, the KVM actually works in photon and I have full mouse control. The keyboard works too. So I’d ordinarily be very happy except that the repeat key feature is somehow disabled. No matter how long I hold a key down on the keyboard, I can’t get a key repeat.
This isn’t a HUGE deal since customers would only ever look at the QNX part of the system in the case of a some kind of failure but it irks me to not have that feature in my lab when I am debugging.
Is there any way to manually start the hid drivers with bad usb information if I know there is a keyboard and mouse present so I can get the repeat key working?
Sorry for the tangent here. Our experience with USB KVMs has been spotty so far, even between windoze machines. What brands are you finding to work the best? We’ve tried inexpensive two computer versions of IOGear and Belkin and they’ve both had problems with lockups and very slow switching (up to 10 seconds to activate a keyboard after a switch).
First thing I did was upgrade the KVM firmware. Unfortunately it didn’t help. I’m probably going to have to experiment with manually starting the hid drivers and specify keyboard repeat times.
Ken,
The 2 port KVM at my desk is a 2 port IOGear Extreme.
The dual display 8 port KVM is a Belkin F1DE 208C.
I’ve been using the IOGear one at my desk for over 2 years. I never have problems switching between Windoze and QNX and haven’t seen anything like the problems you describe (I always use the ScrollLock/ScrollLock/Enter to switch between computers, not the buttons on the device itself).
The Belkin we are just now using in USB mode. Prior to that we used it with PS2 cables for 2 years without any problems but PS2 ports aren’t very common anymore so we want to move to USB cables instead.
Thanks, Tim. The IOGear unit we tried looked similar to the 2-port extreme but it didn’t have ‘Extreme’ in the name. When it locked up it would stop supplying power to the keyboard and mouse. I’ll check out the Extreme version.
Didn’t you know, the ‘Extreme’ is short for Extremely Stable
All kidding aside, it’s been very reliable for me. Once in a great while (as in once a month) I can mess up the device using the keyboard scroll lock commands to switch between machines so that I have to click the physical buttons on the device to complete the switch between machines. But I’ve never lost the keyboard or mouse or had to cycle power to it.