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Looking for a kvm

B

Blackey Cole

macrumors member
Original poster
Mar 5, 2017
38
4
hello I’m just getting home from a trip that started in dec and haven’t been here In awhile but I have a question. While I was gone I received an Apple 27” mini display port monitor I would like to share it and my wired mouse and keyboard between my Mac Pro classic and MacBook pro, to do that I need an Apple compatible kvm. The ones that looked promising were the iogear which will not work with the Apple monitor others seem to work with it but the keyboard switching keys seem not to work with macs so before I purchase one I want to be sure it will work with both my cMP and MBP if it has more inputs I would like to hook up my Acer laptop at times if possible but I want the cMP and MBP to work first. This can’t be the first time this has come up.

Who has a kvm that works with Mac and the Apple Cinema Display Mini DisplayPort hopefully it has connection for two monitors but one will work.
 
While I don't have an Apple Display I'm using two ATEN USB/VGA KVMs connected to a wired Apple keyboard and a wired Logitech mouse.

The 4 port is model CS-1754
I did have some bugs initially but then flashed the firmware which fixed the bugs of it connected to an Apple keyboard.

Works fine when connected to a PC and Mac at the same time.
 
I would recommend trying out Synergy instead of buying hardware:

https://symless.com/synergy

I've been using it for a decade now, between macs, linux and windows. Multiple-monitor setups on each, it all works very smoothly.

My favorite trick was working with 2 dual-monitor setups, so there were 4 monitors in front of me. If I was working all the way over on the right it would take too long to move all the way over to the left, but Synergy allowed my to wrap around, and simply move off the far right-hand side of the monitor on the right, and have the cursor appear on the left side of the left-most monitor. It saved me about 3.5 feet of scrolling.
 
I’ve downloaded synergy but still would like the hardware option as I’m only going to be using one 27” Apple Cinema Display at the present I plan on adding a second one down the road but in the mean time I’m liquidating my monitors and some other items to free up space. I have two monitor stands one is a single layer of 3 across the other that I never used is a dual layer of 3 across. I have three 24” Acer lcd monitors model G245hq a hp 23” wide lcd monitor, and several other monitors including a never used view sonic 27” touchscreen and if your into flats I’m I have a vrinsight propit monitor with overlay. I went to vr so all these other monitors are not needed I will be keeping my Sony ps monitor for my ps4 it’s has great color a with the 3D glasses a slit overlay that is freaky.
 
Blackey Cole said:
hello I’m just getting home from a trip that started in dec and haven’t been here In awhile but I have a question. While I was gone I received an Apple 27” mini display port monitor I would like to share it and my wired mouse and keyboard between my Mac Pro classic and MacBook pro, to do that I need an Apple compatible kvm. The ones that looked promising were the iogear which will not work with the Apple monitor others seem to work with it but the keyboard switching keys seem not to work with macs so before I purchase one I want to be sure it will work with both my cMP and MBP if it has more inputs I would like to hook up my Acer laptop at times if possible but I want the cMP and MBP to work first. This can’t be the first time this has come up.

Who has a kvm that works with Mac and the Apple Cinema Display Mini DisplayPort hopefully it has connection for two monitors but one will work.
Click to expand...

In my experience, any keyboard with exotic keys has to be plugged into the KVM's general USB ports and not the dedicated keyboard USB port, so you'll need a KVM that switches additional USB ports beyond just the dedicated mouse and keyboard USB ports. I've noticed the same will be true for any kind of exotic mouse functions (the mouse will have to be plugged into KVM's general USB ports instead of dedicated mouse USB port).

This is because KVM's with dedicated keyboard and mouse ports are always presenting your keyboard and mouse to both connected computers all the time, even the one you are switched away from, and even if no keyboard is plugged in at all. If they didn't do that, you'd constantly get the "USB connecting/disconnecting" popup alerts/sounds, and annoying delays while the device negotiates a connection, every single time you switched. But in order to always present a keyboard, it has a fake keyboard profile that it presents, and that unfortunately doesn't include any exotic keys. I wrote this pretty badly, so I hope it sort of makes sense.

Of course the downside to using your keyboard in the general USB ports is that you WILL get those delays, alerts, and sounds.
 
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