Impact of a KVM on installing OpenSolaris on a Mac Mini The IOGear KVM I have is both a lifesaver and the bane of my existence. OpenSolaris does not recognize the Apple wired keyboard under GRUB. (And it also fails to recognize it under Ubuntu.) If I use the KVM, I can use the keyboard.
So that is how it is saving my life.
It is slowly killing me because of tech support. The two add-on cable clusters are not working. IOGear says it is because I am using HDMI converters on the Minis. Strangely enough, it does not matter on the embedded cable clusters. I finally found a machine in the house which has a pure VGA connection. Guess what, the cables fail to work there as well.
I'm frustrated because the tech support crew is not listening to me. They are fixated on the HDMI converters and not on the fact that the box is broken. I've just got them to admit that the thing is broken. Now I get to send them the unit and they'll send me something back, sometime.
I think I'll head over to the Apple store to see if they have anything.
I've done enough swapping of cables to be undaunted about having 3 computers and only 1 KB, mouse, and monitor. Anyway, once the systems have OpenSolaris on them, they should run smooth, right?
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I have similar fraustrating issues with an IO Gear KVM switch and a laptop with HDMI instead of DVI. If I switch away from the laptop and then switch back roughly half of the time I lose access to the external monitor. Arrrggh :(
There are some other issues; but they are unrelated to the switch.
In theory; HDMI --> DVI is a passive adapter in practice it may not always be the case.
Display Port anyone?
Posted by John Kotches on February 11, 2008 at 12:07 PM CST #
I think the problem is exacerbated by the fact that they draw some power from the VGA pins (don't ask me, this is what they claimed on tech support).
They also offer an HDMI product, but the reviews on NewEgg.com were not that good.
The other complication is that the Mac Minis will not boot up headless in non-OS X operating systems. Evidently you can make a VGA dongle with pins 2-7 connected with a 75 Ohm resistor. Don't quote me on this, but you can use google to find the source.
http://forums.macnn.com/104/alternative-operating-systems/296206/headless-mac-mini-server-using-bootcamp/
Posted by Tom Haynes on February 11, 2008 at 12:29 PM CST #