Really? On the one I did yesterday I used the mouse (ok, I didn't
*have* to but I did) and I'm not sure how I could have chosen the right settings without a video display?
So it appears, by telling me what suits *you* best and suggesting it would *therefore* also suit me (and many million others) and trying to do so by seemingly ignoring our practical needs and further signposting how your solution doesn't meet them?
JOOI, you aren't a big Linux fan are you ... (as all the above seems par for their course)?
Ironically, I was asking my mate in the PC shop yesterday how he's getting on with his KVM switch. Apparently, the only issue he has had was with it 'going funny' whilst burning a DVD on the Linux (Mint) machine recently! (bizarre but the absolute truth).
I usually run a pair of machines with dual head screens on both. My KVM can handle switching up to four machines to a pair of monitors. Its only PS/2 though can't do audio.
For audio I have a 5.1 active speaker system on my "entertainment" PC, and connect the audio out from the "office" PC to the line in of the other machine. So on the rareish occasions I need sound on that machine it goes through the other one.
Printers belong on a network, and not connected directly to a machine IMHO. So they can be shared anyway.
I am a computer geek, but I still run a KVM ;-) I make use of VMs, and remote access / desktop software as well when it suits, but there are some things for which a KVM is still a better solution.
Actually, if anyone does know of a way of getting remote access to the BIOS setup data (note the data, not necessarily the setup screen interface) that would be useful on some occasions. (without Intel vPro or other management stuff built into the system)
For example, even though I have remote access to a call recording machine in a clients call centre. The other day there was a long power cut, and the UPS ran out of juice and dumped the cabinet of comms kit. On recovery it became obvious that the PC had not had its BIOS set to automatically turn on when power was applied. Hence it needed a manual restart. It would have been nice to be able to alter the BIOS settings remotely once the PC was back up, rather than have to drive to the site, carry a monitor, and keyboard to the machine and hook it up, restart it, and enter the BIOS etc to change the settings etc
It sounds simple enough:-) I think I'll eventually dump the XP m/c although it still happily does all I need. Waiting for adverts can take time. Curiously, there is no *off* button for u tube videos.
I have a pair of tiny speakers which stand on the desk so I can grab the volume control.
Mine is mostly switched off. I suppose stuff could queue but my wife has a b/w laser printer at the other end of the house. If she wants colour it gets posted to me.
I was a computer professional which is why I don't run KVMs or dozens of actual power guzzling space eating redundant PCs. If I need winders, its in a VM. I don't have two monitors, I have 8 virtual monitors instead.
Adder's IP KVMs will do that. They sit between the PC and the display/keyboard, so anything the PC displays, including the BIOS setup, can be accessed remotely with a VNC client.
These were used with legacy kit that had no iLO or equivalent.
I used them along with regular KVMs at a remote (in another country) unmanned site. They were a godsend. This is it:
Yes, and a good 'graphics / 3D Designer, but the person asking about KVM switches (that some people seem to have missed the focus / point of) suggests (himself) he isn't. ;-)
Of course, you, me, several of my mates and millions of others all over the world and for many reasons.
Of course, most of us do, but *some* are only ok with you using (and only using) what they use and for their reasons.
Yup, and if you want the lowest common denominator, something that offers the best practical / physical / simple and complete solution to people who want such things, then KVM switches are the *only* real switching solution. 'Of course' there are alternatives out there that are (say) easier to expand or 'better' for being able to move data between machines or cheaper on the electric bill... but those features may not be as important to many as being able to access the system at the very basic level in an easy way. And *of course* running a KVM doesn't preclude anyone from *also* running VM's or soft sharing solutions eh. ;-)
For *me* (and many others as it happens) it's the same as the Windows V 'others' arguments. I *like* (use, appreciate, take_advantage_of) the massive user base of (mostly) 'ordinary folk' that use and those write and build hardware for Windows, because that also gives *me* the best / easiest / most useable solution to *my* practical_solution needs.
However, this afternoon I was helping a friend with an audio problem on their MacBook Pro and before that using Linux to play with a hard drive partition table.
*Some of us* are both willing and happy to mix and match, to use whatever is right at_the_time to achieve an end goal, without being overly interested (or fanatical in a tiny minority of cases) about the means or journey etc. ;-)
(I've remotely hit 'Shutdown' rather than 'Restart' on a PC in Aus and that needed more than a car to get to). ;-(
I believe I have seen something that allowed you to interrogate and modify the CMOS Ram when that was the norm but I think things are different now, with Flash ram etc holding the BIOS variables?
I mean, you can re-write the BIOS from Windows (BIOS upgrade) but I don't think that's where the 'settings' are stored?
Interesting to find an answer though (which may vary between hardware of course). ;-)
Correct, since settings are stored in files, not in the system. If you re-install or upgrade on the disk with the running system, the settings files are untouched. If you install on a new drive, you tell it where to get all the old settings from. Simples.
Last server class machine I bought - an HP - had a separate little processor that allowed you to see the remote console, even during boot. I daresay everyone does them - but I don't buy many servers.
Usually called "lights out interfaces", or similar.
In 21 years at my last job, I never went in the (main) machine room. In some cases I wasn't that certain in which country the servers I was working on were located.
I actually wrote the 'operating system' for a board whose job was just that - to sit there and wake up dozens of other boards and record what happened as they booted.
Cant remember what company that was, but I vaguely recall a 'Modus' and the company was in Hemel Hempstead.
That setting is stored in battery backed RAM or flash ROM on the motherboards. It is exactly the same as 'dicking with the BIOS except that because apple make the hardware, they can write a cute GUI program to do the dicking
The appalling ignorance displayed here...how on earth do you think that an operating system or a file can have anything to do with boot behaviours, when the whole point of booting is to *load* the operating system and *make files accessible*?
Reminds me of the plumber who nodded sagely and said that putting a
*sealed mains pressure tank* in *the roof* 'would improve the water pressure in the house'...
HomeOwnersHub website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here.
All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.