[G4] Re: Connect one monitor and two macs??

[Sean Collins]

Do NOT buy the IOGear MiniView unit mentioned below.  It is not 100% 
Mac compatible.

1) with keyboard & mouse plugged into the front-side USB ports, NONE 
of the Mac special startup keys work.  eg, no cmd-S single user mode, 
no Option key for startup drive select, no shift key for safe-boot 
mode, etc.

2) with the keyboard & mouse plugged into the rear USB ports, the 
special keys do work, but power-on and cmd-opt-esc do NOT work, and 
remote computers can NOT be controlled.

In fact, do not get ANY unit that has on-screen display/switching 
capability.  These use an internal ROM to detect special keys, and 
are tailored to Windows, and reject Mac special keys.

I have had one of these units for a while now, and I need 2 keyboards 
to get full Mac functionality.  IOGear blames it on Mac USB, which is 
pure BS.  Everything works from USB, just depends on 
front-side/back-side ports, but they ignore that fact.  They would 
not refund my money either.

A USB KVM is going to be easier & cheaper to find, but you'll need to 
add a USB card to your 6100.

Sean

>I have an iogear 4 port USB KVM. I use it to switch between 2 macs
>and 2 PCs. Works ok only problem I've found is that for some reason 
>the computers can not sense what type of mouse I have plugged in to 
>the USB mouse port. The KVM also had a 3rd USB port in the back for 
>peripherals which does let the computer detect the mouse type. 
>Unfortunately when I switch computers the computer sees the mouse as 
>being disconnected. Kinda defeating one of the purposes of the KVM 
>(making the comps think the mouse and keyboard are still connected). 
>Other then that I've had no other complaints with it. The link below 
>is to a newer version of the one I have so maybe that problem is fixed.
>
>http://www.iogear.com/main.php?loc=product&Item=GCS1714
>