[TriLUG] KVM & mouse problems

[Scott Chilcote]

Hello Doug,

I have seen this problem with my Belkin KVM, but only when I use Option 
Protocol "IMPS/2" to enable the mouse wheel.  The problem has not 
occurred when I use "PS/2" instead, but then there's no mouse wheel 
input.  If you don't need mouse wheel support this might be your answer.

I have never seen a complete cure for this problem other than using 
another brand of KVM.

A workaround is to switch away from X to a virtual console (Alt-F1) and 
then back again (Alt-F7).   This cleans it up until the next time you 
have to switch away and return.

My other fix was to start using VNC instead of KVM for display control 
flexibility.  There are a number of interesting add-ons for VNC that 
allow it to do a variety of useful display control operations:

    http://www.uk.research.att.com/archive/vnc/extras.html

One option is to use a display-only switch to flip between video 
outputs.  A virtual display can provide the mouse/keyboard control while 
you view the system directly.

This has worked well for me in a single user environment with multiple 
machines, but would take some creativity to scale into a multi-user 
environment.

Let me know if you find a direct fix for the Belkin problem, thanks.

     Scott

Douglas Kojetin wrote:

> Hi All-
> 
> I'm experiencing erratic mouse behavior w/ my Belkin KVM switch under 
> the console (and X as well, but I am rarely in it).  If I switch back 
> and forth between channels more than once, the mouse cursor goes crazy. 
>  The only real solution I've found is to restart 'gpm' (service gpm 
> restart), which is OK, but not all my users have access to that 
> command.  (I experienced it before, a long time ago, but I'm just now 
> getting around to it again -- since it's quite annoying).
> 
> I did find this page on the Belkin homepage:
> http://web.belkin.com/support/faq_qa.asp?pid=190&cid=
> 
> I tried setting everything in my XF86Config file to /dev/mouse, but that 
> did not work (I guess it makes sense, since I'm working under the 
> console and that governs X).
> 
> Anyone else have any suggestions, other than just shutting down mouse 
> services all together?
> 
> Also, one other random question.  The mouse cursor under the console is 
> a white block w/ some sort of accented 'G', which seems to change to 
> some other characters when I move over a character on the screen.  Any 
> means of changing this?
> 
> Many thanks,
> Doug
>