JIM HOLSONBACK wrote in a message to ROY J. TELLASON:

 JH> Hello, Roy.   From back on 9/9 - -

 RJT> I ended up snagging another socket 7 MB,  this one with a VIA chipset I
 RJT> should look up.  And I've still not tested ram yet,  I need to do some
 RJT> rearranging in here so I can set up another machine,  and plug it in
 RJT> and let it rip.  At least I got as far as making the floppy...

 JH> I've been meaning to mention -  on the other worktable here, I 
 JH> have two boxes which share a single keyboard and monitor.  I have a
 JH> 4-box manual KVM box and cables here, but haven't set that up yet, 
 JH> either (I know, lazy).  Anyway, what I use for those two boxes 
 JH> I'll call a "poor man's KVM switch - -  with careful shopping, 
 JH> monitor and keyboard extension cables can be had for a buck or two 
 JH> apiece. I got two of each, and attached them to the 2 boxes.  
 JH> Routed the monitor cable and keyboard cable to front of the desk, 
 JH> and the above 4 extension cables are nearby. To switch from box to 
 JH> box,  I just switch the cables around.

I've been known to do that sort of thing sometimes.  

 JH> I don't worry about mouse, because those don't take up much 
 JH> deskspace, and anyway one of the boxes has a serial mouse and the 
 JH> other has a PS/2.

Some of the stuff I have here uses the older,  larger keyboard connector
(as do a bunch of the keyboards I have also) and some of them use the
smaller one. I have some adapters to let me use the smaller-connector
keyboards with the older stuff,  but not the other way around,  I think.

Got both sorts of mice here on hand too,  though as you say it's a less
critical issue.  This box I'm typing on doesn't even have one attached. 


 JH> PS/2 mouses don't like being hot-swapped anyway,

No?  I guess not,  though I don't know why that should be.  I remember at
that place I was working they re-routed some cables for me one time and I
had to re-boot to get the mouse working again.

 JH> and it takes the more expensive kind of KVM switchboxes to 
 JH> accommodate that.  They have some sort of circuitry in there which 
 JH> fools the system into thinking the PS/2 mouse is there, even when 
 JH> it is switched away from that particular box.

So it's something at the system end and not the mouse itself that makes it
act this way?  Odd.

I also find it odd that with *some* ATX boards you don't have to worry
about which connector is being used for the keyboard and which for the
mouse -- the MB figures it out.  While with others if you don't get it
right nothing works.

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