I am about to rebuild my home office desk setup. And I am going to take this opportunity to clean up the mess that have evolved over the past 4 years.
Use-case:
One Linux system and one (windows) work laptop. Each system already has it’s own dedicated monitors, so I don’t need to connect the monitors to the KVM. My goal is to get rid of the keyboard drawer (I currently have a keyboard and mouse on the desktop and another keyboard and mouse on the keyboard drawer) and down-size to a single keyboard and mouse.
One of the things that I’m looking is a KVM that supports hotkey switch (like you see on rack mount KVMs in data centers).
Does anyone have any experience with a KVM that fits this use-case?
Unfortunately, I’ve found KVM’s to be a pain in general. So I’m also hoping someone can reply with something that generally works, you’re not alone here.
My KVM was made by Wendell from Level1Techs, and I wholeheartedly recommend it. It’s going to be more pricey than some of the mass-produced options, but his is focused on accuracy.
One cheap solution (probably not what you were asking for though) is to buy a good USB 3.0 switcher, and then use the multiple inputs that most monitors have nowadays. Unfortunately, this means switching the monitor input and then also pressing the USB switcher button, but I used that method for many years before getting the one from Wendell. Not quite what you’re asking for, but it would definitely work.
My use-case has grown from my personal desktop and work laptop to an additional (personal) laptop.
My personal devices will share my Asus 32" monitor, but the two 24" monitors will still be dedicated to my work laptop. So, monitor switching is not part of the solution I’m looking for. I just need a KVM for keyboard and mouse.
For my personal devices (all Linux, of course), I will use Barrier, which is a fork from the old Synergy project (I think). I’ve used barrier before with great success. The work laptop is locked down and I am not able to install software on it, hence the hardware KVM solution that is needed.
@jay Thanks for the recommendation, I will definitely look at the USB 3.0 switchers. This sounds like what I am really looking for.