KVM Switch and Happy Hacking Keyboard Pro 2 - keyboard

I have been using HHKB Pro 2 for almost a year, one at home and one at work. Now I have to work with two computers (PC and Mac) for which I decided to buy KVM switch.
I picked one and expected nothing wrong with that, but when I plugged it in, HHKB was not working either with PC nor with Mac. I tried several keyboards and all worked flawlessly expect the mentioned HHKB. I tried the second one with the same result. With that in mind, I purchased another KVM switch, which was hardware switched (the previous one listened to ScrollLock which is supported by HHKB by using Fn key). To my surprise, it didn't work either.
Now I have tho KVM switches that work flawlessly with any keyboard BUT that damned HHKB Pro 2.
Is there any KVM switch that can handle this (or to be more precise, is there any that HHKB can deal with, because obviously there's something wrong with HHKB, not with KVMs).
Do you have any experience with that?
Thanks.

HHKB Pro 2 has got USB hub and that seems to be causing trouble with most of the KVM switches.
KVM switches expect keyboard to be attached to its keyboard port. So when HHKB Pro 2 is attached, KVM switch finds an USB hub and just stops. It won't go beyond USB hub to look for keyboard which might be attached to it.
So are there any KVM switches that works fine with HHKB Pro 2?
One of the ATEN's KVM switch worked although it was a bit unstable.
May be their recent models might work with increased stability if you want to give it a try.
However, I would suggest free software solution like "Synergy" (http://synergy-foss.org/) if you have display for each of your computers.

Related

I've done some research and I can't find the reason to why the USB ports stop working when trying to boot ubuntu

I've looked around a lot at many people's different questions and can't find one that is the same situation as the problem I'm having. Essentially a friend brought me an old PC of theirs with the request that there are some files they want taken off the hard drive. Unfortunately, their version of Windows had corrupted, so my solution was to boot Ubuntu from a USB drive without affecting the hard drive, to access the files and then the computer is going to scrap anyway. Unfortunately, as soon as the ubuntu software starts to load the lights on the keyboard and mouse turn off and when I eventually get to the option of 'Try Ubuntu', neither are responsive. I've tried restarting, I've tried different ports, I've tried unplugging and plugging back in, I've tried a different keyboard and mouse but I cannot find a solution. I installed the latest version of ubuntu from their website. I can use the keyboard in the BIOS settings etc. Anyone know what is happening? All help is greatly appreciated.

OSX El Capitan 10.11.3 Bluetooth not available

I am having some issues to get back to function my bluetooth (OS X El Capitan V.10.11.3, after the update), just presents a message as NOT AVAILABLE. I tried This solution without any response.
Later, I tried to reboot the SMC like the following:
How to Reset SMC in a MacBook Air, MacBook Pro Retina, or MacBook
Pro’s (with non-removable batteries)
Step #1. Turn off your MacBook (any of the above version). Step #2.
Attach the power adapter to your Mac. Step #3. Press
Control+Shift+Option keys and power button together for some time and
then release the keys. Ctrl, Shift, Option, and Power Key Combination
Step #4. Start the boot as usual.
From here.
Also not working with my issue.
It's really frustrating, damn macs.
Had this problem since 2015 usually after waking the computer, Bluetooth would show as unavailable and I have tried just about everything suggested by answers I found online. The only solution I have come across that works 100% for me is by going to System Preferences -> General -> unchecking Allow Handoff between this Mac and your iCloud devices
It has been a month of observing this problem that occured daily and never had an issue afterwards. Hope this might help some of you out there.

Using bluetooth keyboard in grub bootloader

I want to choose between several OS's during startup. How can i manage this by using my bluetooth keyboard/Cellphone or at least my IR remote?
One solution is to boot the linux system first, and then add the boot once command to grub for booting another system the next time. This will take time, but works without any hardware.
Using keys via IR remote did not work so far.
Disclaimer: I'm not an expert for GRUB and I'm using my general knowledge about PC hardware and software here.
As far as I know, GRUB is using BIOS to get input from the user. Thus, unless your PC (or other device you're running GRUB on) has support for Bluetooth/IR remotes in BIOS, there's no way you can do what you're asking for. Also, if you happen to have a wireless keyboard with host side wireless base, which is pluggable into a standard USB or PS/2 port, it might work (as long as BIOS sees such a keyboard as a normal wired keyboard connected to USB or PS/2 port).
Other alternative would be to modify GRUB (add support for Bluetooth/IR remotes/etc), but that's a story of a completely different complexity. :)
I would verify the keycodes coming from your ir dongle using showkey.
Then make sure the grub keymap handles them.
Personally I have yet to changing the grub keymap to work for me.
I have a tablet loaded with grub and I know the keycodes the buttons give in ubuntu but when I modify the keymap to make down and enter two of the buttons I never get a response in grub. But if undo my keymap changes and hook up a usb keyboard it works fine.
I am also keen to use my Bluetooth keyboard when selecting my OS in GRUB. It makes no sense to place 2 keyboards on the table just to choose a choice. I think it is good for GRUB to host a bit of Linux (just the BT part) so that it loads the module for the BT device to work.
Nevertheless, this may mean that you will have to re-pair your device once you are in your preferred OS, unless you wish to use up all your BT chips with just GRUB/Windows/Linux. And, as far as I can tell, the commercial products support up to only 3 BT connections usually.

How to simulate Touch event in Linux/Mac/Windows?

I wanna to simulate touch event in Windows / Mac OS X or Linux (OS is not critical).
Under Windows Vista and Windows 7, the Multi-Touch Vista drivers let you use 2 mice to simulate multi-touch gestures. It should degrade nicely to the "normal" touch experience. In my experience, it can be fairly tricky, but it works.
It really kind of depends on what you're working on and what the goal is. If you can separate the response from the action in your application, that will make it a lot easier to test something like this without going through a lot of hassle.
If you wind up needing a touch device, Wikipedia has a nice list of multi-touch devices.
A lot of time passed since this question, however, maybe someone will google for similar question and find that there is another option:
If you have android device, you can use your device as touch screen for windows.
Maybe there are other software to do this, but I used following one:
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.tnksoft.winmultitouchfree
This program from some japanese guy coupled with desktop app does the trick.
You can get desktop app from his site http://www.tnksoft.com/ .
Unluckily it is japanese site, but it's not hard to find necessary program there(it has easily recognisible icon)>
Alternatively you can get link once you install android app.

Will I be able to successfully run this Ubuntu (linux) setup in Virtualbox?

Have 4 DVI output. Seems I hopefully will have driver support on this. Details are sketchy online about supporting 4 outputs, but seems possible.
My question is from the Linux group and Virtualbox pros.... Will the seamless method of VirtualBox allow me to use all 3 of my monitors for multiscreen. I'd like to stick with Ubuntu and run Visual C# and other tools from my VirtualBox. Compiz effects are just too amazing to want Aero Glass.
What do you think, will my system be able to use the multiple monitors with VirtualBox and this graphics card? I've googled for hours and am still searching for answers.
Edit:
I tried virtualbox last night. Pretty slick, though I had an error in installing Visual C#NET. However, it wouldn't let you drag between multiple screens??? Is this something the host must resolve, or does the guest session need to have special settings for multiple monitors? Haven't been able to find anything in google supporting multiple monitors with virtualbox.
You should be able to configure your screens just fine. Don't know the exact details for an ATI setup, but you should be able to use Xinerama to create a single large virtual desktop, and then just run VirtualBox (though honestly, I prefer KVM, which runs on modern CPUs which provide native virtualization support) full-screen on one of those monitors. You would then be able to have three screens dedicated to Ubuntu, and the forth dedicated to Windows.
You might want to look into the non-Xinerama method of multiple displays. Each display is then treated as its own screen (so you'd have :0.0, :0.1, :0.2, and :0.3 for your X displays). You cannot move applications between the screens, but you get four independent desktops. I personally find that more useful than the idea of a single stretched desktop over multiple displays; when I used a laptop as my primary system, that's what I did, and when I get a second monitor for my computer, I'll likely return to that means of doing things. You'll have to investigate the specifics for such a setup with ATI, but the X server supports it, so it's just a matter of looking at your ATI driver's documentation to put the pieces together.

Resources