I setup the new KVM switch on my destop/hobby area, where I have 3 PCs that are normally connected via a much older KVM switch to a keyboard, video, mouse. The 3 PCs are:
PC#3: 32-bit AMD Athlon-1100 w/1GB (MSI KT3 Ultra motherboard) w/AGP nVidia GeForce FX5200 graphics [age 9-years]
PC#3 is very old, and it came with only USB-1.0. A few years ago I purchased a PCI card with USB-2.0, so as to give that PC a USB-2.0 output.
This new Aten CS1748 KVM will handle DVI for video, which is why I wanted to use it. But instead of PS2 for keyboard and mouse, it has a USB that plugs into the PCs.
PC#1 and PC#2 work ok with this Aten CS1748 arrangement of DVI for video and USB for mouse/keyboard. But PC#3 as a minimum has problems with the keyboard. I can access the BIOS with the keyboard, but I can not select on the grub menu. I’ve switched the PC off at that point (with no Grub control) as there is no point in booting further without that functioning. There is no legacy mode selection in the BIOS. I tried plugging in the KVM’s USB cable to various USB connectors on the PC (both the old USB-1.0 and the 3-year old USB-2.0) and none work.
Its too bad, because this KVM is real nice. (My older KVM was a digitus IC-614l with VGA (for video), and PS2 for Keyboard and mouse) DigitusDC-IC614I bei idealo.de .
PC#3 is my sandbox PC (it has a dual gnome and kde4 openSUSE-11.2 grub boot selection). I may just plug in an extra keyboard direct to this PC and explore the remainder of the functionality of this KVM. Its a bit puzzling that the keyboard BIOS access works but not keyboard access with grub, but I suspect it is tied into the PC#2 motherboard not having USB-2.0 and the PCI card’s USB-2.0 compliance with the USB-2.0 spec.
The new KVM is my wife’s Christmas present to me (passed to me a few days before Christmas).
As a work around I plugged a spare keyboard into PC#3’s motherboard keyboard input, and it works ok. I put put this keyboard under my desk out of site (pulling it out only when needed), so its not such a bad arrangement, although in part it defeats the purpose of having an expensive KVM.
Too many spare keyboards. I think I’m fortunate to have the extra English keyboard immediately available. A few years back I spilled Soy Milk on my keyboard, frying it. We had no spare English keyboard at the time, and my wife’s spare German language keyboard (when I plugged it) turned out to be dead. So I ended up using my wife’s spare Thai/German (combined) keyboard, which was not so great. Plus the keys were small (my wife likes small keys in a keyboard) and the tactile sense horrible.
Then I discovered it very difficult to get an English language keyboard in Germany without paying a relatively exorbitant amount at the local PC shops (which is not surprising, when one ponders it for a bit , after all, German is the official language here where I live). So my wife ordered two English keyboards by Internet mail order, so I would have a backup next time I spilled Soy Milk on my keyboard! …
… and in the mean time, a friend’s PC died (and as a Canadian expatriate his PC’s keyboard was English), and he passed me the dead PC (including the English keyboard) as his new replacement Dell PC came with an English keyboard and he did not want the spare. So I now have 3 English keyboards. … as they say: It never rains. … It pours!
Better Fonts with DVI video. One neat thing about using this new KVM switch is it supports DVI and hence my being able to use my 3 PC’s graphic card’s DVI outputs (ie digital as opposed to analogue) … the FONTs on all my openSUSE-11.2’s changed immediately. So I had to go in to the desktop setup and tune the Fonts again. … Fortunately, I think I ended up with even better fonts than what I had before , … knowing, of course, … that Font selection is all relative.
>
> I ran into a problem with my new KVM switch: an Aten CS1748 USB 2.0 DVI
> KVMP Switch. Here is a pix of it: ‘Aten CS1784 4-Port USB 2.0 DVI KVMP
> Switch’ (http://kvmswitchdirect.co.uk/CS1784.htm)
>
> I setup the new KVM switch on my destop/hobby area, where I have 3 PCs
> that are normally connected via a much older KVM switch to a keyboard,
> video, mouse. The 3 PCs are:
> - PC#1: 64-bit Intel Core i7 920 w/6GB (Asus P6T Deluxe V2
> motherboard) w/ PCI-e nVidia GeForce GTX260 graphics [age-6 months]
> - PC#2: 32-bit AMD Athlon-2800 w/2GB (Asus A7N8X Deluxe motherboard)
> w/ PCI nVidia GeForce 8400GS graphics [age-5 years]
> - PC#3: 32-bit AMD Athlon-1100 w/1GB (MSI KT3 Ultra motherboard)
> w/AGP nVidia GeForce FX5200 graphics [age 9-years]
> PC#3 is very old, and it came with only USB-1.0. A few years ago I
> purchased a PCI card with USB-2.0, so as to give that PC a USB-2.0
> output.
>
> This new Aten CS1748 KVM will handle DVI for video, which is why I
> wanted to use it. But instead of PS2 for keyboard and mouse, it has a
> USB that plugs into the PCs.
>
> PC#1 and PC#2 work ok with this Aten CS1748 arrangement of DVI for
> video and USB for mouse/keyboard. But PC#3 as a minimum has problems
> with the keyboard. I can access the BIOS with the keyboard, but I can
> not select on the grub menu. I’ve switched the PC off at that point
> (with no Grub control) as there is no point in booting further without
> that functioning. There is no legacy mode selection in the BIOS. I
> tried plugging in the KVM’s USB cable to various USB connectors on the
> PC (both the old USB-1.0 and the 3-year old USB-2.0) and none work.
>
> Its too bad, because this KVM is real nice. (My older KVM was a
> digitus IC-614l with VGA (for video), and PS2 for Keyboard and mouse)
> ‘DigitusDC-IC614I bei idealo.de’
> (http://www.idealo.de/preisvergleich/PopProduct/979924.html) .
>
> PC#3 is my sandbox PC (it has a dual gnome and kde4 openSUSE-11.2 grub
> boot selection). I may just plug in an extra keyboard direct to this PC
> and explore the remainder of the functionality of this KVM. Its a bit
> puzzling that the keyboard BIOS access works but not keyboard access
> with grub, but I suspect it is tied into the PC#2 motherboard not having
> USB-2.0 and the PCI card’s USB-2.0 compliance with the USB-2.0 spec.
>
> The new KVM is my wife’s Christmas present to me (passed to me a few
> days before Christmas).
It sounds very nice indeed!
I also use a KVM that provides keyboard and mouse connections to the PC
using USB. On one of my older computers, grub does not respond to keyboard
input. I can just wait it out, and grub will boot the default system after
a few seconds. Fortunately, that default system is SUSE 11.0. If I wanted
to boot something else, I can use the LEAVE options to reboot into a
different system. Not ideal, but “workable” since I have not yet needed to
change any of the boot options.
Turns out, my KVM with PC#3 gives the same behaviour.
The funny thing about this is I booted PC#3 with the second keyboard I added, selecting the grub menu item that I wanted. Then after it booted, I checked that the second keyboard worked, and I switched to another PC. The second keyboard was a bit “in the way” so I put it in a convenient location, I was using the main KVM keyboard. I switched back forth between all 3 PCs a number of times, when it suddenly dawned on me after using the KVM keyboard many times on PC#3, that the KVM was now working for ALL 3 PCs, including PC#3 .
One would have thought I would have waken up immediately (upon 1st key press) that the KVM keyboard was now working for PC#3 (once in X window) but it never occured to me. …
Duuuuhhhhhh … rotfl!
So its just during grub that the KVM keyboard is not recognized on PC#3. Hence I’ll keep the second keyboard plugged in (but “out of the way” ) and only use it when I need to change the grub selection.
So my wife ordered two English keyboards by Internet mail order, so I would have a backup next time I spilled Soy Milk on my keyboard! 
…