1.4 Display Port KVM Switch - Single Monitor - Four Computer
USB Interface (5-gigabit or 10-gigbit):
10Gb
Problem:
I have several monitors. Most are connected to my main PC but one is connected to the KVM (and each of my machines through that). However, I’ve found that if I switch to or from my main PC, the monitors not connected to the KVM go dark for several seconds. Also, my TrueNAS system stops displaying, until restarted, if I switch the KVM away from it.
Other Notes:
Is the solution to this to buy a couple of levelonetechs EDID cloners?
Have you tried the windows 11 checkbox to persiat window locations? For truenas you just need to add a boot parameter to make it use a text console instead of a graphical vesa mode font.
On the main PC i’m running Windows 10 and Linux Mint. I have no idea if the persist window locations option exists on Linux Mint (haven’t looked yet), but it dosn’t seem to be in the display settings for windows 10.
As for adding a boot parameter to switch to a text console instead of a graphical vesa mode font: could you expand on this for me?
Windows 10 handles window placement completely differently than Windows 11 and it’s definitely inferior. If you don’t want to make the upgrade, check out PersistentWindows on Github. It replicates a lot of the functionality, BUT it does take a few seconds after you switch and login to move all your windows back into place. Try not to move the mouse while it does its thing. I’ve been using it for years and it works great.
Thanks for the info, however by the sounds of it, the github solution would be janky and potentially leave me looking for a different solution for mint.
My primitive knowledge of Linux tells me, I think you’re looking for a KDE-based desktop? For better windows options and compatibility. I think you can install it on Mint (make sure to take a snapshot first) or I guess the other option is to use a KDE version of Linux. I assume you want to keep Mint though?
I could put KDE on Mint (as I understand it) but that doesn’t really solve the problem for windows being jank. So for main PC an EDID cloner is looking like the best option. (Thanks for the help on that front though)
Just to TLDR the rest of this thread cause it went off on one path but not the other:
For truenas you said I could add a boot parameter to make it use a text console instead of a graphical vesa mode font (in order to ensure it didn’t stop displaying when the monitor was disconnected). Could you eleborate?
Also, an EDID cloner is what I’d want if I wanted to fool my PC into thinking a monitor is still connected, isn’t it?
Just a few notes on this - I was on windows 11 and my windows were flying all over the place after initially working fine with the KVM switch. As soon as I made all three of my monitors the same SCALE in display properties (175% for me) it started working fine and the windows all returned to remembered locations after switching devices. One was at 200% causing the issue. But Windows 11 is certainly better than windows 10 at keeping track of windows on multiple monitors in any case.
I’m curious about this too. Currently I use the 4x1 DisplayPort 1.4 KVM switch released a while back. It’s worked great when using i3 as my window manager in Linux.
Recently I switched to Hyprland (a Wayland composer) and it doesn’t seem to have any way to ignore monitor disconnects. I have two monitors and only one is routed through the KVM. When I switch to Win10, Hyprland moves all my workspaces over to the remaining monitor. Not a big deal as it moves them all when I switch back … except Waybar, Conky, Librewolf (Firefox fork) and my wallpaper manager all crash … case Wayland (and if I didn’t have one monitor connected, Hyprland would probably crash too … or at least Sway did last time I gave Wayland a shot).
For the HDMI 2.1 KVM, does the EDID cloning make the video card think the monitor is still connected? Or are disconnected/reconnects still sent as normal upon switching?
I’m going to try some other things first (Hyprland 0.41 just came out and they’re removing more of the wl-roots garbage, which might fix this issue), but I’m still curious about the HDMI switch if I wanted to get both monitors working across both machines.
This was an issue I thought was resolved now.
In general, this variable monitor config is something common on laptop users that should be built into the OS ideally. Doing edid emulation is a bit of a crutch and can introduce a lot of other compatibility issues and freesync/gsync problems, moreso on displayport than hdmi.
yes, if you press and hold the button 4 seconds to memorize the config. it can even without that.
glad to hear, and glad it is working as it should. Sometimes doing a DDU to reinstall windows drivers will also restore sane OS behavior RE window placement on the displayport KVMs.
I’m using waybar too. That’s not a composer/window manager. It’s a status bar. I actually use both Conky and Waybar (conky support Wayland now) for different gauges and they both crash (sometimes not always) on monitor disconnects.
I have them running in a supervisord group so they’re easy to restart; it’s just annoying.
It might be. I’m on 0.40 and 0.41 just came out. I’ll post an update when I get around to updating (I always have a ton of stuff open and it’s so annoying to restart, but I’m only at 9 days of uptime so maybe I should just rip the bandage off).
The issue you posted is a bit different. Persistent workspaces work fine. Like I said, when switching monitors, hyprland just moves all workspaces to the other monitor. X11/i3 is so much better in the sense that it wouldn’t move all my workspaces. By default i3/X11 will ignore monitor disconnects entirely.
I’m not entirely sure if any wayland compose can ignore monitor disconnects. It’s not possible on Sway. If I run xrandr on X11, it shows all the display outputs (even those disconnected). hyprctl monitors all does not (even though the documentation claims it should).
The issue I’m running into is more similar to these:
I’ll see if some of this is fixed with Hyprland 0.41, but if not I might look into the HDMI KVM. I’m going to stop now or else this is going to turn into a Wayland rant .
(and if I didn’t have one monitor connected, Hyprland would probably crash too … or at least Sway did last time I gave Wayland a shot).
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