USB KVM Keyboard Drop Work-Around (almost, need help!!)

[Dean E. Weimer]

Bear with on this one, it is a little long, but I wanted to describe
problem with as much detail as possible.

I recently purchased a USB KVM to switch between my Windows XP Box and
FreeBSD (5.2.1-RELEASE) file/web development server.  I was able to use
the USB keyboard after a boot, but as soon as I switched to the XP Box and
back to the FreeBSD machine it would no longer recognize the USB keyboard.

Search the mailing lists, Google, and Yahoo, showed that I wasn't the only
one with this problem, but I could not find a fix or work around.

After some searching I discovered that by using the command
"usr/sbin/kbdcontrol -k /dev/kbd1 < /dev/console" that I could then see
the USB keyboard again.  Furthermore I discovered that when I switched
back and fourth with the KVM these messages showed up in the
"/var/log/messages" syslog.

When Leaving:
ukbd0: at uhub1 port 1 (addr 3) disconnected
ukbd0: detached
uhid0: at uhub1 port 1 (addr 3) disconnected
uhid0: detached
ums0: at uhub1 port 2 (addr 4) disconnected
ums0: detached

When Returning:
ukbd0: CHESEN USB Keyboard, rev 1.10/1.10, addr 3, iclass 3/1
kbd1 at ukbd0
uhid0: CHESEN USB Keyboard, rev 1.10/1.10, addr 3, iclass 3/0
ums0: Cypress Sem PS2/USB Browser Combo Mouse, rev 1.00/0.00, addr 4,
iclass 3/1
ums0: 5 buttons and Z dir.

So logic told me that if I could figure out a way to execute the
"usr/sbin/kbdcontrol -k /dev/kbd1 < /dev/console" command based on the log
I would have a functional work around.

I used Swatch (/usr/ports/security/swatch) form the ports tree to attempt
to solve this program.

My configuration for swatch contains the following:
watchfor /kbd1 at ukbd0/
        bell 3
        exec /usr/sbin/kbdcontrol -k /dev/kbd1 < /dev/console

I am starting swatch at startup as a Daemon from a script in the
"/usr/local/etc/rc.d/ directory" simply passing it the --config-file,
--tail, and --daemon options.

At first all works great, can switch frequently between machines, the only
catch is it takes a few seconds for the mouse and keyboard to be detected,
but no longer than it takes XP.

But every few days the swatch daemon seems to hang.  I can ssh into the
box from my freebsd machine, kill the swatch process and relaunch the
daemon, and again it works for a few days and then hangs??

Anybody have any ideas??

Please Copy my email -- dweimer at myhostinghome.net with any replies...

--
Thanks,
  Dean E. Weimer
  dweimer at myhostinghome.net
  http://www.myhostinghome.net/