Solaris 10 Unable to use "Dumb" KVM (Avocent SwitchView USB 4-Port), Works Under Solaris 8

[b***@gmail.com]

I have two Sun Blade 150 clients, one loaded with Solaris 8, the other Solaris 10.

I noticed that if I put the clients on a "dumb" KVM (Avocent SwitchView USB 4-Port), that the Solaris 8 machine works when switching between KVM channels (the /var/adm/messages log shows 20+ usb related events from kernel and usba)

The Solaris 10 machine will not reconnect to the KVM, and I have to SSH into the box and reboot it.

What's going on with Solaris 10? Why is it not as robust as Solaris 8 when the USB keyboard/mouse is switched on a "dumb" KVM?

Anyone had similar experiences?

When I SSH into the misbehaving Solaris 10 machine and do a "cfgadm", I can see that the USB devices have disconnected, but they are never able to reconnect, no matter what combination of cfgadm commands I try. Only a reboot of Solaris 10 fixes the problem. A sub-optimal solution.

And yes, newer "smart" KVM's work (IOGear GCS1734), just not the Avocent.

Any help is appreciated.

Brian

[Doug McIntyre]

I have two Sun Blade 150 clients, one loaded with Solaris 8, the other Sola=
ris 10.

...

The Solaris 10 machine will not reconnect to the KVM, and I have to SSH int=
o the box and reboot it.

I always had problems with USB KVMs with the Sun hardware, running
Solaris 8, 9 (never tried 10) gave random lockups of the USB ports
like this all the time for me.

I abandonded the project of even trying for that class of hardware
long ago.

You probably had one that just works for whatever reason, magic
hardware all lining up correctly. I didn't think it was software
version back then when I was trying my project, any version had the
same problems.