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View Full Version : No video during Grub boot menu using KVM



Sherlok1948
June 18th, 2011, 03:08 PM
I am using a Belkin Switch2 KVM (F1DF102Uea) to connect two PCs:

1. Dell Dimension 9150 (Intel P4), dual-boot using (A) Windows XP Pro/ 750GB disk and (B) Ubuntu 10.01 32bit on a seperate 160GB disk. This machine is connected to the KVM using the longest KVM cable (Green). This is my main machine which I use with Windows and works perfectly through the KVM.

2. HP-Compaq DX2250 (AMD64*2), dual-boot using (A) Ubuntu Linux 64bit/ 1TB disk and (B) Windows XP on a seperate 160GB disk. This machine is connected to the KVM using the shorter cable (Yellow). This is a new machine (new to me - ex company machine via ebay) which came with windows XP on the 160GB disk. I bought a 1TB disk and installed Ubuntu 11.04 64 bit.

There is no video displayed during the Grub boot menu phase from the DX2250 and the monitor displays ' Analogue input, Cannot display this video mode'. Video is OK (later) from the Ubuntu OS. The Grub boot menu displays OK if the monitor is connected directly to the PC.

I have sent a question to Belkin support on this but wondered if anyone on this forum has come across this problem and can offer a simple fix. Thanks.

amauk
June 18th, 2011, 03:20 PM
These switches are absolutely horrid
don't use them if you can help it

To properly detect a connected monitor and set the right resolution & refresh rate, there's a 2-way communication between machine and monitor
The machine asks the monitor what settings it supports, and the monitor responds

These switches that allow a monitor to be shared between multiple machines don't allow for this 2-way communication to happen, so the machine has no idea what settings the monitor supports