Subject: Re: monitorless/keyboardless netbsd config?
To: J. Maynard Gelinas <maynard@jmg.com>
From: Andrew Gillham <gillhaa@ghost.whirlpool.com>
List: port-i386
Date: 05/17/1996 13:23:03
> 	At your own risk is right.  At a place I used to work we had four 
> NetBSD boxes hooked up to one head and one keyboard through a switchbox.  
> One day we switched it to one machine and *POOF!* no keyboard interface on 
> the motherboard.  Lucky we had another MB floating around.  The console 
> was used extensively by NOC personel.  I'd recomend against jamming 
> keyboards in on live computers - hell, after this I'd recomend aginsnt 
> using switchboxes.   
> 
> 					jmg

"typically" this is just the fuse on the mainboard.  It still isn't
recommended of course, but the fuse is easy to replace.

What I would recommend is the RCI (Raritan Computer, Inc?) Guardian
product, which simulates a keyboard/mouse attached, and allows you to
plug the keyboard in and out. (and the mouse)  This works great for a
manual switch, and eliminates the possibility of blowing the fuse.
The guardians are available for ~$80 from DataComm Warehouse and other
places.  Definitely worth the money on a server machine, I can't mention
that enough! :)

-Andrew