windows, sun solaris - 1 monitor

[kcarrera]

Hello, am thinking about purchasing an old sun box ( just to learn the OS ). However, I do not want to buy a monitor. Are there any KVM products out there that will support both Sun and Windows(PC) hardware?

I appreciate any help offered

[sm8000]

What kind of machine is it? I have a friend with an ULTRA 5 that's using a Sun keyboard but a Microsoft Intellimouse. Also, a Sony Trinitron monitor. I'll email him and ask what he thinks, but two out of three ain't bad....

[sm8000]

Here's his reply to my email. I was mistaken - the Intellimouse is connected to a PC-based machine, not his Sun machine:

> I see your Ultra 5 has an Intellimouse

no, it does not. the intellimouse is on the tower. the sun has a type 6 crossbow mouse.

> and a Sony monitor.

the ultra 5 uses a standard monitor, but not a standard keyboard interface. it is a type 5 keyboard. they can check what type of monitor connect that the sun box has -- if it has a 13w3 monitor interface, an adapter is available, BUT BUT BUT the monitor better be able to do multisync and fixed sync or you will fry it quick. sun machines output at weird rates, and will fry some non-SUN monitors. if it has a standard HD15 interface, then you are probably OK, as it still probably fixed-frequency output but one that a standard PC monitor can sync to.

there are KVM's that support both formats, but they are wildly expensive. esp. for older sun machines (like ultra*). the new blade machines have USB keyboards and mice, and might work through a cheap USB KVM, but you really need the extra SUN buttons for a sun workstation. they provide needed functionality, and i dont know if a USB sun keyboard will work on a PC.

if the PC is a UNIX-based system, then there might be a keymap for the sun keyboard. that person will just have to check.

my advice -- get a cheap monitor switcher, a used Ultra5 270mhz with 256mb ram, (ide hard drives, standard monitor interface, etc....), and use 2 keyboards/mice.
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For more on the montior frequency thing, see this thread:

http://www.sysopt.com/forum/showthread.php?s=&threadid=120330

Also, if you're planning to have this Sun machine on a network and have it house any critical files, see this thread about security:

http://www.sysopt.com/forum/showthread.php?s=&threadid=121773

[kcarrera]

Thank you very much for your help. Have a nice holliday!