KVM Switch (Work in progress)

Multi monitor helper for kvm-switches.

Intended use-case

This software is targeted people who has a physical multi-way KVM switch (for multiple computers, one monitor) but has multiple monitors that they would like to also automatically switch upon toggling their physical kvm-switch.

Example

You have the switch as seen above, you hook it up to your two computers. And everything is nice and dandy. But now you would like a second monitor, so you take a look at multi-monitor KVM switches and looking at the price you almost fall down your chair!

Don't fear, my software is here.

How does it work?

We use the fact that monitors look for other active inputs when an input (from a computer) is switched off.

To switch the signal off, we can either hibernate the computer, or use another program like xrandr --output ${MONITOR_TO_BE_SWITCHED_OFF} --off. And the opposite to turn on the monitor.

To figure out when to do this, we scan the DBUS for related signals:

• Keyboard disconnect.
• Keyboard connect.

Install

Do the following on both of your computers that you would like to switch between: pip install git+https://github.com/nymann/kvm-switcher.git

kvm_switch -m DP-3

For additional help:

kvm_switch --help

usage: kvm_switch [-h] [-v [VERBOSE]] [-m EXTRA_MONITOR]

optional arguments:
  -h, --help            show this help message and exit
  -v [VERBOSE], --verbose [VERBOSE]
                        Enables verbose mode
  -m EXTRA_MONITOR, --extra-monitor EXTRA_MONITOR
                        xrandr compatible name of the extra monitor you would like to auto-switch.