On 1/30/2014 9:21 PM, nestork wrote:

Would an old Dell Pentium IV and an old IBM Pentium IV have an
"internal" USB port on their motherboards?

If you have model numbers, you should be able to look it up.
I've seen it both ways.

I've been looking for a way to add PS/2 ports to a computer that doesn't
have them so that I can continue using my PS/2 KVM switch. Most of the
computers I'm seeing nowadays don't have PS/2 ports for keyboard and
mouse. So, if I buy a computer that doesn't have PS/2 ports, I can't
use it with my KVM switch.

I did find several companies that made PS/2 port cards. The problem was
that all of these cards were PCI cards, and nowadays PCI slots on
motherboards are becoming rare as well. All new computers have PCIe
slots on their motherboards, and you can't use a PCI card in a PCIe
slot.

However, this product:

'SYBAUSA - SD-PCI-UPS2 USB to PS/2 Adapter (Bracket version)'
(http://www.sybausa.com/productInfo.php?iid=799)

is neither PCI nor PCIe and will fit in any available motherboard slot.

It, presumably, just needs to be plugged in with a USB cable to an
"internal" USB port on the motherboard, or so it appears.

If I don't have an "internal" USB port on my motherboards, can I take
out another slot cover and run the USB cable through the opening out of
the case to one of the external USB ports?

A usb port is a usb port. Just need the right cables.
I've used one like the self-contained external one shown at the bottom
of the page
of your link.
It works mostly, often, usually.

Directly connected PS/2 keyboards with built-in touchpads work flawlessly,
but have random failure to connect at boot or random disconnects
when used with the adapter to USB.

I'm not sure I can blame the adapter dongle, because native USB
keyboards with built-in touchpads seem to have the same problem.

I've got multiple keyboards and they all behave similarly in this
regard. Independent keyboard/mouse work fine with the adapter.


I've not used a USB KVM switch, but have had issues with PS/2 switches.
Problem is that the switch has to emulate the disconnected devices.
So, if you boot a computer with the keyboard switched to the other one,
you get whatever the KVM emulates.
If your mouse or pointing device has more features, they may not
be enabled or cause problems because of the wrong driver.

No idea what happens when you try to connect a KVM switch on the other end
of a ps/2-USB adapter.

Long ago, I dumped all my KVM switches and went to a software
solution called synergy. You just move the mouse past the end of the
screen and it shows up on the other computer's display and the keyboard
goes with it.

This can be a great advantage if you have enhanced pointing device
functions that aren't supported under linux. The windows driver
manages the mouse interface and sends linux on the other machine what
it needs to to the function over the network.
Just be sure you're using the same version of synergy on both machines.
I don't know how many machines you can have, I've never done more than
three at a time.

Another good use for it is wirelessly networked media computer
across the room can be controlled from your local keyboard/mouse.
The disadvantage is that