I can’t find an actual answer anywhere.
I’m trying to declutter my desk and a KVM switch sounds like the right way to go. I have two monitors that I use for work/play, but I’m having trouble figuring out if the output from my work laptop dock would be okay to input into the KVM to then output to dual monitors.
Anyone got a clue or has any experience with this?
This depends. I’ve found that the cheaper KVM solutions are pretty picky when it comes to supported hardware and standards. While the more expensive/industrial ones are more forgiving.
I’ve done this before with a laptop and KVM switch. It worked fine. YMMV depending on the dock and switch in question though. The only issue I ran into was needing separate cables for the mouse/keyboard and video from the switch to the dock.
Yes, I used a hardware KVM with a laptop (Dell with a dock) and a desktop, it makes a lot of wires, but it works. You may need a high end KVM if you want to switch dual-monitor, 4K+ monitor, etc
But having both system at the same time is a must, so at one point I used RDP (windows->linux or linux->windows) from a screen.
But for ~3 years now I’m using a software “KM”, meaning my desktop is connected to a monitor, my laptop is connected to the second monitor, and I share the keyboard/mouse (hence KM) in software using InputLeap (formerly Barrier). It is seriously pretty good, when my mouse exit monitor #1, it enters monitor #2, and whatever you type is entered in the system where your mouse cursor is. It is fantastic, I cannot live without this now.
There are software KVMs that should work if you can’t get a hardware solution to work. I can’t imagine any issues with a hardware KVM and your setup as long as the cables and ports are the proper ones for what you have going on. Most KVMs are plug and play.
