I returned from vacation this week to find that the office had bought "us" (me) a mac mini for "the workbench" (my office). It's a great little machine, but I've run into one problem. I'm quite fond of the intelimouse with it's five buttons and a scroll wheel. It works great when hooked up directly to the USB port of the mini. However, the mini is on a PS2 KVM switch, and when the intelimouse has its PS2 connector connected, then routed through the KVM to the USB/PS2 converter, the intelimouse software doesn't recognize it as an intelimouse, so there's no back/foward/expose action.

Is there a software solution to this problem? We've got plenty of mice around, but I think I'll live without the extra buttons before I deal with switching mice every time I switch computers.

Matthew

I have also had problems getting a USB mouse to work through a KVM switch.

I believe this is a limitation of the KVM switch, not a limitation of the mouse or the computer.

My solution was to just have two mice. Everything else but the mouse could be KVM-switched, so I had a second mouse for the second computer.

I believe, also, that there are newer KVM switches that will accept USB mice and keyboards. I think they're more expensive though.

*sigh*

I've been searching for a solution almost exactly like this for months now (I even have an old thread here) but no solution has been found. I still have two mice sitting here. The problem is, I believe, that the conversion of USB to PS/2 is a no-go. Logitech mice have the converter because (as I was told in the other thread) Logitech builds their USB mice with PS/2 speaking parts.

I recently ordered a convertor from a site that Rob R linked me to (for another issue), and when it didn't work, I sent several emails to the site asking what was up, and they were basically like "well...they work for us!" I have the sneaking suspicion that they made these converters, then tested them on Logitech products

Right, I do remember that thread. Luckily I'm trying to get this working with a mouse that speaks PS2 along with USB. It just doesn't get along with the mac mini.

Matthew

When using it with a KVM it's not the USB -> PS/2 converter. It's that the KVM actually emulates the mouse and doesn't just switch it in and out as needed. Most machines don't like you hotplugging PS/2 devices so the KVM talks to your real mouse and then pretends to be one to the host computer. If the KVM doesn't know how to emulate the extra features on your mouse then you don't get it.

Ah, I see. Your problem is getting the extra buttons to work. My problem was getting the USB mouse to work *at all* through a KVM switch.

Exactly. It works, it just doesn't see that it has extra buttons. I think Microsoft thought that since macs never had PS2 ports that their software didn't need to support them.

Matthew

I use a program called ControllerMate to map the buttons on my mouse to keyboard commands. But if you can't map them in the expose preferences then I don't think OS X is seeing them at all and I doubt there is a software solution.

Ahhh, okay I see. That makes sense. I guess MS supplies a converter with their mice too? Now I get what you're talking about.

Someday maybe my IS department will spring for USB-capable KVMs.

Ok, without the MS driver it's still not seeing the extra buttons. I suppose I'll have to give them up for the time being.

The next problem is that I (metaphorically) Brought My Own Keyboard, which works fine almost all of the time. When SSHing into one of the linux servers, the backspace key functions as a delete key in pico/nano. It works as a backspace key everywhere else. It even works as a backspace key when using nano locally. Odd. I havn't googled this yet, but if anyone wants to point me in the right direction I'd appreciate it.

Matthew

Have you tried synergy? http://synergy2.sourceforge.net IIRC.

Tom, but without third-party software you can't do anything (except perhaps Expose) with the extra buttons on the MX900. Game pad Companion works for this purpose:

http://www.carvware.com/gamepadcompanion.html

And for non-Bluetooth mice, USB Overdrive also works (he's been promising BT support for at least a year now).

The program Dylan mentioned, Controllermate might work as well, but it looks extremely and unnecessarily complicated/confusing/awkward to use.

As for the first part of this thread: Replace the KVM switch and don't use the adapters with the mouse.

Bruno

About all I care about from a mouse on my Powerbook is a working right click, side buttons mapped to expose, and the scroll wheel working. OS X does this fine built in, and when running a game like World of Warcraft, I can map all 5 buttons to anything.

I used a trackball for a long time with a simple 3 button arrangement. When I moved back to mice, I never got used to the back/forward functionality in web browsers, instead usually using backspace as back.

For his purposes though, it was more of a test to see if maybe the 3rd party mouse drivers were getting confused by the KVM, or if (as it seems to be the case) the kvm or converter combination was not passing through the buttons.

ControllerMate does have a confusing UI but it works well. Gamepad Companion was the first program I tried but it doesn't automatically restart itself after putting the machine to sleep - obviously a problem with a notebook.

ControllerMate works perefectly. I can highly reccomend it, the only downside is that there doesn't seem to be any way to use a mouse event to trigger a mouse event. This settled the scroll button as exposé or open-in-new-tab question. It's so nice to have things be consisitent accross computers now.

Matthew