[plug] Redhat + KDE + key/mon/mouse switch: mouse deconfigs?

[Denis Brown]

Dear PLUG members,

The following from a colleague.  I have done google'ing, altavista'ing and 
so forth.  Closest I come is the suggestion that "some cheap kvm switches 
give this problem.  I have no idea what breed of kvm switch my colleague is 
using but any thoughts would be valued!

"I have 2 PC's on my desk connected with 1 keyboard/mouse/monitor via a
2-port switch box (press the button to switch between boxes).
1 Box in WinXP, which works fine, and the other is Redhat 7.3. If I use
the WinXP box for an extended period (more than an hour or so), when I
switch back to the Redhat box, the mouse operation is all over the
place, and I cannot use KDE. If I can manage to quit KDE, then re-start
a fresh KDE session, then the mouse is OK.
I have seen similar problems before when I have the wrong emulation set
for the mouse - but this is odd as it initially works fine. Is there a
timeout setting that checks mouse connectivity that might need adjusting
here? I am guessing that after a set time, Redhat assumes the mouse is
missing and drops the emulation function. When I then switch back to the
box, it sees hardware it knows nothing of in effect, and is unable to
'plug & play'.
(The mouse is an MS IR Intellimouse)"

I've seen references to timeouts and mice but only in the context of 
3-button emulation.   I guess one option is to forget the kvm switch and 
just run something like VNC (server) on the XP and use the RH box natively 
and as the VNC client for the XP.
TIA,
Denis