I found something out last night by accident. I've been using KVM (Keyboard/Video/Mouse) switches since they were serial ports. Now the ones I have are USB but I've had them for years and could usually not get the hotkey (Num Lock pushed 2-3 times for this case). They are convenient so that u can have multiple computers running at the same station and they all share the same keyboard, video and mouse. Most have a hardwired button u can use in addition to the hotkey switching so I use that till now. Last night I had a Nano Pi M1 Plus running with my desktop pc. The Nano Pi is running Debian with LXDE and OpenBox. The desktop is running Mint Linux 18.1 with Cinnamon.

Just for kicks, when I was in the Nano Pi I pressed Num Lock 2-3 times to see if it would switch and it did. However, when it got to Cinnamon it was again stuck and I had to use the hardwired button to switch to the Nano Pi. I saw a pattern here so I updated Mint to use LXDE and OpenBox and now that hotkey combo works on both computers.

The KVM I was using is a TrendNet TK-207K that I bought 7 years ago but is still available on Amazon:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Hope this helps somebody! Probably only LXDE is needed.

Now that I think about it, this KVM used the Scroll Lock button as a hotkey but my keyboard now doesn't have that. I'm using a wireless Logitech EX110 keyboard & mouse USB combo.

Oh, just in case somebody buys one of the Trendnet KVMs-they are old and the video wants a VGA plug. I have a HDMI to VGA adapter but maybe they make these with HDMI now because the adapter doesn't always provide a good image.

Here is the apt-get way I installed LXDE in Mint 18.1 which is should work in Ubuntu:

As a KVM switch user myself, I appreciate your post and for taking the time to tell about your experience. I've gone through several switches, too, mostly because of connector issues with new machines and hot key compatibility. I abandoned my last switch because it used the control key as a hot key, which interfered intolerably with some applications like NEdit and Emacs; and there was no option to alter or disable the hotkeys.

I have a blog post at:

http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...witches-36505/

I've seen ctrl-ctrl-#, scroll lock-scroll lock, both shift + number, and ones that use ctrl-ctrl then a menu to arrow up or down. Bet there are others out there.

Long time ago I had learned to buy the ones that suggest they work with linux. They tend to do better.

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