Yep, it's working fine in XT mode. Even in my crazy chain:
USB kbd-> 1st HIDMAN to PS/2 (my keyboard is buggy with kvm) + PS/2 mouse -> chineese PS/2 to USB adapter (kbd + mouse)-> USB IN on ATEN CS1734B-> PS/2 mouse and kbd in 2nd chineese ps/2 usb adapter-> 2nd HIDMAN -> XT
oO

DangerMouse wrote on 2025-05-14, 11:26:

No, it's clone. I think the reason is my AT-XT converter after hidman (but this chain works well), I didn't test hidman in XT mode in direct connection to XT yet. I'll check it soon.
[/quote]

Ahh, yes if you use an AT-XT converter HIDman has no way of detecting you have an XT.

Let me know if you have any problems in XT mode.

DangerMouse wrote on 2025-05-14, 11:47:

(my keyboard is buggy with kvm)

Yeah I've noticed that my crappy fake "Logitech" mouse is far more stable when going HIDman->USBtoPS/2 than direct to PC... weird.

OK v1.1.5 is out now. Enjoy!

https://github.com/rasteri/HIDman/releases/tag/v1.1.5

I notice you listed "XT compatibility improved" there. I'm interested to know what that means, as I've been using HIDMan on my 5160 with an old firmware version and it works just fine.

keenmaster486 wrote on 2025-05-20, 19:12:

I notice you listed "XT compatibility improved" there. I'm interested to know what that means, as I've been using HIDMan on my 5160 with an old firmware version and it works just fine.

XT-class machines were throwing a "301" error because hidman wasn't following the power-on sequence properly.

Some versions of the XT BIOS refuse to boot if you get a 301 error

more info here - https://minuszerodegrees.net/HIDman%20AXP/HIDman%20AXP.htm

rasteri wrote on 2025-05-20, 19:19:

XT-class machines were throwing a "301" error because hidman wasn't following the power-on sequence properly.

I noticed that error showing up sometimes, but only when I attempted to start the machine with my KVM switched to the other computer.

rasteri wrote on 2025-05-20, 19:00:

OK v1.1.5 is out now. Enjoy!

https://github.com/rasteri/HIDman/releases/tag/v1.1.5

Gamepad mapping is gone...

DangerMouse wrote on 2025-05-22, 03:38:

rasteri wrote on 2025-05-20, 19:00:

OK v1.1.5 is out now. Enjoy!

https://github.com/rasteri/HIDman/releases/tag/v1.1.5

Gamepad mapping is gone...

Dang it I was hoping I'd have that fixed before anyone noticed....

working on it now haha

There's always one

DangerMouse wrote on 2025-05-22, 03:38:

Gamepad mapping is gone...

v1.1.6 fixes game controller support.

https://github.com/rasteri/HIDman/releases/tag/v1.1.6

I grabbed a couple of HIDmans (prebuilt) and they’ve been working great with my machines but still very new to me. I have 4 machines connected to a KVM (Aten CS1734b https://www.aten.com/au/en/products/kvm/deskt … itches/cs1734b/) which has a single USB cable that you plug into the computer. The single USB cable provides keyboard and mouse. Unfortunately HIDman doesn’t work with the single USB cable from the KVM. Is it possible to put HIDman into a debug mode / send you the logs and add support? Or can it only take keyboards and mouses from from dedicated USB connections and not over a shared connection? It would save me having to use 4 keyboards 😉

zuldan wrote on 2025-06-10, 08:52:

I grabbed a couple of HIDmans (prebuilt) and they’ve been working great with my machines but still very new to me. I have 4 machines connected to a KVM (Aten CS1734b https://www.aten.com/au/en/products/kvm/deskt … itches/cs1734b/) which has a single USB cable that you plug into the computer. The single USB cable provides keyboard and mouse. Unfortunately HIDman doesn’t work with the single USB cable from the KVM. Is it possible to put HIDman into a debug mode / send you the logs and add support? Or can it only take keyboards and mouses from from dedicated USB connections and not over a shared connection? It would save me having to use 4 keyboards 😉

Yeah start with the hub unplugged, go to the advanced menu and log HID data. Then plug the hub in.

rasteri wrote on 2025-06-12, 13:28:

zuldan wrote on 2025-06-10, 08:52:

I grabbed a couple of HIDmans (prebuilt) and they’ve been working great with my machines but still very new to me. I have 4 machines connected to a KVM (Aten CS1734b https://www.aten.com/au/en/products/kvm/deskt … itches/cs1734b/) which has a single USB cable that you plug into the computer. The single USB cable provides keyboard and mouse. Unfortunately HIDman doesn’t work with the single USB cable from the KVM. Is it possible to put HIDman into a debug mode / send you the logs and add support? Or can it only take keyboards and mouses from from dedicated USB connections and not over a shared connection? It would save me having to use 4 keyboards 😉

Yeah start with the hub unplugged, go to the advanced menu and log HID data. Then plug the hub in.

Ok I went into HID data mode and did the following;

1. Unplugged the USB keyboard from HIDman
2. Plugged the USB keyboard into the KVM
3. Plugged the USB cable from the KVM into HIDman then all this data filled the screen…when I type on the keyboard, nothing new appears on the screen (in Edit). The power light also never flashes (receiving data?)

rasteri wrote on 2025-06-12, 13:28:

zuldan wrote on 2025-06-10, 08:52:

I grabbed a couple of HIDmans (prebuilt) and they’ve been working great with my machines but still very new to me. I have 4 machines connected to a KVM (Aten CS1734b https://www.aten.com/au/en/products/kvm/deskt … itches/cs1734b/) which has a single USB cable that you plug into the computer. The single USB cable provides keyboard and mouse. Unfortunately HIDman doesn’t work with the single USB cable from the KVM. Is it possible to put HIDman into a debug mode / send you the logs and add support? Or can it only take keyboards and mouses from from dedicated USB connections and not over a shared connection? It would save me having to use 4 keyboards 😉

Yeah start with the hub unplugged, go to the advanced menu and log HID data. Then plug the hub in.

Sorry, wasn't using my head. I should have just saved the text in the editor. Here is the full log.

Rasteri,

I have never been able to get my HIDMan to work with my mouse and KVM. I use a USB KVM and it doesn’t really play well with stuff like this. We had tried a few months ago to no avail. I even bought a new KVM hoping it would help, but it did not.

I think it’s unlikely that my HIDMan will work with my setup.

However, my current setup is this: I have a raspberry pi that acts as a host. I use an arduino with the ps2dev library to emulate a PS2 keyboard, and a USB to serial setup to emulate the mouse.

That has been working fairly well. My modern computers use USB, then my rpi will handle the legacy PCs. The rpi is connected to a Belkin PS2/VGA/Serial KVM so all my legacy PCs are behind that.

All of that was well and good until I recently picked up a Toshiba Libretto. The libretto doesn’t seem to communicate on its port replicator’s serial port. So, right now I have no mouse support for my favorite laptop. I think most likely, my port replicator is broken.

So I was thinking of revisiting this setup.

Now I have used ps2dev successfully to emulate a keyboard but not a mouse. My arduino PS2 emulator doesn’t seem to act like a mouse successfully. I am going to keep exploring this.

But my HIDMan seems to very happily emulate a PS2 mouse when I plug my mouse directly into it.

I was thinking, could I program the HIDMan to be a USB client rather than host? Then my rpi could issue commands to the HIDMan?

Do you have some version of your firmware for testing where you can issue commands from a host computer? Or pointers on how to go about doing this?

I see that there is a arduino board configuration for the CH55x out there too so I may give that a shot as well.

keenmaster486 wrote on 2025-02-25, 20:33:

Any suggestions for a basic USB switch that works with HIDMAN? I tried this one: https://www.amazon.com/Switcher-Computers-Key … e/dp/B0CHY8L11W with no luck. My keyboard works fine when connected directly, but not through the switch.

Does HIDman support hubs in general? I guess a USB switch mostly contains one.

KVM Nerd wrote on 2025-07-26, 19:37:

keenmaster486 wrote on 2025-02-25, 20:33:

Any suggestions for a basic USB switch that works with HIDMAN? I tried this one: https://www.amazon.com/Switcher-Computers-Key … e/dp/B0CHY8L11W with no luck. My keyboard works fine when connected directly, but not through the switch.

Does HIDman support hubs in general? I guess a USB switch mostly contains one.

In theory, yes, HIDMan should support hubs and switches.

In practice, it has never worked with any of my switches. I also have a more complicated mouse (Logitech g502). HIDMan may work with a simpler keyboard and mouse plugged into a simple hub.

dylanrush wrote on 2025-07-26, 18:12:

I was thinking, could I program the HIDMan to be a USB client rather than host? Then my rpi could issue commands to the HIDMan?

It can't do it at the moment I'm afraid. For more advanced setups I would always recommend USB4VC rather than hidman.

Hidman is really designed as a simple adapter for connecting a basic keyboard and mouse to an old computer. Elaborate KVM setups weren't really part of the original plan. But I would like to improve compatibility with KVMs wherever possible.

It seems like a merge of PiKVM and USB4VC would be something people would benefit from. Maybe I'll tinker with it someday.

Hub support on hidman has always been hit-and-miss. Apart from anything else a lot of hubs are buggy and just won't switch to low-speed mode properly.

But also hidman doesn't have support for nested hubs. This was a deliberate decision to avoid using recursive functions, as the CH559 is a severely stack-constrained device. But it would be possible to implement with some careful planning.

A lot of USB KVMs present themselves as nested hubs so that's probably why people are having issues with them.

rasteri wrote on 2025-07-29, 12:57:

Hub support on hidman has always been hit-and-miss. Apart from anything else a lot of hubs are buggy and just won't switch to low-speed mode properly.

But also hidman doesn't have support for nested hubs. This was a deliberate decision to avoid using recursive functions, as the CH559 is a severely stack-constrained device. But it would be possible to implement with some careful planning.

A lot of USB KVMs present themselves as nested hubs so that's probably why people are having issues with them.

I'm working on a HID project too and chose RP2040 + TinyUSB for the host part. It seems to be quite robust, it worked very well with the full five possible hubs stacked when testing it with low and full speed HID devices. I was using random (cheap) hubs, not selected ones.