Use MacAlly ICEKey with an IOGEAR USB KVMP switch

Sep 05, '03 10:35:00AM

Contributed by: greed

The MacAlly ICEKey drivers, as provided, do not work with the IOGear USB Keyboard / Video / Mouse / Peripheral sharing switch. This is because the switch intercepts all the codes from the keyboard or mouse and regenerates them under its own identity code.

As a result of this, the ICEKey driver is not loaded, because it is set up for the wrong USB identification (well, the right USB code, but not the one presented by the IOGear switch.) But by changing the Info.plist file, you can have the driver load for the IOGear switch instead, so the four extra buttons on the keyboard will work.

Read the rest of the hint for the details...

  1. Start Terminal.

  2. Change to the driver's directory:

    cd /System/Library/Extensions/ICEKey.kext/Contents
  3. Make a backup copy of the file:

    sudo cp Info.plist Info.plist.bak
  4. Modify the file to reflect the actual product and vendor codes. You can find out the product code from Apple System Profiler. The vendor code is translated into the vendor's name by ASP, IOGear's device is actually an ATEN, vendor code 1367. My unit is the four-port MiniView, product code 8709.

  5. Change to the Extensions directory:

    cd ../..
  6. Tell the kernel to test and load the extension:

    sudo kextload -t ICEKey.kext
  7. Unplug your KVMP and plug it back in.

Enjoy your audio control buttons and dedicated eject key. Also, F14 and F15 adjust the built-in monitor's brightness on appropriate machines. If this doesn't work, double-check the Product and Vendor codes in Apple system Profiler. You can also use ioreg -n Kb to get the information; look for the Product and Vendor lines in the output.

Oh, and now aren't you really annoyed at brain-damaged installers that request a reboot just because they added a kernel extension?

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