Using a JetKVM to perform a laptop configuration is helpful. However, by default the JetKVM will show up as your second display. If you close your laptop lid, the Laptop will go into “suspend” preventing it from being accessed from the JetKVM. In this tutorlal, I present a solution.
With the JetKVm connected to the HDMI port of a laptop, display 0 will be the laptop display and display 1 will be the device connected to the HDMI port. That means that by default the login screen and the menus will be on the laptop display, but the JetKVM connected to the HDMI display will not have the login prompt, nor the menu bar by default.
If you close the laptop lid, normally that would cause the laptop to go into suspend mode and would not respond until the lid is reopened. We can fix this!
As shown in the video, with my laptop lid closed, I am able to log into the laptop via the JetKVM and it works. This is because of a configuration change that I made from the laptop prior to the demonstration in the video.
Once I make this change to the Ubuntu configuration of the laptop, it does not suspend when the laptop lid is closed. Furthermore, when I examine the “Displays” option in settings, with the lid closed there is only a single display and that is the HDMI display connected to the JetKVM.
To make this change, edit the following file:
sudo nano /etc/systemd/logind.conf
Scroll down in the file and look for:
#HandleLidSwitch=suspend
Change it to:
HandleLidSwitch=ignore
Do a CTRL O and Enter to Save the file and do a CTRL X to exit the nano editor.
To make this change take effect:
sudo systemctl restart systemd-logind
This will log you out. From now on, whenever the lid of the laptop is closed, you will be able to log into the laptop from the JetKVM and the JetKVM will be the primary and ONLY display unless you open the laptop lid.