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Show HN: TinyPilot – Build a KVM over IP using a Raspberry Pi

mtlynch.io

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Re: Show HN: TinyPilot – Build a KVM over IP using a Raspberry Pi

#221

Post by DrPhish »

Bnshsysjab wrote: post #219
EvanAnderson wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've used virtually all of the iDRACs. They're probably in that 200ms area (based on my gut feeling w/ no empirical measurements). They've been fairly responsive in my experience.

Out of curiosity do they bring any functionality that this device does not?

The most interesting stuff is generally:

-Remotely mounting images (ISO/FS/IMG/etc) on the host for bare-metal installs or any other purpose

-Hard power options for unresponsive servers or emergencies

-Heavily integrated diagnostics (fan RPMs, thermals, RAID status, etc etc) with eg. snmp output

Re: Show HN: TinyPilot – Build a KVM over IP using a Raspberry Pi

#222

Post by gruturo »

mtlynch wrote: post #139
trm42 wrote: post #129

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you happen to have any idea, whether older RPIs like 1 or 2 could work for this fast enough? Have some of those laying around.

The video capture part should work, but I don't believe they support USB OTG, so they wouldn't be able to impersonate the keyboard. The official documentation[0] says all Pi devices have USB OTG, but I'm not sure if there's something else about the Pi 4 and Pi Zero W that allows USB gadget mode because I've never found anyone talking about using it before recent generations of Pi. This StackExchange answer says the A…

Any Pi with just one USB port (zero, A, A+, 3A) is capable of USB gadget mode because there is no hub between the SOC and the port.

Those with multiple ports have a hub in between and are not capable of gadget mode.

The pi 4 is an exception, it is capable of gadget mode on its USB-C power input, not via the normal ports as there is a hub in between there too.

Re: Show HN: TinyPilot – Build a KVM over IP using a Raspberry Pi

#223

Post by rjeli »

bronco21016 wrote: post #220
rjeli wrote: post #208

Earlier quoted context omitted.

oh, i wrote software that does this over airplay wifi mirroring and a bluetooth dongle as a mouse. i gave up because I couldn’t convince my phone to take a tablet hid profile for seamless mouse capture. it’s messy but I’ll throw it on github in a bit

How did you get the AirPlay mirroring working? Is there a library available for that? If I could just do that and use my keyboard's ability to switch bluetooth devices that might be sufficient.

https://github.com/FD-/RPiPlay

Re: Show HN: TinyPilot – Build a KVM over IP using a Raspberry Pi

#224

Post by mtlynch »

parliament32 wrote: post #193
fulafel wrote: post #138

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This fail-open "should" is bad besides for the obvious reasons, also because it'll be extra ops complexity compared to a secure kvm widget that you don't have to handle with kid gloves. (And thirdly because of the sibling comment noted footgun.. or silent foot-boobytrap more properly)

The problem is BMC has an astounding array of features[1] that are worth the operational complexity. This isn't just KVM like in OP's post... being able to remote mount images is a godsend when you're provisioning a server or diagnosing hardware issues or doing a BIOS update on the other side of the globe (with your other alternative being shipping a flash drive[2], then paying $200/hr for DC remote hands to plug it…

The Pi is capable of remote mounting images.[0] I haven't implemented support for it in TinyPilot yet, but it should be possible.

[0] http://www.isticktoit.net/?p=1383

Re: Show HN: TinyPilot – Build a KVM over IP using a Raspberry Pi

#225

Post by rglover »

mtlynch wrote: post #191
rglover wrote: post #137

This is great, Michael :) One question before I buy... I'd like to use these to do development work like you suggested, too. Is the Hacker option the build with the best latency/least issues (set it and forget it)?

Thanks for reading! Honestly, the overhead from TinyPilot is so small that it's just a question of how powerful you want the device for other activities. Here's a screenshot I took earlier today on a Pi 4 with 2 GB of RAM. TinyPilot is streaming video over WiFi, and top shows that it's only using ~4% of CPU and ~2% of RAM: https://imgur.com/GadzDOr

Sold. Just picked one up. Thank you for figuring this out and making it easy to get!

Re: Show HN: TinyPilot – Build a KVM over IP using a Raspberry Pi

#226

Post by Scaevolus »

mtlynch wrote: post #163
Scaevolus wrote: post #149

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'd expect the Pi Zero W to be fast enough to pass through the MJPEG stream and impersonate the keyboard, which should cut the cost by $20+ plus however much you save on not needing a fancy case.

Yeah that's true. I stopped thinking about the Pi Zero W early in the project because I assumed it would choke on video encoding. When I discovered that the HDMI dongle was doing the heavy lifting, I forgot to revisit that assumption. I'm going to order an USB to micro-USB adaptor to test it out because it would slim things down significantly.

Woops, forgot the major issue-- the Pi Zero only has one USB port (the other is just for power), so you couldn't get video frames in at the same time as you pretended to be a keyboard.

Re: Show HN: TinyPilot – Build a KVM over IP using a Raspberry Pi

#227

Post by [deleted] »

dukoid wrote: post #37

I have given up on KVMs altogether and I am using the following approach now: - Most monitors have multiple digital inputs. Connect each computer to one of them - Use a USB switch keyboard and mouse - Before switching the USB switch, press the "lock screen" key combination and make sure locking the screen drops the video signal - After switching the USB switch, pressing shift should bring up the login dialog and re-a…

[deleted]

Re: Show HN: TinyPilot – Build a KVM over IP using a Raspberry Pi

#229

Post by voltagex_ »

mtlynch wrote: post #45
wojciii wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Cool project, but what about power management? What happens if the PC being controlled crashes and does not let you reboot it using keyboard shortcut? I'm might be damaged by testing and working with embedded development.

Thanks for reading! > Cool project, but what about power management? What happens if the PC being controlled crashes and does not let you reboot it using keyboard shortcut? Yeah, that's one of the limitations. TinyPilot can't control power for the target computer. I don't know of any way to manage power without connecting the Pi to the target machine's motherboard, but that increases complexity significantly. I'm usi…

Can highly recommend the TP-Link HS100 for this - it's "just" a wifi power switch. Change your motherboard settings to "power on after power loss" and you've got your remote reboot.

Re: Show HN: TinyPilot – Build a KVM over IP using a Raspberry Pi

#230

Post by voltagex_ »

louwrentius wrote: post #202

I respect this effort, I think it's a great accomplishment. I think most people are better off building their own home (lab) server with a motherboard that supports IPMI (KVM over IP) natively. Supermicro (only brand I've experience with) or other brands that build server motherboards all include IPMI with HTML5 support. Doing so will save you a lot of trouble. Maybe you may not be able to run the kind of hardware yo…

So the recent Supermicros have a HTML5 iKVM, but mine originally came with a Java-only thing. When I had to send my box away to get repaired (Intel C2000 bug) it magically came back with a newer firmware that wasn't listed on their site and supported HTML5. I haven't been able to get remote ISOs working with the new interface, though.
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