IPMI and Remote Management for Any Motherboard! PiKVM

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Timestamps:

[@WolfgangsChannel]

PiKVM for Other ARM devices github.com/xe5700/kvmd-armbian Make your own USB splitter kzbin.info/www/bejne/q33Yc6iHiqtpZ9E Make your own ATX controller kzbin.info/www/bejne/nnzRfIKrfcSZbq8 Cheap USB capture card www.amazon.de/gp/product/B088NWWSKN/

[@jirehla-ab1671]

Is there any kvm solution for servers that has no usb ports?

[@lesumsi]

"I'm a lucky owner of a Pi 4" has become an actual flex.

[@ThisUploaded]

When looking into tech that could help with remote access via hardware I was incredibly surprised how expensive everything was. It's really cool to see stuff like this continue to progress and bring a more affordable option to the masses.

[@JeffGeerling]

9:12 - lol, introverts united!

[@FreekDijkstra]

Very nice! To control my servers at home that are stowed away, I use a Marmitek MegaView 76, which is a KVM extender, basically running HDMI + USB signals over UTP Cat5 or Cat6. That said, I probably would have picked a PiKVM nowadays. Marmitek is rather expensive (over €150), and I had the opportunity to put a lot of spare UTP cabling through my house, but not everyone does have the required dedicated UTP cable. The PiKVM uses your regular LAN.

[@ProTimax]

Great video! I didn't ever imagine that those tv boxes are so easily flashable, this opens up so many possibilities, not only for IKVMs but replacing RPI in general. If it wasn't for RPI shortage it probably wouldn't be worth the trouble, but since they are dirt cheap (especially used ones), might as well "convert" one just for sport :D

[@fauzanacyuto3656]

Yeeees the video ive been asking for!

[@ChaosTheory666]

Finally a use case for my old RPi 2B that was used for monitoring my terrarium environment years ago and has been in a drawer ever since it stopped working (probably because snek managed to pee a little into the enclosure somehow, maybe causing a short which then causes kernel panics) and I couldn't be bothered fixing it. Assuming it recovers from me brushing it with dish soap and rinsing it. We'll see.

[@user-rk2sy8df4s]

This is amazing! With tailscale or something similar installed you also wouldn't have to lookup the ip address..

[@jeffnew1213]

This stuff is cute and can be handy in the odd situation. Just to put it in context though, you can buy an entire off-lease enterprise server with iLO or iDRAC out-of-band management for the cost of a Raspberry Pi.

[@WolfgangsChannel]

Absolutely! However, PiKVM also runs on some cheap Chinese TV boxes which can be had for less than $25 - I plan to review one in the next video

[@perpetualcollapse]

Understandable, have a nice day.

[@GJoseeph]

Thanks for this content, I didn't knew anything about pikvm but I think it's an alternative tool for my server. Old Core 2 Quad with 3 1TB HDD as RAID 5, there's a couple of upgrades I would like to do in future, increase Storage with an HBA up to 12 drives, remote power on from the phone, today I can only remote shutdown, and a SAI PSU to safe shutdown in case of powerdrop or a 2nd server to backup and also mount remote CIFS/FTP to 1st server. Meanwhile I see you're in another Server/Homelab level, thanks for all the guides and content.

[@seansingh4421]

Dude upgrade. That’s seriously old.

[@GJoseeph]

@@seansingh4421 I know, isn't that amazing? 😀 The HW is almost as old as my nephew but it feels great to run. 😆 This shows that modern commercial SW is the new cancer for the HW. Thanks to open-source guys for Debian.

[@RaduUrsache]

just did this 2 days ago! it’s awesome

[@moayad.a]

How did you get Raspberry Pi? :’)

[@smol_yote]

I’m currently making one my homelab using an existing pci-e slot. It’s based off of Geekworm’s A-8. However if I could in the future I’d want to create something that uses an internal usb3 header for video + usb controls along with a pci-e 6 pin connector for power. I’d love for only port that comes out of the expansion slot to be an rj45 port. However I also would consider adding a small usb splitter to have a few ports for the usb 3 header or an hdmi port tied to an hdmi splitter for it to be adjacent to the RJ45 ((maybe both cause why not?)) It’s mostly just to have an emergency setup incase my reverse proxy messes up and I can’t access my machine over https

[@dan8t669]

Any issues with the Geekworm KVM-A8?

[@dgan2304]

I actually broke out laughing at 9:10 lmao

[@user-er4fr9zd7s]

I never made a Linux distro but this is exactly the same mindset I have with my mod manager yeahhh they are a tone of alternative Linux native mo already available but not polish enough so let's go and try we will see what happens

[@MenkarX]

IMHO, using standard KVM switch, laptop/portable display, mouse and keyboard sounds much easier and cheaper. Aber das Video ist ganz interessant. Danke!

[@maniknaal]

hello Wolfgang, pls make a video about intel arc gpu , my technical knowledge is very besic, would you suggest arc gpu for gaming after recent drivers update and any hopes in future this graphics perform much better then currently ?

[@rsvidenko]

Nice 😊

[@pavelperina7629]

Interesting for curiosity. I guess not cheap enough to be worth it and with RPI4 or RPI3 not much power efficient. I don't know about others, but in my experience SD cards in RPI have some weird tendency to die, industrial ones seems much safer, but not invincible. It might be bad luck. Also with power outage, filesystem might be found in random state (once I mysteriously lost partition table on SD card) so I don't trust it much. However, it might be interesting to use this for access to BIOS from other server if they can somehow emulate USB keyboard and mouse.

[@WolfgangsChannel]

SD Cards do have a tendency to just break, but PiKVM mounts the root system read-only by default, which should prolong the medium lifespan

[@4ida]

If only piKvm was possible on old android phones,maybe even pinephone... No waste and might be even cheaper

[@WolfgangsChannel]

kvmd-armbian does support some Android TV boxes, I'm planning to test that in one of the next videos

[@ThisUploaded]

@@WolfgangsChannel that would be really cool to see!

[@a.g8517]

super

[@June18887]

A microcontroller like ESP32 can do similar when connected to a serial interface but consumes less power and costs a lot less.

[@WolfgangsChannel]

Not every motherboard can output BIOS to serial console

[@jenslyn42]

Great video :) I was wondering if you can use PiKVM to control another Raspberry Pi device? I could not readily find any information on this on Google

[@WolfgangsChannel]

Yes! P.S. if you want to control a Pi 4, you will need an HDMI to microHDMI cable instead of HDMI to HDMI.

[@GreySectoid]

Would be nice if the pci card gizmo worked as an internal gpu, because most servers don't have gpu itself.

[@WolfgangsChannel]

Most servers that don’t have a GPU have a built in KVM. AFAIK though, Asrock Paul does have a GPU

[@BaneCodes]

For my setup the mouse and keyboard option is disabled how to fix this? I see the red color icons

[@notvoidz]

make a video on your hhkb

[@lucasceni8833]

What’s the link for the rPi price monitor? Great review btw!

[@WolfgangsChannel]

rpilocator.com

[@bertibutz]

Nice video.. with blikvm, could you connect the ATX power control and the power button of the case same time? So both are useable? Thanks..

[@WolfgangsChannel]

Yes

[@RealTkco]

Wake on PCI is a thing, it sucks tho tbh. I see the power thing being a thing not sure why they don't use it.

[@bastian433]

Maybe blur the phone number @ 5:06 if you still use that. I use the blikvm and it works well. but the included fan is worthless etc. I would rather have paid less, and have (part of) the cables as an option. I still think It costs a lot for what it is, but it works wel and still is cheaper then many things.

[@WolfgangsChannel]

[phone] 😁

[@bastian433]

@@WolfgangsChannel oh see I didn't even read it, but thought hey a phone number, now I see

[@lawrencemanning]

A nice solution. But IMO serial consoles still have a use case. 99% of Linux server issues can be resolved using a good old serial console. Decent BIOSes will propagate the console for the BIOS to the serial port. Not much use for windows servers, of course.

[@JeffGeerling]

Maybe a VPN connection to a Pi with a Debug Probe hooked up to the console port would be adequate in that case! Certainly a lot less bandwidth required and it'd run just fine on a Pi Zero or A+ (which are easier to find).

[@lawrencemanning]

@@JeffGeerling in your traditional 1990s (and later) data centre you’d have a server in each rack which was your “serial console terminator”. Using a pi for that in a home network does sound pretty interesting. I wonder if anyone’s made any “hats” that have a coupe of serial ports….

[@WolfgangsChannel]

@Lawrence Manning AFAIK you don't even need a hat, since GPIO supports serial

[@JeffGeerling]

@@lawrencemanning I have a box from WTI that I've been meaning to set up in my rack that does just that... though a bit more pricey than trying to build a multi-port box with a Raspberry Pi! I've considered trying to build something comparable using a bunch of USB to UART adapters...

[@jerryinfeld8276]

At the same time the PiKVM is attached to the server, can you also have a local monitor, keyboard and mouse attached to the server? Does the PiKVM do KVM passthrough?

[@parameterized7]

Why do you need an USB Splitter? Doesn't a USB A on the Pi to USB A on the PC work, with an additional USB C Powersupply?

[@WolfgangsChannel]

No, because only the USB-C port is capable of USB-OTG

[@Jerzeecanuck]

Take a shot everytime he looks to the right. Drink a beer everytime he looks to the left.

[@cafairchild93]

Is this possible to use on a server with a Ryzen processor? No built in graphics output.

[@WolfgangsChannel]

Nope, only a Ryzen APU

[@jeschinstad]

Why don't they draw power from the PCIe that is already connected to the mobo? Seems strange to need an internal USB cable for that, no?

[@WolfgangsChannel]

The internal USB cable is for the keyboard and mouse connection, not for power. You want the KVM to be powered independently of the PC anyway, so that you can control the ATX buttons even if the PC is off or requires a hard reset

[@jeschinstad]

@@WolfgangsChannel: Yes, but USB delivers power whether the PC is on or off?

[@WolfgangsChannel]

On most computers, you'll have to enable a BIOS setting for that. Something along the lines of "Enable USB power in S4 and S5". Besides, a standard USB port doesn't provide enough power for the Pi anyway. You're gonna want to use an external power supply or PoE

[@jeschinstad]

@@WolfgangsChannel: Thanks. :)

[@rasaskitchen]

Here I am running the entire server on a rpi4.

[@MacLimitRange]

Still, not an IPMI alternative, considering that, for access my BIOS i need to restart my system and enter on the BIOS, when on a IPMI Motherboard i can access the BIOS while the server still running and doing live change.

[@-aexc-]

it's more of a replacement for people with homelabs who aren't running mission critical stuff

[@pr0jectSkyneT]

Is it possible to install PiKVM to the microsd using ExFAT to get higher storage capacity? I have a 128gb microsd card.

[@WolfgangsChannel]

I'm sorry, but how will ExFAT give you a higher storage capacity? Ext4, which is the file system that PiKVM uses, supports up to 1 Exabyte volumes, and even with FAT32, the maximum volume size is 2TB

[@pr0jectSkyneT]

@@WolfgangsChannel is that right? I read somewhere that microsd cards formatted under FAT32 have a maximum of 32gb. To recognize higher capacity, the card needs to be formatted to ExFAT?

[@WolfgangsChannel]

@@pr0jectSkyneT I don't think that's correct. FAT32 does have a pretty big limitation - individual files can't be bigger than 4GB, so that's why people mostly use ExFAT for SD cards these days. PiKVM only uses FAT32 for the boot volume, and all the system files are stored on an ext4 filesystem.

[@pr0jectSkyneT]

@@WolfgangsChannel ok thanks for that

[@mousam.mondal]

I want to know, i have Pi micro HDMI to HDMI cable, usb male to male and power cable. Is those fine to run a basic pi KVM ? i want to knoe here in my case if i plug My Pi 4B's micro HDMI to My Main CPU's HDMI input will it work ? and Pi's USB out to CPU's USB in will it work as keyboard and mouse. I need the very basic ip KVM.

[@WolfgangsChannel]

No, you need an HDMI capture card. They're pretty cheap though

[@mousam.mondal]

@@WolfgangsChannel for keyboard and mouse. A simple USB cable is okay?

[@WolfgangsChannel]

No, a USB port on a PC will not provide enough power to the RPi. You'll need to make a USB power splitter

[@fiecylick3981]

"i uSE aRCh bTW!" It is good tho

[@JulianAlien12]

nice thanks for that tip 5:06 your router actually runs at german xD

[@MH-kc5jr]

He lives in Germany and im also pretty sure he speaks german at least a bit

[@alexandrosnaoum1318]

@@MH-kc5jr funny tho the router shows a phone number (which is bad as start) and it is Czech one.

[@karmitfrog7968]

usb hdmi capture card suck.

[@OstensibleCrustacean]

For the amount of efforts and cost involved to get a rather fragile solution it is cheaper to get a server motherboard with IPMI at this point. On a separate note, cpu heat sink at 1:59 mark must be rotated 90 degrees…

[@WolfgangsChannel]

You can’t exactly rip an IPMI module out and take it with you 😉 Also, yes, you’re right! Thank you

[@alexandrosnaoum1318]

Be honest, how many spam calls you got after showing a phone number in the router screen (if it is yours of course) :D

[@gelanghaarteweile3048]

Warum nicht einfach USB-A-Male-Male verwenden und power normal anschließen? Why not just use an USB-A-male-male cable and connect the power normaly on the pi 4?

[@WolfgangsChannel]

USB-A ports on the RPi don't support OTG, which is necessary for HID/USB storage emulation

[@gelanghaarteweile3048]

@@WolfgangsChannel Ah, ok thx :)

[@fwiler]

I liked the blikvm solution until I saw how much the compute module was. $218+ shipping. No thanks.