looking for an ILO that's not an ILO

Anything not relating to the X-Universe games (general tech talk, other games...) belongs here. Please read the rules before posting.

Moderator: Moderators for English X Forum

Post Reply
Vertigo 7
Posts: 3458
Joined: Fri, 14. Jan 11, 17:30
x4

looking for an ILO that's not an ILO

Post by Vertigo 7 » Fri, 22. Jan 21, 04:32

Here's my scenario:

I have a PC that RDP isn't an option and I don't wanna use a KVM switch. ILO/IDRAC/Crash Cart devices are either stupidly expensive and/or they don't provide a good experience for long term use (laggy input, limited resolution, flaky connectivity). I know there are capture cards that streamers use but those do video passthrough only. I want something that does video passthrough but also lets me passthrough keyboard/mouse back to the "remote" PC while the "capture" window is the focus. Essentially I wanna control a laptop as if it were in a hypervisor console on my desktop.

Anyone aware of anything like this out there in the wild?
The Future is Progressive!
rebellionpac.com
Fight white supremacy, fight corporate influence, fight for the rights of all peoples!

Redvers Ganderpoke
Posts: 1880
Joined: Tue, 11. Sep 07, 12:38

Re: looking for an ILO that's not an ILO

Post by Redvers Ganderpoke » Fri, 22. Jan 21, 08:00

VNC? Requires a server/client to be installed. It works on windows /Linux. It's free for non commercial use. No good of course if the laptop isn't running a supported OS. I can't think of cheap hardware solution.
A flower?

Vertigo 7
Posts: 3458
Joined: Fri, 14. Jan 11, 17:30
x4

Re: looking for an ILO that's not an ILO

Post by Vertigo 7 » Fri, 22. Jan 21, 08:46

naw, it needs to be a hardware solution. I need to run it like I'm sitting at the keyboard so I can get into the BIOS or choose a boot device and so forth. I actually came across a thing that *may* suit my needs. https://tinypilotkvm.com/. It's a pi device running video capture on hdmi and connects to a device via USB to provide keyboard and mouse input and runs on an html 5 user interface. It looks stable with minimal lag over gigabit ethernet. At least it's not some stupid Java or Flash based KVM over IP.

Not quite my ideal solution, I would prefer the capture running directly on my machine instead of something over the network but I'm considering this if there's no other solution available.
The Future is Progressive!
rebellionpac.com
Fight white supremacy, fight corporate influence, fight for the rights of all peoples!

jlehtone
Posts: 21801
Joined: Sat, 23. Apr 05, 21:42
x4

Re: looking for an ILO that's not an ILO

Post by jlehtone » Fri, 22. Jan 21, 09:36

Vertigo 7 wrote:
Fri, 22. Jan 21, 08:46
I need to run it like I'm sitting at the keyboard so I can get into the BIOS or choose a boot device and so forth.
That is an important point that differs from plain remote session. One gets those by connecting peripherals (keyb, display, mouse).

A KVM switch is a convenience that allows sharing one set of peripherals by multiple computers (without constant unplug-replug of cables). A rack cabinet can have tens of systems and one set of peripherals.

The next level, KVM over IP, a remote machine can connect to it over net rather than having peripherals directly connected. One does not have to walk to the server rack, but use one's own PC. That TinyPilotKVM is such device. A computer that both pretends to be peripherals and presents HTML5/Java/VNC/RDP/etc service to connect to.

The IPMI (iLO, iDRAC, etc) solutions tend to integrate the "KVM over IP" into the server. Rather than having one KVM device and cabling to every machine in the rack, there is network cable to each machine and one "KVM over IP" inside each machine. There are no visible cables between controlled machine and the "ILO".

The TinyPilotKVM must have some video capture device. Something that you could add to your "client" machine too.
However, it has that "I'm some USB peripherals" chip too. The hardware and software clearly exists, but can they be added to "regular PC"?
Perhaps: https://www.reddit.com/r/arduino/commen ... yboard_to/

Inserting the hardware and software into your client machine (if possible) would eliminate the network connection between "KVM over IP" and your machine.

Fascinating question. 8)

Vertigo 7
Posts: 3458
Joined: Fri, 14. Jan 11, 17:30
x4

Re: looking for an ILO that's not an ILO

Post by Vertigo 7 » Fri, 22. Jan 21, 16:52

I know the capability exists, that's what's driving me nuts lol. If you've ever looked at a VM through Hyper-V or VMware consoles and interacted with them through that, you have seamless HID input to the VMs. The guest OS only sees a USB keyboard and mouse but the host OS lets you interact with it as if it were calc.exe . And then there's the twitch thots that have been using high resolution/frame rate capture cards. It CAN'T be that hard to marry the 2 concepts.
The Future is Progressive!
rebellionpac.com
Fight white supremacy, fight corporate influence, fight for the rights of all peoples!

Redvers Ganderpoke
Posts: 1880
Joined: Tue, 11. Sep 07, 12:38

Re: looking for an ILO that's not an ILO

Post by Redvers Ganderpoke » Fri, 22. Jan 21, 21:00

Pikvm.org? A raspberry pi based ip KVM.
A flower?

Vertigo 7
Posts: 3458
Joined: Fri, 14. Jan 11, 17:30
x4

Re: looking for an ILO that's not an ILO

Post by Vertigo 7 » Thu, 28. Jan 21, 08:46

I'm giving the tiny pilot a shot. Couldn't really find anything else. So I ordered one, should be here in a few days and I'll see how this runs. If it works as advertised I'll probably end up grabbing a couple more of them.
The Future is Progressive!
rebellionpac.com
Fight white supremacy, fight corporate influence, fight for the rights of all peoples!

Vertigo 7
Posts: 3458
Joined: Fri, 14. Jan 11, 17:30
x4

Re: looking for an ILO that's not an ILO

Post by Vertigo 7 » Tue, 2. Feb 21, 01:11

Got the tinypilot. Didn't take long at all to get it set up. It's surprisingly responsive and no issues with the video play back from POST to desktop.

I did dig deeper into going direct instead of over the network and discovered it is possible but it'd require someone to write USB drivers to put a USB port or hub into "device" mode instead of "host" mode, something easily done with linux but not as easy in Windows. Still, I would imagine that if a specialized capture card were made for this purpose, its own USB output could be kept separate from the system bus and ran entirely by onboard chipsets. But then again, demand probably wouldn't be high enough to warrant production of something like that, let alone the software to run it.

I did look into pikvm, though. Probably a more economical choice than the tinypilot, but everyone seems to be sold out of the 2gig pi 4s till sometime in march. I've got some stuff I wanna do with a pi so I'll probably look into that for my next one of these I wanna set up.

Still, I'm happy with the tinypilot. It's doing exactly what I needed.
The Future is Progressive!
rebellionpac.com
Fight white supremacy, fight corporate influence, fight for the rights of all peoples!

Post Reply

Return to “Off Topic English”