[HN Gopher] Comet open source remote KVM from GL-iNet
___________________________________________________________________
Comet open source remote KVM from GL-iNet
Author : noja
Score : 65 points
Date : 2025-03-16 13:27 UTC (9 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (www.gl-inet.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (www.gl-inet.com)
| remram wrote:
| It doesn't look like the source or the product are available yet?
| vamega wrote:
| It doesn't look like this is available just yet. I can't wait to
| see more details when it comes out.
|
| I have a JetKVM (https://jetkvm.com/) and it's been absolutely
| fantastic. I'm still waiting on the ATX expansion board, but the
| core unit is used to monitor my homeserver.
| thangngoc89 wrote:
| Can a single JetKVM control multiple computers? I have several
| AI training machines that occasionally got stuck and need a
| power cycle. Most of the time this happened when I'm out of
| town so it has been annoying.
| tredre3 wrote:
| It can only control one set of monitor/hid but through the
| extension port you could wire up something for multiple
| computers power buttons (the ATX module mentioned by GP uses
| a rp2040, which has plenty of GPIOs).
|
| I think it would be simpler to buy a network PDU (or iot
| plugs) for your use case, assuming the computers can be set
| to power-on automatically.
| baby_souffle wrote:
| I'm very curious to see if they went with vanilla Lennox for this
| or if they're going to repurpose the openwrt system that they
| know so well.
|
| Also, I'm calling it right now, shortly after this launches there
| will be some pretty tight integration with some of their other
| networking gear. Something like a plug and play off the shelf
| remote out of band management solution
| mrbluecoat wrote:
| LOL, I googled Lennox then realized it was an autocorrect typo
| of Linux
| throwaway48476 wrote:
| Lennox is terrible and won't even give you the service manual
| unless you have a government HVAC cert number.
| Aurornis wrote:
| Has anyone been able to find the open source part?
|
| Is the software open source? The hardware? I'm not seeing
| anything other than a claim that it's open source.
| selykg wrote:
| The product isn't released yet. I would hazard a guess that the
| source will come after the device is officially available
| explorigin wrote:
| https://github.com/gl-inet I don't see anything under "comet"
| or "kvm" but this is the place to watch I suppose.
| deeth_starr_v wrote:
| This has been debated about glinet stuff in the past. I don't
| think everything gets open sourced but it has open source code
| for parts of it
| c0wb0yc0d3r wrote:
| That's my thought too. A person cannot build any of the
| firmware for their routers. It's all based on openwrt though.
|
| Hopefully, we'll be able to flash these with openwrt.
| deadlyllama wrote:
| How similar is this to the sipeed NanoKVM? (RISC-V based,
| software source https://github.com/sipeed/NanoKVM ) From the
| outside it looks very very alike.
| kotaKat wrote:
| I think everything coming out now is (essentially) coming down
| to the same core chips -- an HDMI-to-USB capture device + WCH's
| various UART-to-HID products being hubbed together. Just pick
| your SoC and software to run the show on top.
|
| https://www.wch-ic.com/products/CH9329.html
| wtallis wrote:
| There's also the class of devices that includes PiKVM, where
| it's HDMI-to-MIPI for the video capture, and everything else
| is standard Raspberry Pi capabilities (Ethernet, WiFi, USB
| host and device, GPIO for motherboard power/reset/LED).
| jauntywundrkind wrote:
| I miss the power control.
|
| I really want my home gaming machine to be an on-demand remote
| streaming system.
|
| I don't expect to use this for that, I think Sunshine & Moonlight
| are probably going to give better results. But, I do need a way
| to turn my system on and off.
|
| Alas, try as I might (I just tried again last night for a couple
| hours), my Gigabyte board refuses to suspend. It just wakes up
| immediately. There's a whole ass section of the AechWiki for
| Gigabyte boards being trouble, alas... Never ever again!
| https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Power_management/Wakeup_tri...
|
| So I kind of need a remote kvm, but one that can also trigger
| power on on my computer.
| jon-wood wrote:
| Wake on LAN has existed for decades, and works just fine for
| that if you've got an always on machine somewhere on your
| network. I have Home Assistant set up so that I can hit a
| button on my phone and it'll wake my PC from wherever I am and
| let me connect via Parsec. Once I'm in powering off is fine
| because I can just tell Windows to shut down.
|
| If you are running Windows try holding shift when you click the
| shutdown menu item, it'll force it to do a full power down
| rather than suspending.
| rgovostes wrote:
| Has existed on decades, just requires the simple process of
| turning it on in your BIOS, then changing your network
| adapter advanced settings in Windows to Wake on Magic Packet,
| and configure the power management settings to "allow this
| device to wake the computer", etc... It's like a 20 step
| process.
| mcmcmc wrote:
| That's three steps
| remram wrote:
| You need an always-on machine, and a wired network connection
| since this rarely works over wifi. This excludes a lot of
| setups.
| jauntywundrkind wrote:
| Wake on LAN requires working suspend, I believe. That's not
| working, because alas many desktops and workstations don't
| suspend well these days.
|
| Wake on LAN is my ideal yes & would be perfect for this
| application. If only suspend werent broken. It's
| fantastically easy to setup in systems-networkd, a one line
| WakeOnLan=magic in your .link file. Easy as that for my
| laptop! https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Wake-on-
| LAN#systemd.link
| CAP_NET_ADMIN wrote:
| Depends on the board, I've had many mobos which power on
| when they receive WoL.
|
| Check your bios settings.
|
| Also, you can probably just strap a wifi-capable relay to
| power pins on your motherboard.
| toast0 wrote:
| Wake on LAN _should_ work from S5 (off), as long as you
| leave the power supply switched on; but the EU ErP very low
| standby power setting usually needs to be off.
| fransje26 wrote:
| Would you happen to haven any write-up on how you configured
| such a setup? Or some links to posts you found useful to set
| this up?
| hakkoru wrote:
| I just recently converted my gaming PC to a game streaming
| system. I considered getting a PiKVM for power/resolving issues
| remotely but I ended up going with Wake-on-LAN. Though setting
| it up was a hassle.
|
| If you just need power control and your motherboard supports
| it, I've seen that some people use smart plugs and enable a
| setting in their BIOS that turns on the computer whenever it
| detects power.
| nevi-me wrote:
| Ha! I stumbled upon this by mistake. I wanted the camera to
| be able to turn on the PC to store recordings, but while
| tweaking the BIOS settings, I somehow got that wrong, and
| instead the PC turns on whenever it detects power.
|
| I have it connected to an Eve Energy so I can track power
| usage, and that turned into a good remote way to turn it on.
|
| Then with a Tailscale, I remote into it easily.
|
| The downside is that I can't shut it down remotely without
| knowing when exactly to also turn off the plug. I could
| create some automation, but it takes about 2 seconds being
| off before turning on again.
| hakkoru wrote:
| >The downside is that I can't shut it down remotely without
| knowing when exactly to also turn off the plug. I could
| create some automation, but it takes about 2 seconds being
| off before turning on again.
|
| Huh, I would have expected the BIOS to not do that if it
| detected a graceful shutdown (or at least have a longer
| grace period).
| Tribesman3875 wrote:
| Use a WiFi smart plug. None of the WoL headaches, and can be
| used from anywhere.
| xnyan wrote:
| It can be a little more refined than that. This is cheap and
| replaces the wired PWR/RST buttons:
| https://www.silverstonetek.com/en/product/info/expansion-
| car...
| k8sToGo wrote:
| Use a smart socket and set your bios to always turn on when
| power is on
| xnyan wrote:
| Why not a device that can turn your computer on and off, and
| let sunshine + moonlight do what they do (and likely do better
| and absolutely be much cheaper than hardware capture)? There
| are a tons options for something like this at every price
| level, here is a random one based on an archpopular ESP
| microcontroller:
| https://www.silverstonetek.com/en/product/info/expansion-car...
| rpcope1 wrote:
| Honestly this is why I just buy Supermicro workstation boards
| with BMCs for everything. No need to mess with third party
| stuff or guess if the vendor's WoL is going to work right (or
| deal with the possibility you need to hard restart the
| computer). Everything is just cooked in from the start.
| sciencesama wrote:
| Both nanokvm and jetkvm have modules that emulate the power
| button press modules!!
| apitman wrote:
| Are things like this and NanoKVM basically the same as TinyPilot,
| which I've seen discussed on HN?
| bastard_op wrote:
| I've have a need for a kvm for a customer I'm working with
| because they're too cheap to buy an enterprise-y one, so I
| ordered a couple JetKVM's to use and test, but I've been waiting
| a month so far, and not really sure when I'll get them. The joy
| of kickstarters...
|
| I looked at the nanokvm's, but there's some serious issues with
| power feedback in the v1 design they're selling still that causes
| devices not to boot, so that seemed a non-starter, though I
| really like sispeed's pci card concept too - may still getting
| one of these. Not yet stocked in the US anywhere yet either I
| found.
|
| I jumped on this as at least I know of GL-iNet that I can buy
| them usually and expect a product to ship, albeit slow boat from
| China. Sadly not shipping yet, but here's hope it's something
| they'll stock in an Amazon warehouse eventually.
| MezzoDelCammin wrote:
| As for the nanoKVM power design, I agree it's a pain. Not sure
| what's the state of things on the forums now, but in my
| experience, the issue comes from the device trying to draw
| power via the USB HID port instead of the dedicated PD. In my
| case it helped enabling power sharing on that USB. That
| prevents the host cutting power there and the KVM stays on when
| the PC restarts
___________________________________________________________________
(page generated 2025-03-16 23:01 UTC)