Modern infrastructure is increasingly headless — from homelabs and edge devices to production servers. But when things go wrong, SSH isn’t enough. BIOS access, boot debugging, and recovery still require physical presence, IPMI / Redfish or expensive enterprise KVM solutions.
In this talk, I’ll share my journey building DezKVM, an open-source IP-KVM platform — from a low-cost USB KVM dongle (DezKVM-Go) to a full-featured IP-KVM system.
We’ll explore how to build two practical tools from scratch:
A USB KVM device that turns your laptop into a keyboard, mouse, and monitor for headless machines, all running in the browser with zero drivers
A network-based IP-KVM system designed for remote management across environments
Along the way, we’ll dive into:
How to capture HDMI video and audio using v4l2 and Alsa layer on Linux
Emulating USB HID for keyboard/mouse injection using off-the-shelf UART to HID protocol chips and the hardware requires for driver-less setup on embedded Linux
Using modern browser APIs (e.g. WebSerial) to eliminate native software
Trade-offs between USB KVM and IP-KVM architectures
Designing for real sysadmin workflows (BIOS access, recovery, remote debugging)
This session is not just about hardware — it’s about how good software design working with hardware can bring much better user experience in real-world scenario. Whether you’re running a homelab, managing racks, or just enjoy building weird hardware, this talk will give you practical ideas and maybe inspire your own tools.
