Just lately, [Jeff Geerling] dropped into the dangerous press feeding frenzy round Sipeed’s NanoKVM, most notably due to a ‘hidden’ microphone that shouldn’t have any enterprise on a distant KVM resolution. The issue with that reporting is, as [Jeff] factors out within the video under, that the NanoKVM – technically the NanoKVM-Dice – is merely a software program resolution that acquired placed on an present growth board, the LicheeRV Nano, together with an HDMI-in board. The microphone exists on that board and didn’t get eliminated for the brand new venture, and it’s doubtless that a lot of the Linux picture can be reused.
In fact, the safety report that brought on a lot fuss was revealed again in February of 2025, and a number of the points pertaining to poor distant safety have been addressed since then on the general public GitHub repository. Whereas these had been legitimate considerations that ought to be addressed, the microphone shouldn’t be a priority, because it’d require somebody to be logged into the gadget to even use it, at which level you in all probability have greater issues.
Safety concerns apart, having a microphone in place on a distant KVM resolution may be very helpful, as dutifully identified within the feedback by [bjoern.photography], who notes that having the ability to hearken to beeps on boot might be very helpful whereas troubleshooting a stricken system. We think about the identical is true for different system sounds, equivalent to fan or cooling pump noises. Perhaps all distant KVM options ought to have microphone arrays?
In fact, if you happen to don’t just like the NanoKVM, you might all the time roll your personal.
Prime picture: the NanoKVM bundle from [Jeff]’s authentic evaluation. (Credit score: [Jeff Geerling])
