ipmicow

Native consoles for ancient BMCs.
No JRE. No Web Start. No "Application Blocked by Java Security". Just moo.

Why

That rack-mounted bargain from 2013 still runs fine, but its remote console is a signed Java Web Start applet. That means a Java 6-era JRE, a .jnlp your browser no longer knows how to open, a certificate that expired years ago, and a security-exception list you have to keep editing. All so you can press Del during POST.

ipmicow speaks those consoles' wire protocols directly, in pure Rust, in a small native window. It logs in to the BMC's web UI to mint a session token, exactly as the Java button does, then connects and streams. No vendor code is involved.

Supported hardware

Family	BMC / viewer	Protocol	Tested on
Supermicro X9	ATEN iKVM	RFB-flavoured, raw RGB555 over TCP 5900	B1SA4-F, BMC firmware 3.19
IBM IMM2	Avocent viewer	APCP/BEEF + DVC video over TCP 3900	System x3750 M4, IMM2 firmware 8.00

Probably works, reports welcome: other X9-generation Supermicro boards with ATEN firmware, and other IMM2 machines (x3550 M4, x3650 M4, …). Avocent's DVC stack also sits behind Dell iDRAC6/7 and Avocent KVM switches, so the decoder is a head start there. Got something else? See adding a BMC.

	X9	IMM2
Live video, follows resolution changes	✅	✅
Keyboard	✅	✅
Mouse (absolute)	❌	✅
Auto-reconnect, POWERED OFF screen	✅	✅
Keys menu: Ctrl-Alt-Del, VT switch, F-keys, Magic SysRq	❌	✅
Sent-keys overlay	❌	✅
Colour depth (7–23-bit)	—	✅
Reset host USB (re-plug the virtual keyboard/mouse)	❌	✅
Host keyboard LEDs	❌	✅
Virtual media (mount an ISO)	❌	❌

Install

From a release: grab a binary for macOS (universal) or Linux (x86_64) from the Releases page. The macOS binary isn't notarised, so clear the download quarantine once: xattr -d com.apple.quarantine ./ipmicow.

With Cargo (Rust 1.87+):

cargo install ipmicow
# or the latest main:
cargo install --git https://github.com/tbbuck/ipmicow

On Linux you'll also need the X11/Wayland and OpenSSL development headers, e.g. sudo apt install pkg-config libssl-dev libx11-dev libxkbcommon-dev libwayland-dev.

Quick start

ipmicow 10.0.0.42

ipmicow checks which KVM port the BMC has open (3900 → IMM2, 5900 → X9) and uses that family's factory login (ADMIN/ADMIN or USERID/PASSW0RD). If you've changed it (you have, right?), keep the password out of your shell history:

export IPMICOW_PASSWORD='…'
ipmicow --user admin 10.0.0.42

To skip detection, name the family: ipmicow x9 <host> or ipmicow imm2 <host>. ipmicow --help covers the rest.

In the window

• Every key goes to the host, Esc included, because BIOS setup, boot menus and RAID utilities need it.
• On the IMM2 under macOS, Cmd is the Windows key. A lone Cmd tap is never sent, so Cmd-Tab won't pop the host's Start menu.
• Quit with the close button (or Cmd-Q on the IMM2, which releases any held keys on the host first).
• IMM2 menu bar (macOS):
  • Keys: Ctrl-Alt-Del, Alt-PrintScreen, Switch Virtual Console (Ctrl-Alt-F1…F12), Send Function Key, Magic SysRq (every x86-relevant command; the destructive ones are marked ⚠), Release All Keys, Check Host Keyboard LEDs, Reset Host USB, Show Sent Keys.
  • Video: Colour Depth (Automatic, or 7–23-bit).
• Sent-keys overlay: the chord the host just received is drawn as keycaps in the bottom-right corner, which helps when you're not sure a key made it.
• If the host is off, or the link drops, you get a calm POWERED OFF screen and a "reconnecting" toast, and video resumes on its own.

-v / --verbose logs every key and button sent and every control message the BMC sends back, with timestamps you can line up against the host's own logs.

How it works

sequenceDiagram
    participant C as ipmicow
    participant W as BMC web UI
    participant K as BMC KVM port
    C->>W: log in (form POST)
    W-->>C: session cookie
    C->>W: GET the viewer's .jnlp
    W-->>C: JNLP with a single-use token
    C->>K: TCP connect + handshake, token as the credential
    K-->>C: video stream
    C->>K: keys / mouse (USB HID usages), keepalives

Loading

The two families couldn't be more different once connected:

• Supermicro X9 uses port 5900, but the protocol is not VNC. It's RFB with an ATEN auth step and an extra 12 bytes on ServerInit. The "video codec" turned out to be raw little-endian RGB555, sent as full frames or as changed 16×16 tiles. → docs/supermicro-x9.md
• IBM IMM2 speaks Avocent's APCP handshake and BEEF-framed messages. Its video is DVC, a run-length/copy-above/two-colour-series codec. ipmicow's decoder is a port of the one in the vendor's Java viewer, and is pixel-for-pixel identical to it. → docs/ibm-imm2.md

Security notes

These are old BMCs. Treat them accordingly.

• Keep BMCs on an isolated management network. The IMM2's KVM stream is unencrypted by default, and its virtual-media channel is authenticated by a client-chosen number sent in clear (details).
• ipmicow accepts the BMC's self-signed certificate, because there is no other way to talk to it. The X9 token mint uses plain HTTP, because its 2013-era TLS is refused by modern stacks.
• Passwords on the command line end up in shell history and ps. Prefer IPMICOW_PASSWORD.

Platforms

macOS is the first-class platform: native menu bar, raw key capture (minifb's own key mapping drops several keys and stuck-key events), and a 🐄 in the Dock.

Linux and Windows build and run the viewers, but have no menu bar yet. On those platforms the menu commands aren't reachable and keys go through minifb's mapping. PRs welcome.

Contributing

Bug reports with -v output are gold. If you have a BMC ipmicow doesn't speak yet, docs/adding-a-bmc.md walks through capturing the vendor viewer and dissecting its traffic with ipmicow debug.

cargo test
cargo clippy --all-targets -- -D warnings
cargo fmt --check

Prior art

Thanks to the people who mapped Avocent's protocols first: ananace/avoview, Informatic/idrac-kvmclient and ya-mouse/redirector.

Legal

ipmicow is an independent, clean interoperability implementation. It contains no vendor code or binaries, and you fetch nothing from your BMC beyond what its own web UI hands out. It is not affiliated with or endorsed by Supermicro, ATEN, IBM, Lenovo or Vertiv/Avocent. All trademarks belong to their owners.

Licensed under the MIT License. Bundled assets keep their own licences: the cow is Noto Emoji (Apache-2.0, see assets/LICENSE-noto-emoji.txt), and the keycap font is Inter (SIL OFL 1.1, see assets/fonts/OFL-Inter.txt).

_{🐄 Moo.}