Remote access on Ampere Altra Dev Kits?

Q&A
1

Is anyone else using the Ampere Altra Dev Kit, the AVA or AADP from ADLINK?
How are y’all handling remote KVM?

I can’t seem to get anything to negotiate a display - not the PiKVM, not the TinyPilot, and not even a Lantronix Spider.

The BMC seems stuck on a network that isn’t easily interfaced with and not something that provides remote control it seems.

Need to provide remote access to some engineers and I can’t figure out a way to do that…tried messing with the EDID of PiKVM/TinyPilot to no avail.

2

Ok, actually, nevermind, ha - got everything I needed by setting the BMC to DHCP mode, then accessing the web panel from there…looks nice!

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In case anyone is interested, the magic command: ipmitool -I lanplus -H 192.168.0.100 -U admin -P admin lan set 1 ipsrc dhcp

Then unplug and plug back in for an address on whatever untagged VLAN that port is on.

From the docs (of course…): comhpc-docs – I-Pi SMARC

Can confirm that this works with both the AVA and AADP kits (even though the AADP kit says the BMC is disabled)

Now no more messing with VGA-HDMI converters and capture cards that don’t work!

3

So is everything working now? If so, how was your experience?

4

Yep, working great! A little confused on the errors displayed between my two AVA and AADP systems, but they seem to work fine so I’ll just continue ignoring it lol.

Experience so far has been good, I was a little disappointed that neither of my VGA-HDMI converters, the Lantronix Spider, TinyPilot, or PiKVM worked - but this is mostly due to limitations in their programmed EDID and/or how the Pi-based MIPI CSI supports (rather doesn’t support) different resolutions/refresh rates/etc. They don’t support all of the various configurations that are sent via VGA output during boot/POST, boot loader selection, and start up. Some people blame the AST2500 chip, but I think that’s lazy and an excuse.

Getting to that OOBM interface via the browser was perfect though, that makes it work and feel just like my other enterprise servers. Honestly it’s my preferred way to interface and share, don’t want to use the dongles and Pi things if I can help it.

It’d be nice if the OOBM interface was set to DHCP out of the box though, would require fewer steps to get it working - also would be nice if there’d be better documentation on it. Some of the documentation says that the OOB Mgmt Interface is disabled, when it’s not: https://www.ipi.wiki/cdn/shop/products/AADP-connectors-2_1024x1024@2x.jpg?v=1670391197

Is there a place for us to contribute documentation? The IPI site docs say “wiki” but I can’t find any place to submit modifications.

1 Like
5

I might start up a community wiki where people can submit documentation/tips/etc.

I got my Ampere Altra Dev Kit today and I’m wondering if anyone else has installed it in a case, because I can’t see any documentation for the “Front Panel” header which I presume has pins for power and reset.

2 Likes
6

Yes, doooo ittt! I’d be happy to contribute to a community wiki.

Here’s a link to the Front Panel header pinout: Download Technical Resources | ADLINK

1 Like
7

yes please (build the wiki) and let us know about where you put it so we can link and then have people add to it as they run through it.

1 Like
8

I’ve created the beginnings of a wiki at Ampere Systems Wiki | Wiki.js .

I’ve enabled self-registration, so if you get the login page you should be able to create an account.
When I see new accounts I’ll need to manually approve them in order for you to be able to create and edit content.

1 Like
9

Excellent - just signed up! Thanks for working up a community wiki :clap: