So this was a weird one: depending on the browser you’re using, your space bar may not have worked in the YouTube.com search bar for a little while today. Pressing it would make absolutely nothing happen, so your YouTube searches ended up being one long string of words. The bug seemed to be around for an hour, based on when people started sounding off about it on Twitter, but as of 3:50PM ET, the site appeared to be working correctly again on all browsers.
The bug affected the desktop site, but only browsers that aren’tbased on Chrome. Firefox wouldn’t take spaces in Windows, macOS, or even Android if you requested the desktop version of the website. Safari on iPhones worked as normal, but the problems showed up on Safari on iPad — probably because iPads request the desktop site, too. Asking for the mobile version immediately fixed it there, and requesting the desktop site on an iPhone immediately broke spaces.
The good news is that the lack of spaces probably didn’t affect your YouTube experience much — it’s very good at understanding your intent even on long, relatively obscure searches with a bunch of words smashed together.
YouTube’s search algorithm was still able to figure it out.
There was also another, way more annoying bug: if you were trying to watch a video and type in the search bar at the same time, your keystrokes would end up acting as shortcuts. Pressing the space bar wouldn’t do anything in the search bar, but it would pause your video. Your “T” might show up in the search bar, but it also switched my video into theater mode. This issue is also fixed.
Typing in the search bar made many awful things happen on your screen.
YouTube did not immediately respond to a request for comment, but the issue now appears to be fixed. Whew!
Update March 10th, 4:15PM ET: Updated to reflect that the bug appears to have been fixed.
Microsoft is updating its store for Xbox and Xbox Game Pass to include language support, the company announced today. The Languages label is meant to make it “easier to decide if you’d like to purchase or play that title” by including information on the game’s interface, audio, and subtitles.
Whatever language console owners have set as their default will display first. The feature applies to 27 languages and displays how localization has been applied to various parts of the game, such as controls, subtitles, or spoken dialogue. “We’ve already added language tags to hundreds of games and will add more over time,” the announcement reads.
Fans have previously criticized Microsoft’s handling of localization, specifically outside of the US. As reported by Windows Central, players in territories like South Korea have documented which games support Korean languages. Platforms like Nintendo and Steam already support language guides.
Microsoft will continue to add updates later this year to “make it even easier for you to find and play games that are right for you.” The company did not specify what those changes would look like.
Microsoft is reportedly planning to release a new webcam this spring. The software giant has previously offered a variety of webcams under its LifeCam brand, but Microsoft hasn’t updated these significantly for 10 years. Petri reports that a Surface event will take place this spring, and a new webcam will be on the agenda alongside Microsoft’s new Surface Laptop 4.
The webcam will reportedly include a privacy cover and support high dynamic range (HDR). While Microsoft uses 4K USB-C webcams on its Surface Hub 2 device, this new webcam is rumored to skip 4K support. It’s not clear what resolution will be supported, or whether it will support Windows Hello facial recognition.
Microsoft’s old LifeCam webcams.Image: Microsoft
Whether Microsoft choses to use the Surface branding on this new webcam also remains to be seen. Microsoft’s Windows and devices chief, Panos Panay, hinted all the way back in 2018 in an interview with The Verge that the company was looking at releasing Surface-branded webcams. “Look at the camera on Surface Hub 2, note it’s a USB-C-based camera, and the idea that we can bring a high fidelity camera to an experience, you can probably guess that’s going to happen,” hinted Panay at the time.
This isn’t the first time a new Microsoft webcam has been rumored. Thurrott reported that two new webcams would arrive in 2019, one for Windows and one for Xbox. Those webcams never launched, and consumers and businesses have been relying on webcams from Logitech, Razer, and others instead.
Webcams quickly became the gadget of 2020, as consumers flocked to buy the devices to work from home during the pandemic. Prices of webcams also shot up briefly early on in the pandemic, before supply caught up and demand settled towards the end of 2020.
Kingston Digital is the flash memory business unit of Kingston Technology Company, Inc., and has been the source for several retail products we have covered in the past, including internal NVME SSDs and encrypted USB drives. What we do not necessarily recognize is that a lot of flash memory sales are in the form of eMMC and memory cards, with the latter having become invaluable for content creators, as well as portable storage to carry around or use in mobile devices. Today, we take a look at a brand-new device from Kingston Digital that aims to streamline the workflow of content creators, and it is quite aptly named. Thanks again to the company for sending a review sample to TechPowerUp!
The Kingston Workflow Station is a hub that is part of a new family of products from the company. It includes a base station with four receptacles that can be occupied by different reader hubs, including USB (Type-A and Type-C), full-size SD cards, and microSD cards. The station comes with the USB reader hub—the others are optional extras. Kingston sent along the whole package, so we will take a look at everything, but begin with the specifications for these products in the tables below.
Specifications
Kingston Workflow Station Dock and USB miniHub
Interface:
Dock: USB 3.2 Gen 2; USB miniHub: USB 3.2 Gen 1
Connector:
USB Type-C for both
Supported USB Inputs:
USB miniHub: USB Type-A, USB Type-C
Dimensions:
Dock: 160.27×70.27×55.77 mm; USB miniHub: 62.87 x 16.87 x 50 mm
Weight:
Dock: 292 g; USB miniHub: 30 g
Operating Temperature:
0–60 °C
Storage Temperature :
-25–85 °C
Compatible OS:
Windows 10, 8.1, 8, Mac OS (v.10.10.x +)
Warranty:
Two years with free technical support
Kingston Workflow SD Reader
Interface:
USB 3.2 Gen 1
Connector:
USB Type-C
Supported Cards:
Supports UHS-II SD cards, backwards compatible with UHS-I SD cards
Dimensions:
62.87 x 16.87 x 50 mm
Weight:
31 g
Operating Temperature:
0–60 °C
Storage Temperature :
-25–85 °C
Compatible OS:
Windows 10, 8.1, 8, Mac OS (v.10.10.x +)
Warranty:
Two years with free technical support
Kingston Workflow microSD Reader
Interface:
USB 3.2 Gen 1
Connector:
USB Type-C
Supported Cards:
Supports UHS-II microSD cards, backwards compatible with UHS-I microSD cards
Support for Microsoft’s Edge browser is ending today — not the new Chromium-based one, but the original Edge that was built as a replacement for Internet Explorer 11. Microsoft now calls it Legacy Edge, and the company announced it would be discontinuing the product back in August. That day has finally come: Legacy Edge will no longer receive security updates, and anyone still using it should start the process of switching to something else.
Legacy Edge was originally codenamed “Spartan” and was included with Windows 10 as the operating system’s default web browser before it was officially named Edge. The Edge mantle is being taken up by Microsoft’s Chromium-based browser, which was in beta throughout 2019 and officially launched in January 2020. This means Edge (the old Edge, that is) survived just over a year alongside its replacement. Microsoft also says Legacy Edge will automatically be removed by the April Windows 10 update, with the new Edge being installed in its stead.
If you’re the tech support person for your family, it’s worth checking in with your relatives to make sure Microsoft successfully bullied them into switching to the new Edge. If, somehow, it’s not installed on their computers (or your computer), you can download it directly from Microsoft’s website.
The death of Legacy Edge is bittersweet in some ways. By most metrics, the new Edge is vastly superior, but it does put the final nail in the coffin of Microsoft’s custom web-rendering engines, the history of which stretches back to early versions of Internet Explorer. It probably won’t be missed, given its… performance, but it’s still the end of an era. The old Edge is officially gone, and the new Edge has fully replaced it.
Google is marking 10 years of Chromebooks by unveiling new features for Chrome OS today. The biggest addition is a new Phone Hub feature that connects an Android phone to a Chromebook. It allows Chrome OS users to respond to texts, check a phone’s battery life, enable its Wi-Fi hotspot, and locate a device easily.
Phone Hub is packed into a taskbar widget that even expands to show you recent Chrome tabs that you have been browsing on your phone. It looks like it will be a super useful feature for Android and Chromebook owners. Google is also enabling its Wi-Fi Sync feature on more devices, allowing you to connect to Wi-Fi networks you’ve already configured and used on your Android phone and other Chrome OS devices.
Chrome OS gets an AirDrop competitor.Image: Google
Another significant addition to Chrome OS is Nearby Share between Chromebooks and other Android and Chrome OS devices. Much like AirDrop, Nearby Share will let people send and receive files between devices. Google says this will arrive in Chrome OS in the coming months, finally providing its laptop OS with a full AirDrop competitor.
Elsewhere, Google is also adding in a new Screen Capture tool into the Quick Settings menu in Chrome OS. Like the name implies, this will let you record your screen or take screenshots and access them quickly in a “Tote” space from the Chrome OS Shelf.
The Clipboard is also being improved in Chrome OS, allowing you to save five recent items to paste elsewhere without switching windows. The Launcher Key will provide access to this updated clipboard experience. Quick Answers is another new addition, which lets you right-click a word in Chrome OS to get a definition, translation, or unit conversion. It’s very similar to what exists in macOS today.
Google is even improving the virtual desktops feature of Chrome OS — Desks. When you reboot a Chromebook, it will now restore all windows to their correct virtual desktops, and you can also right-click at the top of an open window to send apps to a different virtual desktops.
Chrome OS’s clipboard feature is getting a history feature.Image: Google
Most of these new Chrome OS additions are clearly playing catch-up to what already exists on Windows and macOS, but they’re welcome additions for those relying on Chrome OS every day. Google first launched a range of Chromebooks back in 2011 in a partnership with Samsung and Acer. There are now Chromebooks from every major PC maker, and Google is promising that 50 new Chromebooks will launch during 2021.
Now that so many people are working remotely, it’s become more accepted than ever for official documents to be sent digitally — and most are sent as PDFs.
In case you’re not familiar with the background of that format, PDF stands for portable document format and was created by Adobe in the early 1990s to allow people and organizations to create exact digital versions of paper documents. The idea was that the document was an exact, unchangeable copy of the original (while some PDFs can now be edited, you can create a PDF that cannot).
Since then, PDFs have become a standard for sending official documents. If you need to send something with any kind of legality, you’ll probably be asked to send it as a PDF.
You can create a PDF from a hard copy document by scanning it and saving the scan as a PDF. But what if you are looking at an online document and you need to save it as a PDF?
It’s really simple, both for Mac and Windows PC users. And it’s done the same way in both: you “print” the document to a PDF file. These directions are for printing a web document using the Chrome browser, but this works for any app that has a print function.
Click on the three dots in the upper right corner.
Click on “Print…”
To create a PDF, start by going to your print function.
The print window will pop up with a preview box on the left and a series of features on the right. Next to the “Destination” label, click on the drop-down menu and select “Save as PDF.”
Make your destination “Save as PDF.”
If you have a several-page document and you want to create a PDF only using a specific page or range of pages, click on the drop-down menu next to the “Pages” label, choose “Custom” and type in which pages you want to save. (This works exactly the same as if you were sending the pages to a printer.)
It’s a good idea to select which pages you want to save to your PDF.
Note that when you print a webpage to a PDF, you will print the entire page, not just what is currently viewable in the browser. So it’s a good idea to check in the preview box what is being printed and only print the pages you need — it’s a lot harder to edit a PDF document later.
Microsoft once envisioned a future full of Cortana-powered fridges, toasters, and thermostats, but it never worked out. Harman Kardon’s Invoke speaker was the first and only Cortana-powered speaker to hit the market, but it’s now receiving an update on Wednesday to disable Microsoft’s digital assistant.
Harman Kardon will push an update to the Invoke speaker tomorrow (spotted by Thurrott) to remove Cortana, after Microsoft announced its plans last year to shut down its digital assistant across multiple devices. “Please note that the Cortana service on the Harman Kardon Invoke will end in the coming months regardless of whether you receive the update,” says Harman Kardon. Cortana is also disappearing on iOS and Android, and even Microsoft’s own Surface Headphones.
Cortana on the Harman Kardon Invoke speaker.Photo by Dan Seifert / The Verge
Microsoft originally had bigger plans for Cortana back in 2016. The software maker outlined a vision for bringing its digital assistant to fridges, toasters, and other Internet of Things (IoT) devices, but Cortana never really caught on. Even the beautiful Cortana-powered GLAS thermostat is no longer powered by Microsoft’s digital assistant.
Microsoft now sees Cortana’s value in conversational AI and the company is trying to reposition Cortana as a skill that can run anywhere instead of competing with Alexa or Google Assistant. Cortana is increasingly being used to improve Microsoft’s enterprise-focused offerings, after the company separated it from Windows 10 search and silenced the digital assistant during the OS setup process.
Nearly a month after distancing itself from political statements, the publisher of the controversial military shooter Six Days in Fallujah has backtracked and now says the events in the game are “inseparable from politics.” The game, which takes place during the Iraq War’s Second Battle of Fallujah, has come under scrutiny for seemingly portraying a US-centric focus on a campaign in which an estimated 800 Iraqi civilians were killed, according to the Red Cross.
“We understand the events recreated in Six Days in Fallujah are inseparable from politics,” publisher Victura said in a statement on Twitter. “We believe the stories of this generation’s sacrifices deserve to be told by the Marines, Soldiers, and civilians who were there,” Victura’s statement continued. “We trust you will find the game — like the events it recreates — to be complex.”
The statement follows comments from Victura’s founder and CEO Peter Tamte about how one of the goals of Six Days in Fallujah is to help players empathize with the decisions American troops made during the war and not “make a political commentary.” Tamte, in an interview with Polygon, said:
“For us as a team, it is really about helping players understand the complexity of urban combat. It’s about the experiences of that individual that is now there because of political decisions. And we do want to show how choices that are made by policymakers affect the choices that [a Marine] needs to make on the battlefield. Just as that [Marine] cannot second-guess the choices by the policymakers, we’re not trying to make a political commentary about whether or not the war itself was a good or a bad idea.”
The game uses a mix of military shooter gameplay and documentary segments to tell its story, based on information from “26 Iraqi civilians and dozens of service members [who] have shared the most difficult moments of their lives,” according to Victura. Much of the game will focus on playing as soldiers, but there are also “high-intensity stealth missions” where you play as an unarmed Iraqi civilian.
And while those missions are “informed by” the interviews with Iraqi civilians, “very few people are curious what it’s like to be an Iraqi civilian,” Tamte said in a February interview with GamesIndustry.biz. “Nobody’s going to play that game,” he added.
“Ultimately, the reason why people are going to play this game is because they want a more realistic combat experience,” he continued. “That above all else is the experience that we must deliver.”
The game was first announced in April 2009, but its concept was widely criticized. Konami, the game’s original publisher, dropped it later that month. The game was re-announced in February, now being developed by Highwire Games, whose co-founders include Halo veterans Jaime Griesemer and Marty O’Donnell, formerly of Bungie. Victura’s Tamte also worked at Bungie, leading the marketing of the first Halo, according to his LinkedIn.
Six Days in Fallujah is coming to PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X / S, and Windows, targeting a release “late in 2021,” according to an FAQ.
Aya, a startup behind the industry’s first crowdfunded handheld Windows 10-based game console, has begun its Indiegogo campaign. The start of the campaign was postponed earlier due to components shortages, but now Aya thinks that the market situation is right to start the company’s crowdfunding campaign. To be the first to get the Aya Neo, one must pay as much as $789 via the Indiegogo crowdfunding platform, reports Liliputing.
The Aya Neo uses the AMD Ryzen 5 4500U system-on-chip produced using TSMC’s N7 fabrication process (7 nm-class). This APU has six cores running at 2.30 GHz/4.0 GHz along with with the Radeon Vega 6 graphics unit (384 SPs), 16GB of memory, and 1TB of PCIe/NVMe storage. The AMD system-on-chip is cooled down using a proprietary cooling system with to copper heat pipes and a fan.
(Image credit: Aya Neo)
The console has a 7-inch IPS LCD touch-enabled display along with analog sticks, a D-pad, and other game-specific buttons. The Aya Neo exceeds expectations with regard to connectivity, which includes Wi-Fi 6, Bluetooth 5, stereo speakers, a 3.5-mm audio output, and three USB Type-C ports.
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(Image credit: Aya Neo)
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(Image credit: Aya Neo)
While a 7-inch x86 Windows-based PC seems impressive, the Aya Neo has its peculiarities. In particular, the console uses a six-year-old Polar/Vega GCN 1.4 graphics architecture that first came to life in the form of the Radeon RX 470 GPU in early 2016. AMD and game developers support this architecture for now, but only time will tell for how long this architecture will be supported given the fact that AMD is promoting its RDNA/RDNA2 GPUs and it is the RDNA2 architecture that powers both new generation game consoles, the PlayStation 5 and the Xbox One X/S series.
In any case, without any doubts the Aya Neo is an interesting device from engineering and gaming performance standpoints.
Streaming online doesn’t have to cost a fortune with DIY systems like StreamPi. Using a Raspberry Pi, you can create a custom stream deck experience totally catered to your streaming needs.
It’s a cross-platform, open-source application designed to integrate with common platforms used by streamers, and it’s triggered with touchscreen buttons. The StreamPi website lists Samuel Quinones and Debayan Sutradhar as its primary developers.
(Image credit: StreamPi)
The app is currently designed to work with both Linux and Windows machines. Users can program custom functions that work with apps like OBS, Spotify, and recently new additions like Twitter, Command Line, and more. There are also plans in the works to expand support with additional programs like Discord. The Raspberry Pi runs StreamPi and accepts input from the user, which triggers events using any of the supported applications.
It also features themes for the interface that can be changed and customized with a little programming. You can also see the device in action — the team behind the project posted a demo of a Raspberry Pi 4-powered system on Twitter.
To explore this project in-depth, visit the official GitHub for StreamPi. Check out our list of best Raspberry Pi projects for more useful creations from the maker community.
Kubuntu Focus has started to offer Nvidia’s GeForce RTX 30-series graphics processor with its Kubuntu GNU/Linux distribution-based M2 laptop aimed at gamers and performance-hungry professionals.
Linux-based laptops are usually niche products for people with very specific requirements, so there aren’t many configurations available. Yet, a few companies offer high-end notebooks with powerful hardware that can compete against their Windows-powered counterparts. Kubuntu Focus is one of the vendors that offers such machines.
The Kubuntu Focus M2 notebook comes with a 15.6-inch 144Hz Full-HD display and Intel’s Core i7-10875H (8C/16T, 2.30GHz/5.10GHz) processor that was first introduced last October, Liliputing recalls. At the time, the manufacturer only offered Nvidia’s GeForce RTX 20-series graphics processors based on the Turing architecture with it since no mobile GeForce RTX 30-series GPUs featuring the Ampere architecture were available.
Nvidia has launched its GeForce RTX 30-series graphics processors for notebooks, so now the Kubuntu Focus M2 comes with an option for RTX 3060, 3070, and 3080 GPUs. In fact, the base model now comes equipped with the Core i7-10875H CPU, the GeForce RTX 3060 GPU, 16GB of memory, and a 250GB SSD for $1,795.
Kubuntu Focus’ M2 is quite a powerful mobile workstation with plenty of options and rich connectivity, including a Wi-Fi 6 + Bluetooth adapter, a GbE port, a Thunderbolt 3 connector, three USB 3.2 Gen 1 Type-A connectors, two display outputs (one mini-DisplayPort 1.4 and one HDMI), a microSDXC card reader, and audio ports. The beefiest configuration with the Core i7-10875H, the GeForce RTX 3080, 64GB of DDR4, and 4TB of storage costs $4535.
The Kubuntu Focus M2 seems to be the first Linux laptop with Nvidia’s GeForce RTX 30-series graphics, but it will certainly not be the last one.
Microsoft has started publicly testing its new Edge Chromium-powered browser on Xbox consoles. Xbox testers in the Alpha Skip-Ahead group can now access the new Microsoft Edge on Xbox One or Xbox Series S / X consoles. While full mouse and keyboard support is still missing, the browser works as you’d expect with an Xbox controller, albeit a little buggy in this initial test version.
A Chromium browser on Xbox is a boost for those wanting to access websites through their console. Edge will also now provide access to Google’s Stadia streaming service, thanks to the improved compatibility support with Chromium. It should also improve compatibility with browser-based games, and services like Skype or Discord through the web.
This early test version appears to include the same sync engine used across Edge, with support for extensions, vertical tabs, Collections, and most Edge desktop features.
Support for the existing legacy version of Microsoft Edge on Windows desktops ends on March 9th, and Microsoft’s testing of this updated browser suggests it will arrive on all Xbox consoles soon.
If you’ve ever needed remote access to a PC, you’ve probably tried VPN or other apps such as TeamViewer. However, this kind of software only works within the remote computer’s OS, which means that it can’t access the BIOS, reboot, install an operating system or power on the computer. There are several solutions that allow you to remote control a PC independently of its operating system, but using a KVM over IP is one of the most convenient and affordable.
While a store-bought KVM over IP device can cost hundreds of dollars, it’s easy to use a Raspberry Pi to create your own. A developer named Maxim Devaev designed his own system called Pi-KVM, which he is planning to sell as a $130 kit. However, if you have the right parts, you can use the software he’s developed and your Pi, to put it together for far less.
Below, we’ll show you how to build your own Raspberry Pi-powered KVM over IP that can output full HD video, control GPIO ports and USB relays, configure server power using ATX functions and more. You’ll be able to control the whole setup via a web browser from another device over the internet via TailScale VPN or on your local network.
Pi-KVM prototype v3 without case (Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)
What You Need to Build a KVM Over IP with Raspberry Pi
Raspberry Pi 4 or Raspberry Pi Zero
16 GB or larger microSD Card. (See best microSD cards for Raspberry Pi)
HDMI-to-CSI bridge like this one or or USB HDMI capture dongle. (https://amzn.to/2ZO9tjo
USB female to dual male Type-A splitter like this one.
USB C to Type-A cable
5V, 3 amp power supply with USB Type-A output. You’ll be plugging a type-A cable into it so the official Raspberry Pi power supply won’t do.
Setting Up the SD Card for Raspberry Pi KVM Over IP
The software you need for the Raspberry Pi is all contained on a custom disk image that you must download and burn to a microSD card. Here’s how to do that with Raspberry Pi Imager, but you can also use other burning software such as balenaEtcher.
1. Download the Pi-KVM disk image. The first thing we will need is to download the ready made image from pikvm.org. Note that there are different versions, depending on which Pi you use and whether you use the HDMI-to-CSI bridge or an HDMI-to-USB capture dongle. The image file is in BZ2 format so you’ll need to uncompress it.
(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)
2. Extract the IMG file from the BZ2 file you downloaded. If you have Windows, BZ2 support isn’t built-in, but you can use 7Zip to do it.
3. Launch Raspberry Pi Imager. If you don’t have it installed already, you can download it from the Raspberry Pi Foundation’s website.
4. Select “Choose OS” -> “Use Custom” and locate the Pi-KVM image.Pick your microSD card by clicking Choose SD Card. We will now “Choose SD Card”, make sure it’s the correct one you are choosing.
5. Click Write.
(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)
Setting Up the Raspberry Pi for KVM Over IP
Now that we have finished burning the microSD Card, we can move on to installing the HDMI-to-CSI-2 bridge or USB-to-HDMI dongle and prepping the OTG USB-c cable
1. Connect the CSI ribbon cable from the HDMI-to-CSI-2 bridge to the Raspberry Pi’s CSI camera port. Make sure that the blue marking faces the black clamp. If you are using an HDMI-to-USB dongle instead, connect it to a USB port on your Pi. If you are using a Pi Zero, you will need microUSB to USB Type-A hub.
(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)
2. Disable the 5V pin on one of the USB Type-A male connectors from your splitter. The easiest way to do this is to place a small piece of Kapton tape over the right-most pin on the connector. You could also try cutting that leads to that pin, but that’s more complicated.
This will be the connector that attaches to a USB port on the PC you wish to control. If you don’t disable that 5V pin, it will back feed the power from your wall power to the PC, possibly causing damage to its USB port.
(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)
3. Connect the USB C-to-A cable to the Type-A female connector on the splitter. This will provide power to the Pi. Your cables should look like the picture below.
(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)
4. Connect the USB-C cable to the Raspberry Pi 4’s USB-C port.
5. Connect the unmodified Type-A male to your power supply.
(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)
6. Attach the USB Type-A connector and HDMI to the PC you wish to remote control.
(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)
7. Insert the microSD card we created and power on the Raspberry Pi.
Setting Up the Pi-KVM Software
At this point we are ready to start using the Pi-KVM. On first boot it will take longer then expected due to the initial process for enlarging the microSD card so be patient and it will boot.
1. Locate your Raspberry Pi’s IP address. You can do this looking through your router’s control panel to see what devices are logged on, or by using a little method I like to do called ARP.
To find the Pi’s IP using this method, launch Windows PowerShell, run the command “arp -a” and you’ll see a list of devices on your local network. Anything that begins with b8:27:eb: or dc:a6:32: is a Raspberry Pi.
(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)
2. Navigate to the Pi’s IP address in a browser on your client computer (the one you are using to control the other PC). You will be redirected you to your login page.
3. Log in. The default username is admin and the password is admin also.
(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)
4. Click the KVM icon.
(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)
You should now be presented with a screen like the one shown below, providing you with access to the remote PC and a number of other menus. . I have more options then others and you can unlock them by going to the pikvm github for more instructions.
(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)
Keep in mind that the more storage you have on your sd card the more ISO images you can store and use for future PC setups.
(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)
With the proper GPIO hook ups you can also enable the use of ATX controls
(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)
To expand the functionally of the PI-KVM to allow for more display inputs, you can connect it to an HDMI 4 port switch with USB control.
Pi-KVM Prototype V3 without case and KVM 4 port switch (Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)
(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)
Updating Pi-KVM to the Latest Version
Pi-KVM is always getting new features so it’s important to keep the software up to date. Fortunately, you don’t need to reflash the microSD card. To update:
1. Click the Terminal icon on Pi-KVM’s main menu. A CLI shell will appear.
(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)
2. Become a super user by typing “su” and then entering “root” as the password.
3. Type “rw” to make the file system read/write.
(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)
4. Enter “pacman -Syu” and “Y” to get updates.
(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)
(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)
Reminder: set the file system back to ReadOnly with “ro” in the command line when done.
Access Pi-KVM Over the Internet
You can use Tailscale to access Pi-KVM over the internet. This is a convenient and free (for private use) tool for organizing a small VPN network.
1. Create a Tailscale account choosing the Solo Plan will be free for personal use only
2. Click the Terminal icon on Pi-KVM’s main menu.
(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)
3. Become a super user by typing “su” and then entering “root” as the password.
4. Type “rw” to make the file system read/write.
(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)
5. Type “pacman -S tailscale-pikvm” to install tailscale VPN service on PI-KVM.
(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)
6. Type “reboot” to perform a soft reboot on the Pi-KVM
7. After the reboot has been performed we will need to gain access to the terminal again so follow steps 1-4
8. Type “systemctl enable –now tailscaled” to enable to service
9. Type “tailscale up” to start the initiation process
(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)
10. Follow the Link to authorize this installation
(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)
11. Once connected successfully you will see “Success” appear on the terminal.
(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)
12. Navigate to this URLhttps://login.tailscale.com/admin/machines to view the IP address assigned by tailscale VPN.
On the Client Side
This will show you how to install tailscale on the workstation side. Tailscale supports most operating systems including windows, mac, and linux.
1. Download tailscale for your OS from https://tailscale.com/download
2. Navigate to this URLhttps://login.tailscale.com/admin/machines to view the IP address assigned by tailscale VPN.
(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)
3. Navigating to the IP address given by tailscale on your browser. It will connect you to your PI-KVM
(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)
This is a very affordable way to build a very modern, very fast KVM over IP without the high cost. This software is also provided to you for free. There are more features that I have not covered in this tutorial such as VPN, Sharing network from your PI to PC, VNC and many more and if you wish to learn about it, visit the Pi-KVM github page or join the Discord.
News of intermittent USB connectivity issues on AMD Ryzen systems broke a few weeks ago, and the company has since announced that it is investigating the widespread reports to identify the root cause. AMD has not yet produced a full fix for the issue, but in the interim, its tech support has now issued its first official advice on steps that might help resolve the situation.
The issues seem confined to Ryzen 3000 and 5000 series CPUs in 500- and 400-series motherboards (i.e., X570, X470, B550, and B450) and consist of random dropouts for USB-connected devices. The complaints encompass several different types of USB devices, including unresponsive external capture devices, momentary keyboard connection drops, slow mouse responses, issues with VR headsets, external storage devices, and USB-connected CPU coolers.
The enthusiast community has been hard at work exploring several different workarounds that appear to improve the situation, and AMD’s tech support has emailed an impacted user outlining its suggestions (which were then posted to Reddit).
AMD has since confirmed to us that this is its current guidance on the matter. The advice comes as just that, advice, and it doesn’t appear that these steps are guaranteed to resolve the issue for all users. Here’s the short version of the advice, with emphasis added to the most relevant bits:
“Based on user feedback we have received; the suggestions below could improve or resolve general USB device stuttering issues.
1.) Verify that your motherboard is updated to the latest BIOS version and configured using optimized/factory default settings. Check your motherboard manufacturer’s website for BIOS update and download instructions.
2.) Check if your Windows 10 is on the latest build and fully up to date. For information on updating Windows 10, please refer to Microsoft article:
Update Windows 10
3.) Ensure that the Ryzen chipset driver from AMD is installed and up to date. Latest Ryzen chipset driver version is2.13.27.501and can be downloadhere.
If you continue to experience USB connectivity problems after following the suggestions above, you may consider using either of the following workaround:
1.) Set PCIe mode from Gen4/Auto to Gen 3 in the BIOS
2.) Disable Global C-State in the BIOS.These settings are found in the BIOS. Please refer to the motherboard user manual if more information is needed.”Most of the advice follows good common-sense troubleshooting tips, like making sure you’ve installed the latest BIOS, chipset driver, and version of Windows 10.
The most interesting bits cover the two suggested workarounds. Notably, these suggested fixes mirror some of the crowd-sourced suggestions we’ve seen in enthusiast circles. AMD doesn’t suggest a few other popular suggestions, though, like manually uninstalling/reinstalling USB ports and root hubs and disabling unused USB headers. Hence, it appears that AMD has at least narrowed down the potential solution to some extent.
The message also provides information on how you can submit a bug report and assures users that the company is actively investigating the issue and will provide an update once a proper fix is available. You can see the full text of the message here.
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