this post was submitted on 24 Feb 2026
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I enjoy derping around w/ virtual machines b/c not only can I revert to a clean snapshot, I can grab screenshots of pretty much any screen in the VM, including on the initial boot screen.

Is there some way for me to get a similar experience to using VMs except instead of a virtual machine, I'd be derping with a spare laptop next to my main daily driver PC? I don't care about snapshots, I'm mostly concerned about being able to record a video or grab screenshots of the boot screen and BIOS settings without having to use my phone to take the video/photo. In other words, like a remote desktop experience that persists during reboots of the "guest" laptop.

What equipment would I need for this? Should I look into video capture cards or KVM switches? Both the "host" and "guest" systems will be running one of the mainstream Linux distros (Mint, Fedora, etc).

Part of the challenge for me is actually articulating what it is I'm trying to do and knowing what terms to search for on DDG, so please feel free to ask questions to clarify my requirements. Thank you!

EDIT: Thanks to everyone who chimed in. Although your comments definitely piqued my curiosity in devices such as JetKVM, I ordered this video capture card, since in my case, the machine I want to capture images/videos from will be next to my "host" machine. That said, I'll definitely keep these KVM devices in mind in case my needs change down the road.

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[–] duckythescientist@sh.itjust.works 2 points 19 hours ago (2 children)

You may want something like https://jetkvm.com/ or https://pikvm.org/. They will do the video capture and keyboard/mouse input.

Also check out https://symless.com/synergy. I really like it for using my work laptop next to my desktop. It doesn't do video, but extends your mouse and keyboard to other computers.

[–] HelloRoot@lemy.lol 3 points 18 hours ago* (last edited 18 hours ago)

There is also nanoKVM which is open source and quite a bit cheaper.

[–] yo_scottie_oh@lemmy.ml 2 points 18 hours ago (1 children)

Thanks for the tip about JetKVM. Does the JetKVM device itself require an ethernet connection to the router or can it connect over wifi? (from what I can tell, it's the former)

[–] dan@upvote.au 1 points 9 hours ago

A lot of these devices are Ethernet-only to simplify things. Ethernet is more reliable, people that use KVM/IPMI for remote management usually use it via Ethernet, and it means they don't need to bundle wifi drivers with their OS. Also, some of them are powered using PoE (Power over Ethernet) to avoid needing a separate power cable.

You could plug it into a cheap wifi bridge to make it wireless.