ArkKVM App

Open-source Rust firmware for ArkKVM — the all-in-one remote KVM with BIOS-to-desktop access, 1080p@60Hz streaming, USB gadget emulation, and browser-based control.

Website · GitHub

Overview

This repository contains the Rust firmware that runs on ArkKVM hardware. The main binary is arkkvm_app, which powers remote KVM over IP: BIOS/UEFI access, 1080p@60Hz video, two-way audio, virtual drive mounting and file transfer, ATX and Wake-on-LAN out-of-band control, a browser-based Web UI, and cloud remote access.

The firmware targets Rockchip RV1106 (armv7-unknown-linux-uclibceabihf). It is developed by Ark Intelligent. For product details and purchasing, visit arkkvm.com.

Features

Remote KVM — 1080p@60Hz WebRTC video and audio, Web Terminal, low-latency remote control
BIOS / out-of-band — ATX power control, Wake-on-LAN, OTA firmware updates
USB gadget — Keyboard and mouse, virtual CD/ISO mounting, file transfer, virtual microphone
Web & API — Browser-based Web UI and JSON-RPC API
Network — mDNS discovery, SSH, static IP and VLAN, Tailscale plugin
Cloud — Built-in cloud relay with flexible local and remote access modes

Architecture

Firmware on the device runs as three cooperating processes:

Process	Binary	Repository
Main firmware	`arkkvm_app`	`arkkvm/` (this repo)
USB sidecar	`arkkvm_usb`	`crates/usb_devices/` (this repo)
Virtual mic	`arkkvm_mic`	arkkvm-usb-mic

arkkvm_app — KVM sessions, hardware capture, Web UI, cloud services, configuration, and coordination of USB and virtual-mic pipelines.
arkkvm_usb — USB gadget configuration and device I/O (keyboard/mouse, mass storage, UAC1).
arkkvm_mic — Virtual-microphone audio playback; spawned and monitored by arkkvm_usb.

Processes communicate over Zenoh. The main bus carries USB control messages (Protobuf). Virtual-microphone PCM uses a separate mic Zenoh session; arkkvm_usb manages the arkkvm_mic lifecycle.

flowchart TB
  Client[Remote client]

  subgraph app [arkkvm_app]
    KVM[WebRTC KVM]
    Web[Web UI]
    UsbClient[USB client]
    VMic[Virtual mic forward]
  end

  subgraph usb [arkkvm_usb]
    Gadget[USB gadget]
    UsbCtrl[Control plane]
    MicSpawn[arkkvm_mic manager]
  end

  subgraph mic [arkkvm_mic]
    MicPlay[Audio playback]
  end

  Client <-->|WebRTC| KVM
  Client <-->|HTTPS| Web
  UsbClient <-->|Zenoh| UsbCtrl
  UsbCtrl --> Gadget
  MicSpawn --> mic
  VMic -->|PCM| MicPlay
  MicPlay --> Gadget
  Gadget --> HostPC[Host PC]

Virtual microphone routes remote WebRTC audio into a UAC1 USB gadget on the host PC. arkkvm_app decodes incoming audio and forwards PCM; arkkvm_mic plays it to the USB audio path; arkkvm_usb exposes the gadget and controls the mic process. Source and build: arkkvm-usb-mic.

Related repositories

ArkKVM is split across several repositories for firmware, UI, audio, and system tooling:

Component	Repository	Notes
Product	arkkvm.com	Product information
Firmware	arkkvm-app	This repo; builds `arkkvm_app` and `arkkvm_usb`
Web UI	arkkvm-app-frontend	UI source; this repo only contains `frontend/dist/` build output
Virtual microphone	arkkvm-usb-mic	Builds `arkkvm_mic`
System / toolchain	arkkvm-system	Cross toolchain and sysroot

Each related repository maintains its own LICENSE and NOTICE files.

Repository layout

Path	Description
`arkkvm/`	Main firmware crate (`arkkvm_app`)
`crates/usb_devices/`	USB gadget manager (`arkkvm_usb` sidecar)
`crates/common/`	Shared logging and device helpers
`crates/rockchip_mpi_sys/`	Rockchip MPI FFI bindings
`proto/`	Protobuf definitions (`usb_devices.proto`)
`frontend/dist/`	Web UI build output from arkkvm-app-frontend
`cshim/`	C shims for cross-compilation (`getauxval.c`)
`examples/`	WebRTC and hardware integration examples
`build.sh`	Cross-compile entry script (see Building)

Building

Firmware compilation requires artifacts from arkkvm-system (toolchain and sysroot). Those build steps are documented in that repository — not here.

Requirements

Linux host (amd64/x86_64) with rustup
C cross toolchain — arm-rockchip830-linux-uclibcgnueabihf/ (BUILDKIT_ROOT)
Sysroot libraries — MPI libraries from the system build (e.g. rockit, rockchip_mpp, rga)
Opus — prebuilt libraries at ../opus-1.5.1/lib (OPUS_LIB_DIR)
Web UI output — frontend/dist/ from arkkvm-app-frontend

Suggested sibling directory layout:

parent/
├── arkkvm-app/
├── arm-rockchip830-linux-uclibcgnueabihf/   # BUILDKIT_ROOT
├── opus-1.5.1/lib/                          # OPUS_LIB_DIR
└── rust/                                    # Rust source (stage2 toolchain)

Rust toolchain

Firmware builds use cargo build -Z build-std. Build a stage2 toolchain from Rust source tag 1.94.1 — do not substitute an arbitrary nightly release.

Item	Value
Rust source tag	`1.94.1`
Linked toolchain	`stage2`
Firmware target	`armv7-unknown-linux-uclibceabihf`

git clone https://github.com/rust-lang/rust
cd rust && git checkout tags/1.94.1 -b v1.94.1 && touch bootstrap.toml

Add to bootstrap.toml (set cc to the absolute path of the cross GCC under BUILDKIT_ROOT):

[build]
target = ["x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu", "armv7-unknown-linux-uclibceabihf"]

[target.armv7-unknown-linux-uclibceabihf]
cc = "/absolute/path/to/arm-rockchip830-linux-uclibcgnueabihf/bin/arm-rockchip830-linux-uclibcgnueabihf-gcc"

./x.py build --stage 2
rustup toolchain link stage2 build/x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu/stage2

Use cargo +stage2 when building firmware. Rust bootstrap host dependencies: Rust INSTALL.md. Platform notes: armv7-unknown-linux-uclibceabihf.

bindgen-cli is installed automatically by build.sh if missing.

Build commands

./build.sh                          # production build
./build.sh <version>                # bump package version
./build.sh <version> 1              # development channel (env_dev)

Argument	Description
`$1` version	Optional; updates version in `arkkvm/Cargo.toml` and `crates/usb_devices/Cargo.toml`
`$2` dev_channel	Optional; `1` enables `env_dev`, otherwise production

build.sh sets BUILDKIT_ROOT, OPUS_LIB_DIR, and the cross linker automatically. For manual builds:

export BUILDKIT_ROOT="$(realpath ../arm-rockchip830-linux-uclibcgnueabihf)"
export OPUS_LIB_DIR="$PWD/../opus-1.5.1/lib"
export CARGO_TARGET_ARMV7_UNKNOWN_LINUX_UCLIBCEABIHF_LINKER="$BUILDKIT_ROOT/bin/arm-rockchip830-linux-uclibcgnueabihf-gcc"

cargo +stage2 build -Z build-std --release --target armv7-unknown-linux-uclibceabihf

Pre-build checklist: stage2 from Rust 1.94.1 · frontend/dist/ present · toolchain paths match layout above.

Outputs:

Binary	Path
`arkkvm_app`	`target/armv7-unknown-linux-uclibceabihf/release/arkkvm_app`
`arkkvm_usb`	`target/armv7-unknown-linux-uclibceabihf/release/arkkvm_usb`

Troubleshooting: BUILDKIT_ROOT not set — export toolchain path · Cross-compile getauxval.c failed — incomplete sysroot · missing frontend/dist — build UI from arkkvm-app-frontend first.

Runtime notes

Configuration and persistent data live under /userdata/arkkvm/:

Path	Purpose
`/userdata/arkkvm/`	Config and persistent data
`/userdata/arkkvm/logs/`	Application logs
`/userdata/arkkvm/certs/`	TLS certificates
`/userdata/arkkvm/ota/`	OTA packages

Cargo feature flags:

Feature	Description
`env_dev`	Development channel
`env_unsafe`	Unsafe development options

External dependencies

Building from this repository requires components not included in this repository:

Component	Notes
Cross toolchain + Rockchip SDK sysroot (`BUILDKIT_ROOT`)	Proprietary `.so` libraries (librockit, MPP, RGA, etc.); see arkkvm-system
Prebuilt libopus (`OPUS_LIB_DIR`)	BSD-3-Clause; see build.sh
Web UI (`frontend/dist/`)	Built from arkkvm-app-frontend
Virtual microphone (`arkkvm_mic`)	Separate binary from arkkvm-usb-mic
Embedded disk image (`assets/images/netboot.xyz-multiarch.iso`)	netboot.xyz multiarch ISO (Apache-2.0); embedded into `arkkvm_app` via `rust-embed` for virtual media

The crate crates/rockchip_mpi_sys contains FFI bindings only; library binaries come from the vendor SDK sysroot.

This license applies to source code in this repository only.

License

ArkKVM App is licensed under GPL-2.0-or-later. Official releases of this repository are distributed under GNU GPL version 3 to remain compatible with Apache-2.0 dependencies (see NOTICE).

Document	Description
LICENSE	GNU GPL v2 full text
NOTICE	Copyright and GPLv3 distribution election
THIRD_PARTY_NOTICES	Rust/Cargo dependencies (`Cargo.lock`; auto-generated)

THIRD_PARTY_NOTICES is generated from Cargo.lock and lists Rust crate licenses only. After changing dependencies, regenerate:

cargo install cargo-about --locked --features cli
cargo about generate about.hbs -o THIRD_PARTY_NOTICES

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Name		Name	Last commit message	Last commit date
Latest commit History 5 Commits
.cargo		.cargo
arkkvm		arkkvm
assets/images		assets/images
crates		crates
cshim		cshim
examples		examples
frontend		frontend
proto		proto
.editorconfig		.editorconfig
.gitattributes		.gitattributes
.gitignore		.gitignore
.rustfmt.toml		.rustfmt.toml
Cargo.lock		Cargo.lock
Cargo.toml		Cargo.toml
LICENSE		LICENSE
NOTICE		NOTICE
README.md		README.md
THIRD_PARTY_NOTICES		THIRD_PARTY_NOTICES
about.hbs		about.hbs
about.toml		about.toml
build.sh		build.sh
deny.toml		deny.toml

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