Re: ipmi access

[Jeroen Massar <jeroen () massar ch>]

On 2014-06-02 19:32, Nikolay Shopik wrote:
> On 02/06/14 20:56, Christopher Morrow wrote:
> > so... as per usual:
> >    1) embedded devices suck rocks
> >    2) no updates or sanity expected anytime soon in same
> >    3) protect yourself, or suffer the consequences
> >
> > seems normal.
>
> So I wonder why vendors don't publish source code of these ipmi firmware
> in first place? Like supermicro from what we know its 99% is open source
> stuff.

Source won't help too much, as upgrading the kernel will require a lot
more magic than just that.

Also, do you have time to support all the different IPMI boxes out there
while your vendor should be doing that work?

For the toolchain, see amongst others:
 http://michael.stapelberg.de/Artikel/supermicro_ipmi_openvpn


Note that the big problem with "embedded" devices (be that an Android
phone, your TV set, your dishwasher, an IPMI device, your car or one of
thousand "media players") is: they get popped in a box and they will
rarely if ever get an update after that.

The market has to change to support that, and it likely won't unless the
prices for toys are going to go up sky high to be able to pay for
somebody doing that work.

The Open Source portion only means that you are more aware that you are
running some software with horrible bugs in there. Hence: never route
them, never make them remotely publicly available.

And then start thinking about all the fun new "Cloud Connected" devices...

Greets,
 Jeroen