v1.5.6

v1.5.6 adds support for a second KVM chip family and fixes platform compatibility issues!

The headline feature is CH9350L support (closes #13).

The CH9350L is a more capable sibling to the CH9329, and is found in a growing number of KVM-over-serial adapters. The new CH9350Comm backend covers all four working states of the chip: states 0/1 (paired mode with descriptor handshake and relative mouse), state 2 (BIOS-safe relative mouse), state 3 (BIOS-safe absolute mouse), and state 4 (HID Digitizers mode). You can select the chip from the GUI (with the choice persisted across restarts) or from the CLI with --ch9350 and --ch9350-state.

A few non-obvious hardware quirks are worth knowing: state-0/1 absolute mouse coordinates are silently dropped by the chip (use state 3 or 4 for absolute positioning), and the state-3/4 X/Y range is 10-bit rather than the 16-bit suggested by the datasheet.

Full protocol documentation is in docs/CH9350L_PROTO.md and a user guide is in docs/CH9350L_GUIDE.md.

This release also fixes two platform-specific input issues from #36: the pynput backend no longer crashes at import on macOS when Key.scroll_lock is absent, and Windows users who were stuck in kvm-control because Ctrl+C (ETX) wasn't being handled correctly can now exit cleanly.

As always, if you find a problem or bug with this release, please feel free to raise an issue. Check out docs/CONTRIBUTING.md for guidance.

⚠️ IMPORTANT: as the binary distributions in this release are un-signed, OSX users will need to run xattr -dr com.apple.quarantine ./KVM\ Serial.app to enable it. OSX will notify that the package is broken otherwise.

What's Changed

• Implement CH9350L UART protocol: all states, CLI + GUI wiring, docs, and tests by @sjmf in #40
• Fix pynput backend on OSX (#36) and input handling on Windows by @sjmf in #38

Full Changelog: v1.5.5...v1.5.6

v1.5.5

v1.5.5 brings a whole host of improvements to quality of life and functionality!

First and foremost, the old OpenCV video backend has been ditched in favour of a Qt5 native pipeline. This requires some extra dependencies on some systems: be sure to check out docs/INSTALLATION.md for details.

In doing so, we now have access to a lot more device-specific information, allowing a Resolution selection menu for each device! Additionally, you can now choose a set scaling factor (1:1, 1:2, 1:4 or even double 2:1) for video feeds, which enables per-pixel scaling and clearer video if that's what you want. Dynamic scaling remains the default, but the mode can be changed through the View menu. It has also vastly reduced the size of the download due to the removal of the bundled OpenCV from the binary distributions (most of which wasn't even being used).

Finally, screenshot functionality has been added to capture a frame from the video feed: you can find that in the "Edit" menu.

Please note: the command-line kvm-control app has some deprecations in this release due to the switch away from OpenCV: as a result, the --video flags will no longer work from v1.5.5 onwards. Users who rely on this (I don't expect there are many, but still) can switch to kvm-gui, or pip install kvm-serial==1.5.4 as the last working version.

As always, if you find a problem or bug with this release, please feel free to raise an issue. Check out docs/CONTRIBUTING.md for guidance.

⚠️ IMPORTANT: as the binary distributions in this release are un-signed, OSX users will need to run xattr -dr com.apple.quarantine ./KVM\ Serial.app to enable it. OSX will notify that the package is broken otherwise. This is a pity, but until I have an Apple signing certificate ($100 a year) this is the only way to release open source software on Apple platforms.

What's Changed

• Add screenshot functionality by @sjmf in #27
• Add MkDocs documentation site with GitHub Pages deployment by @sjmf in #28
• Update installation instructions for MacOS Tahoe by @sjmf in #30
• Update testing documentation by @sjmf in #33
• Add resolution enumeration and selection menu (towards #24, #29) by @sjmf in #34
• Bump black from 26.1.0 to 26.3.1 in the pip group across 1 directory by @dependabot[bot] in #37

New Contributors

• @dependabot[bot] made their first contribution in #37

Full Changelog: v1.5.4...v1.5.5

v1.5.4

This is a bugfix release.

See the INSTALLATION.md documentation for instructions running this app!

What's Changed

• Fix backend module imports for installed package (#22) by @sjmf in #23

Full Changelog: v1.5.3...v1.5.4

v1.5.3

What's Changed

• 19 windows props by @sjmf in #20
• Configurable Keyboard Layout by @sjmf in #21

Full Changelog: v1.5.2...v1.5.3

v1.5.2

What's Changed

• Added downloadable binaries resolving issue #12 Release Project Executables
• Add uv executable scripts by @James4Ever0 in #14
• Fix #15 Running on Windows
• Client paste by @sjmf in #17
• Fix #18 macOS: Application hangs on first launch when requesting camera permission

New Contributors

• @James4Ever0 made their first contribution in #14

Full Changelog: v1.5.1...v1.5.2

As ever, check docs/INSTALLATION.md for key considerations.

v1.5.1

Full Changelog: v1.5.0...v1.5.1

This release fixes issues with focus handling, and an edge case where '.' period characters and numpad keys weren't passed correctly.

v1.5.0

What's Changed

• PyQt5 GUI rewrite by @sjmf in #10

Full Changelog: v1.4.2...v1.5.0

v1.4.2

Some GUI enhancements and refactoring of the underlying codebase, to make it more readable and reliable.

Full Changelog: v1.4.1...v1.4.2

v1.4.1

Added ability to select video device if more than one is present.
GUI should also be more responsive after load now.

Full Changelog: v1.4...v1.4.1

v1.3

Release v1.3 adds video support and a front-end GUI, with the ability to install and run the serial KVM software as a python module.

Full Changelog: v1.2...v1.3