KVM Color Issue on X9 Boards - Possible Fix

[SomeInterestingUserName]

KVM colors can be messed up on older X9 boards when using IPMIView 2.21. This is a common issue [1,2,3] where the video takes on a greenish tint:

The official fix from Supermicro [3] only applies to Windows and Linux, but this fix is also possible on Mac. I couldn't find concrete steps for Mac documented anywhere (though there are hints online [1]) so I wrote my own:

1. Download https://<BMC_IP>/libmac_x86_64__V1.0.5.jar.pack.gz where <BMC_IP> should be replaced with the specific IP of your server's BMC. The exact version may depend on your BMC firmware version. Mine is on version 3.36.
2. Unpack the downloaded file with unpack200, e.g. unpack200 libmac_x86_64__V1.0.5.jar.pack.gz libmac.jar
3. Extract the files using jar xf libmac.jar which will create
   libiKVM64.jnilib, libSharedLibrary64.jnilib, and a folder called META-INF. The folder can be disregarded as we're just interested in the jnilib files.
4. Move both jnilib files to Contents/Resources/IPMIView within IPMIView.app, overwriting existing files. This should be done to the app in ~/Applications after already running script.sh.
5. Re-launch IPMIView, open the KVM Console, and the colors should be fixed.

The only differences with the Windows/Linux fixes were changing the download URL to point to the Mac library files, and making the commands/locations Mac-specific.

These steps worked for me on an M2 MacBook Air running macOS 15, with the Adoptium x86_64 OpenJDK as suggested in a comment from #23 [4]

Here's what my KVM console looks like after the fix:

Note that this fix can apparently break some features like Virtual Media or compatibility with newer boards [2,5] so it's advised to avoid doing this unless you can live without those or you're sure you don't experience those issues. I haven't run into any problems but I've only tested with X9 boards and don't use Virtual Media so YMMV.

These steps could be added as another entry in the troubleshooting wiki (I can also edit and PR if that's alright).

[1] https://forums.servethehome.com/index.php?threads/ipmi-viewer-kvm-console-color-issue.27138/
[2] https://old.reddit.com/r/simonheros/comments/mysmqe/fix_x9dr_supermicro_ipmi_colors_broken_glitched/
[3] https://www.supermicro.com/support/faqs/faq.cfm?faq=32333
[4]#23 (comment)
[5] https://tech.arantius.com/dont-fix-the-colors-in-supermicro-ipmiview

[TheCase]

Great stuff, thanks! Feel free to PR

[SomeInterestingUserName]

I started a PR (#36) with the instructions added to README.md. I don't think I can edit the wiki directly, but the additional markdown code should transfer over easily to a wiki page.

[ChristopherSchultz]

I wonder if this is simply a version update that needs to happen. SuperMicro's support for IPMI and KVM is so terrible I wouldn't be surprised if they patched some libraries on some firmware but didn't bother to update their publicly-available latest version.