You want a physical KVM, like a JetKVM.
You can get software only ones, but these run as a program in the OS, so you can't access anything BIOS or troubleshoot if the OS doesn't load, as then the software KVM won't.
this post was submitted on 24 Feb 2026
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There is also nanoKVM which is open source and quite a bit cheaper. Should do the job just as well.
If I understand you correctly: You want to be able to record one computer with another one on a system level (the BIOS-party that comes before any operating system is loaded).
Although this is not Linux specific: your best bet is a video capture card as you've suggested already. Anything else would depend on your bios supporting remote access which is not exactly the same (my server bios for example can expose a website where I then can configure it from within a browser.
The problem with video capture is that you'd still have two controls: one for the client and one for the host.
Depending on what your final result should be it could be actually easier and cheaper to just get a stand for a smartphone and record it from there and then crop it precisely.
You then have to only worry about light reflecting.
Thanks for confirming. Your understanding is correct, I just want a way to grab some "clean" screenshots or videos of the laptop while it's in boot or BIOS parts of the system. I have a video capture card in my "cart" but thought I'd put this out there to the lemmyverse before I smash that "Buy" button.
EDIT: I ordered this video capture card, we'll see how it goes!
If you go this route and its a semi permanent solution, would probably be better to get a ip camera or something instead of a smart phone, that way you don't have to worry about the phone battery going bad from being plugged in 24/7.
Capture card should do this, yeah.
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.
There is also nanoKVM which is open source and quite a bit cheaper. S
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)
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.
Assuming the laptop you're looking to control has HDMI out and USB input for Keyboard and mouse, I think you're right with the KVM switch idea, one that supports USB and HDMI input, and can switch between them between two devices. What I would do is get something which can record HDMI on your main PC. Some gamer devices have HDMI passthrough, which you'd plug into the KVM switch, but you could also use an HDMI splitter to have a feed from the laptop going into the KVM switch and to the recorder on your main computer. On your main computer, you could use OBS Studio to record the video from the laptop.