[plug] Headless operation

[Leon Brooks]

Phillip Steege wrote:
> Can Linux be setup to run in "headless" (no monitor, keyboard, mouse)
> operation?  I remember seeing SUN Sparc workstations setup that way.

Most of my servers run that way. Just don't start into X (a waste of
resources) and you'll be right. My gateway machine has one serial port
(for the modem) one network card and one HDD controller card. No video
card, no mouse hole, no keyboard.

Remember to set the BIOS to halt on no errors (e.g. missing keyboard)
and to install SecureSHell (http://www.openssh.com/) to give you a
secure means of managing it. Test everything before throwing away the
video card, and use ReiserFS if you can to help it recover from
unexpected power losses more gracefully.

You can also compile a kernel to use a serial console and/or log to a
parallel printer, if this is any use to you.

-- 
Linux will not get in the door by simply mentioning it... it must win
by proving itself superior. We have no marketing department, our sales
department is an FTP server in North Carolina and our programming
department spans seven continents. Am I getting through? -- Signal11
(/.)