Can't boot correctly without monitor

English Install/Boot/Login
#1

I have a few machines set up to run off in the corner without monitors attached. I installed 11.3 (32-bit) on a couple of them and they run fine during setup but then I move them to the corner with no monitor attached and they won’t boot correctly.

By this I mean they still run some apps I setup to run automatically from daemon scripts, but I can’t ping or access the machines at all. It’s almost like they aren’t booting all the way up. Hooking a monitor up fixes this but I don’t have enough monitors to keep these hooked up like this.

I have a couple of other 11.3 systems that are setup almost the same way but I put graphics drivers on those and they work with or without monitors attached. I don’t want to have to put graphics drivers on those systems if I can help it. I’m just hoping there is a simple solution.

#2

Have you tried booting to run level 3? If you boot to a GUI there is some expectations of having a monitor.

#3

No, I’d like to keep the desktop. When I need to check the machines or make adjustments it’s much easier if I can VNC to the desktop. Maybe I just need some dummy xorg file or something?

#4

I may be stating the obvious, but have you checked the BIOS settings? I’m assuming “no monitor” also means “no keyboard or mouse”.

There is usually a setting to ignore keyboard/mouse errors (i.e. absent) on boot.

#5

mitchpotter wrote:

>
> No, I’d like to keep the desktop. When I need to check the machines or
> make adjustments it’s much easier if I can VNC to the desktop. Maybe I
> just need some dummy xorg file or something?

I have an 8-way kvm switch to use a single monitor/keyboard/mouse on several
different boxes. I need the BIOS setting to ignore the missing kb or most
just hang in the BIOS on reboot. Once past that, I get a default low
resolution screen on the machines with no monitor connect during boot so
your desktop gui may be unusable when you do connect the monitor - huge
icons/text - but vpn should work. Everything here is on UPS so short
outages are not a problem but after an extended power out where everything
shuts down, I have to cycle through all the machines to restart X when power
comes back up. All seem to do just fine picking up the mouse and keyboard
when the switch connects but the video resolution is a nuisance.

–
Will Honea

#6

Networking should be done before any requirement of a monitor being connected or not has to be met: if you cannot ping the system, something else is wrong.

Did you perform a default install, or have these systems been tweaked ?
Which network services are running on them? NFS has some issues on 11.3
Take a look at /var/log/messages (root permissions needed), see where it “hung” on when there was no monitor connected.