Running Old Desktops Headless? 347
CajunArson writes "I recently dug up an old P4 that is in fine working order and did what any self-respecting Slashdotter would do: I slapped Linux on it to experiment with making an NFSv4 server. One other thing I did was to remove the old AGP video card to save on power, since this is a headless machine. Now, I removed the video card after the installation, and I'm doing just fine as long as the machine will boot to a state where networking works and I can SSH to it. My question: Is there a good solution to allow me to log into this box if it cannot get on the network? I'm looking for solutions other than slapping a video card back in. In my case, I will have physical access to the machine. A few caveats to make it interesting: This question is for plain old desktop/laptop systems, not network servers designed to run headless. Also, I am aware of the serial console, but even 'old' machines may only have USB, and I have not seen any good documentation on how and whether USB works as a substitute. Finally, if there is any way to access the BIOS settings without needing a video card, that would be an extra bonus, but I'm satisfied with just local OS access starting from the GRUB prompt."
Gentoo?? (Score:0, Funny)
I use Gentoo; how does this affect me?
Re:Serial console (Score:5, Funny)
Or shut it down. (Score:3, Funny)
True story - I was working late one night and was busy shutting down everything in my office before going home. One by one I closed terminals on my laptop until typing 'shutdown now' in the last one.
I was still packing stuff and reached over to put my laptop in my bag and blinked at the terminal message 'connection to servername lost.'
With horror I realised that I had shut down our main mailserver! I had forgotten that I was still in an SSH session after reading through exim logfiles trying to find a missing e-mail that a client had insisted was stuck in our server.
This machine is an hour's drive from the office, and the support techs at the IDC took almost 30minutes to get up from their desks and walk down the corridor to push the power button. Talk about service. It is literally a five minute job!
When I phoned my colleague who was responsible for the server I said "Guess what I just did!?"
He laughed and joked "Probably shut down the mailserver?"
When I confirmed he responded "*groan* I forgot to alias that command! Sure I aliased poweroff, but not shutdown!"
Good Times.
Re:Serial console (Score:5, Funny)
I recommend clairvoyance and telekinesis.
Now, now, there's no need for snarkiness. We can accommodate the specs without resorting to hocus-pocus and imaginary abilities.
The solution is quite simple - he just needs to get a lemon (although lemon juice might suffice, it's not optimal, as I'll explain further.)
How it works is simple - you put a 1/2" slice of the lemon in your mouth, then stick in the end of the ethernet cable. The juice from the lemon reacts with your metal fillings and the copper from the network cable, generating electricity, which can then be used to set up an ethernet link by humming at the correct frequencies.
Once slice of lemon will provide approximately 8 to 10 minutes of power for this - be careful not to slice the lemon too thick or thin - too thin and you'll run out of power too soon, and too thick and you'll be wasting the juice in the center (This is why lemon juice is suboptimal - it washes away too quickly, so you'll be needing to "recharge" every 20-30 seconds.)
Re:Serial console (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Serial console (Score:2, Funny)
Re:Serial console (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Serial console (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Good luck (Score:5, Funny)
You're all putting WAY too much thought into this. The easiest way to do this is to take a magnet and manually adjust your hard drive until it has the SSH capability you're looking for.
Butterflies. What the OP needs are butterflies.
http://xkcd.com/378/ [xkcd.com]
Re:Good luck (Score:0, Funny)
"Most motherboards come with some sort of on-board GPU"
Sorry, but if do think so you are not old enough to talk on this thread. Off my lawn.