Hello everyone.

I plan on putting a linux distro on a computer that will act as a headless server basically. I have a few questions.

1) How can I programatically detect freezes or system hangs? I want to be able to do a reboot if such an event happens (even if not programatically, automatically).

2) When the computer boots up, by default a login prompt is presented. Since this is a headless unit, I want to turn this login prompt off. So if someone were to hook up a monitor and keyboard/mouse to it, they do not have the ability to login. I figured I can administer it via ssh if needed. Is this even possible?

3) Does anyone have any good articles on good practices on embedded distros? Im using a VIA Mini-ITX board if that helps.

Thanks

1. It shouldn't hang. I've never had my linux install freeze or go stupid on me. X has the power to do that but if you aren't using it you shouldn't have a problem.

2. Huh? That makes no sense. What did you plan on displaying instead of a login prompt? How does it matter if nobody is hooking a screen up to it anyway? Just administer the box via ssh and don't think about what you might see if you plugged a monitor into it.

3. I don't think you need an embedded distro for simply a Mini-ITX board. I was reading an article about building a CarPC with something like that and they weren't using an embedded distro _and_ they got boot times down to like 8 seconds. If I can find the link again I'll post it.

Wow... 8 seconds would be a nice bootup time.

The login prompt... I just dont want a curious IT hacker type person to hook up devices to it and start trying to guess passwords (or any kind of input). I figured its one less thing to be concerned about.

Im not running anything except linux, apache/php (for admin and config), postgres and some custom daemons im writing... Think it still won't be an issue?

Im runing Gentoo on the box so its not an embedded distro... its really just a headless computer. But Im packaging it as an embedded computer...

That 8 seconds was with major distro hacks and a custom BIOS Probably not something to try at home.