Hey,
I was wondering if there was anyway to trick my computer into believeing that there was a keyboard and monitor attached when there is not this would make my rebooting job much easier.

The computers are Pentium 2's I have no idea what the mobo's are.

Thanks
Gillman

i work on 100 node clusters where 99 nodes don't have a monitor or keyboard....

linux doesn't care if there is no keyboardor monitor. you bios might care.... make sure that your bios is correctly adjusted as to not bitch when it boots without a keyabord (or monitor?).....


if you need access you can ssh into that box via a network or redirect console output to the serial port...

if this is what you mean, reply and i'll help you get to where you need to be

you could pop a resistor on the connectors so it has the right resistance over the interfaces.. I'm not sure what the values are though...

I think I've looked in my bios but i dontt see any options like that when I get home I will look again but I am pretty sure there isn't

Gillman

what exactly is the problem?

Its not really a problem more of an annoyance, I jst have to plug a monitor and keyboard everytime i need to reboot. Its just kind inconvenient

I just went through my bios again and there is no options that even sound like they would do what I am looking for them to do.

Am I just S.O.L?

Thanks
Gillman

This sounds like a Most bizarre problem. Is there a reason you need to reboot?

If Linux boots up when there is no keyboard/monitor attached then you just need a server running on it to connect across the network. The preferred setup is an SSH server, then you can use an ssh client (built into all modern Linux/Unix and available under GPL for windows) to log into that machine and reboot it when needed.

If the system won't boot then it's probably a BIOS issue, your BIOS should have a setting for, "Halt on" with options like all/none/keyboard. To test this, try booting it with a monitor but no keyboard, if it comes up with something like "keyboard not present, press F1 to continue" (how ironic is that one?!) then the BIOS is the culprit.

im confused as to whats happening...



are you saying that in order to reboot you have to plug in a keyboard and monitor to actually type 'reboot' at the console and that is annoying?

or are you saying that without a keyboard and monitor there is some kind of error that is preventing a reboot?

I know that my bios is the culprit. Last night I went through it again and it will let me start we no monitor but it requires a keyboard.

What the problem is if that I need to reboot I can type reboot remotely but with out the keyboard the bios will prevent the computer from rebooting so for it to reboot i need to plug in a keyboard and press f1.

Thanks
Gillman

search for "halt on all errors" in your bios setup and change it to "halt on all but video/keyboard". Another problem may be if you use some geforce2 video card. These video cards require a monitor plugged to pass their POST. If you have such a card, remove it. I use a serial connection in case i misconfigured network settings.

I have already looked for a Halt on part in my entire bios to no avail. The computer properly boots with no monitor I discovered it still requires a keyboard though.

Thanks,
Gillman

You could just buy a cheapy keyboard for like $5 and always leave it plugged in. Maybe you could find one at the dump or junkyard.

What make/model computer do you have? Can you tell us anything about the BIOS Name and version?

Its American MegaTrends Ambi bios Ver. M628 -04