I've recently changed distributions on my former desktop-now-turned-server from Bodhi (stripped-down Ubuntu) to Debian. The motherboard (AsRock Fatal1ty 990FX, AM3+ socket) lacks an on-board video output, so I've had to do my installation with my PCIe graphics card installed. Everything on the system works fine, DHCP, SSH server. When I shut down and remove my graphics card, the system powers on, but it does not seem to finish booting. I cannot ping the machine nor connect through SSH. When I had Bodhi installed previously, the system worked just fine headlessly.

I do not know if this is Grub-related or something else. With a keyboard attached, I have tried pressing Enter among other key combinations to see if the system is stuck on a prompt screen. Any ideas where the problem may lie?

EDIT: Others with similar problems seem to trace their problem to Grub. I've tried tweaking my /etc/default/grub configuration, enabling 'GRUB_TERMINAL_OUTPUT="console"' and setting GRUB_TIMEOUT to 0. (Regenerated grub.cfg, of course.) Neither of which have made a difference.

I would try (my guess for now):
put the card in it. Then boot again and see it it works (it should) and then connect only in SSH. Then remove the graphic card activation (blacklist GPU driver). Then everytime reboot at each step and connect via SSH to see if it still boot. Last, modify the BIOS to take the GPU out. A modification would go wrong? boot with a live USB and do the change back.
Good luck.

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There are two versions of that board ('Professional' and 'Killer') - I know one of them has a POST code readout built-in (the 'Professional') - is it hanging somewhere during bootup? My guess is the board is never finishing POST because it doesn't detect a GPU and that's assumed to be an error in a product designed for client/end-user use. You can't just spare an old PCI or PCIe card to appease it and make life easier for troubleshooting in the future?

Maybe install over network without the video card in place, from another machine.

Because if you're going headless, you still need to access it, typically that's done through network, or a monitor.

I have not installed any GPU-specific drivers on Debian and have only used the built-in video driver for video out. From lsmod, nouveau and video (used by nouveau) are present. I'll try blacklisting these and see what happens.
The board is the Killer variant. I have no way of checking where it would be hanging during boot. I have gone through all BIOS settings, and there is nothing regarding video out. I'm puzzled because other distros I've used worked just fine without a graphics card installed. Hence, why I'm thinking this is more of a Linux installation issue than hardware setting. I could just leave the graphics card in there as I'm not using it, though I'd prefer not to have it as it's drawing unneeded current and making extra fan noise.
I've thought about it, but after getting everything set up and configured, I think it's more trouble than its worth to reinstall from scratch.