Does anyone know of, or use, software that would allow you connect systems to a LAN without attaching a monitor? I would like to have around 5 systems on my LAN, but only use two monitors and access my monitor-less systems via telnet or Samba from a single Linux machine and one Windoze machine.

I have read a little on wake-on-lan with supported boards, but I was just wondering if there was a any other way to do this.

All my Linux machines are Mandrake 7.2

Thanks for any help.........

Sorry about the spelling mistake on the 'Linux vs. XP' post.

I wouldn't think that you would need any special kind of software. I am current accessing 3 systems from 1 monitorat home. I tall depends on what you want to do. I just use openssh's ssh and scp to handle anything I want to do. You could also setup samba for the windows stuff and nfs for the linux stuff. It all depends on what your need are. My only need was not having to buy another monitor.

Sounds good.
I will give your recommendation a try and post if I can get it to work.

Thanks for the tip.

Ok, I am sure I a missing something trivial.

When you connect a system to an internal network without a keyboard, monitor, mouse, etc... and just run a network cable into a central hub, how do you get past the initial logon sequence when you power the box on?

I dont want a keyboard, mouse or monitor on this machine but I cant figure out how to do the initial logon when the system boots from another Linux box.


I am stumped......

Thanks for any help.

AFAIK wake on LAN is only for the controller of power saving, it doesn't actually power on the system. Hence the system powers up and the startup scripts start your telnet/ssh daemon which then accepts you incomming connection over the LAN, and you just leave it running 24/7. The fact that the keyboardless/mouseless/monitorless system is displaying a logon screen that will never be used doesn't effect things at-all (apart from wasting memory if you are using a graphical logon).

HTH

Jamie...

Managed to get SSH working going from a Linux box two FreeBSD boxes. For some reason I cannot establish a connection from Linux- to- Linux with SSH or telnet.

As far as having two systems on network without a monitor/keyboard/mouse, I simply used a monitor, keyboard and mouse long enough to get these systems booted and set up, then pulled the monitor, keyboard and mouse from the towers, leaving the NIC plugged into the switch.

There must be a better way of doing it, but this was all I could think of.

You should check your /etc/hosts.allow & hosts.dent files and your /etc/ssh/sshdconfig to make sure it is set up to allow you to login.

You should also take a look at your log files, they may give you a clue as to why your logins are being denied.

(I am speaking from a linux standpoint, I have no experience with FreeBSD, but I am sure that it has simliar files)

You also need to make sure that the sshd (daemon) is running on the server systems, and that it starts up automagically. And open up port 22 (ssh) on the firewall is it's installed/working.

Just set the BIOS to not stop of keyboard errors. That way you don't need the monitor, keyb or mouse. Just turn it on and your away.

HTH

Jamie...

I edited the rc.local file on all the Linux machines to the following on the end:

/usr/bin/ssh

Now when I boot, the daemon is running.
I can log into my Linux box and FreeBSD box from my cental Linux box now.

Thanks for all the help everyone.