By a headless server I mean one without a monitor attached.

I recently changed my file & print (samba) server from Fedora core 5 to Ubuntu 7.10. While I had it on the bench I used a 15" LCD monitor to do the install. Worked great and I had a resolution of 1024 x 768. The video card is some sort of low end ATI card as supplied by Dell.

I changed my account to automatically login (System; Administration; Login window) and allowed remote desktop control with a password and without "Ask you for confirmation" (System; Preferences; Remote desktop) as I planned to administer the box remotely with VNC (Terminal Server Client as it is called in Ubuntu). I tested my remote access while the box was on the bench with the monitor connected and all worked just fine.

I then shut it down and put it back in its normal place with only power and network connected. When I accessed it with VNC from a Windows PC I found that the screen resolution was only 800 x 600. Enough for minimal administration but not what I expected. I had the same issue with a headless workstation which I setup with Ubuntu 7.10. Only 800 x 600 when no monitor was attached. This one was a little more of an issue. So I fixed it. Here is how:

From the menu - System; Administration; Screens and Graphics

The "Model" is shown as "Plug 'n' play" (but I guess as it is not plugged in it cannot play) The only resolution choices are 800 x 600 or less.

Click on "Plug 'n' Play" and a screen titled "Choose Screen" appears. I selected "Generic" and "Monitor 1024 x 768" and then OK.

I now can select 1024 x 768 as my desired resolution. I was told that "All users must log off for the chances to take effect" so I chose System; Quit; Restart as I was not sure if I would automatically login after doing a manual logout.

I reconnected and found that the resolution was 1280 x 1024. Easy enough to change back to my desired 1024 x 768. I now have a whole range of resolutions to choose from.

Hope this may help someone else facing this issue.

Regards,

Ken

p.s. If you are running VNV on a less user friendly disto, the desired resolution can be configured manually by editing the VNC server configuration files. I guess I could have done that here as well.

p.p.s. When I connected this AM I found the screen at max resolution again. I changed to a 1027 x 768 LCD monitor and it now stays at the desired resolution between connections. Also I found that I do not need to reboot after changing resolution. Simply log out and the automatic login will put be back in business.

p.p.p.s. I just found out the hard way that if I logout during normal operation (not after changing the monitor) the automatic login does not log me back in :-(( Fortunately I was able to ssh to my headless machines and reboot from the command line.

well done...a reply to remove from zero posts

Thank you!!!!

It was simple and more important it worked

I've tried countless solutions until I've found you post, thank you very much for sharing this!

Thanks a lot.

This problem made me switch from Ubuntu to Mandriva for my file server.

You are great!!!