Topic: True Headless E-smith Server

[Andrew Chilstone]

Hi,
Had an itch and just had to scratch it so....

I´ve discovered that it´s possible to run e-smith server 3.x even without a graphics card installed.

1. Install e-smith and configure Server/Gateway in usual way with ethernet card and modem.
2. Set bios to stop on no errors.
3. Power down, remove keyboard and video card.
4. Power up.
5. Optional: Telnet and run /sbin/e-smith/console to get standard e-smith console.

..and hey presto true headless server! Great!

Can you please make this a standard scenario to run e-smith ie give it a mention in the docs.
How about ensuring that future versions of e-smith can run in true headless mode too.
So what do think?

Thanks for a e-smith,
Andrew.

[Gordon Rowell]

Andrew Chilstone wrote:

> [...]
> Can you please make this a standard scenario to run e-smith ie
> give it a mention in the docs. How about ensuring that future
> versions of e-smith can run in true headless mode too. So what
> do think?

Well, we don't intend to do anything which would stop this from working.

However, PC hardware varies dramatically, and some BIOSes will
refuse to work without a video card, even with "stop on no errors"

I also like to have a video card installed so that I can plug in a
monitor and see what's on the console in the event of hardware failure.

Thanks for the information,

Gordon

[Andrew Chilstone]

I guess it should correctly be referred to as a "Thin Server".

The main advantage of this setup being cheaper build costs.

Andrew

[Sung H. Suh]

A better way would be to allow for console support over the serial port to allow someone to monitor bootup activity if they chose to.  Just like Cisco routers.

Sung H. Suh

[Charlie Brady]

Sung H. Suh wrote:

> A better way would be to allow for console support over the
> serial port to allow someone to monitor bootup activity if they
> chose to.  Just like Cisco routers.

Unfortunately the variability of PC hardware makes it impossible to do this reliably.

Regards

Charlie

[Wei]

I think there was a Canadian hardware product (not too cheap, but somewhat innovative) that would let one access the info sent to the screen via a serial port.

It was a text-based video card with a serial port interface. If it had embedded firmware, I wouldn't expect it to be operating system specific.
 
I seem to recall that they had a demo site accessible via the Internet, at which you could actually do a Hardware Reset from across the 'net.
(From memory, the demo let one re-boot a Linux or FreeBSD system.)

Now, what was that URL again...?  

(It was mentioned on SlashDot.org a few months ago, and it should be possible to search for it there today.)