Help! ...running headless

[harlam357]

Ok guys... I'm trying to get my Athlon 1400 back up and running since it's been off the test bench while I've been working on my new 144. I've found a spot to set it up that's out of the way.

I want to run it with no vid, key, or rat. Only external connection will, of course, be cat5. I planned on just using VNC to access the box. Well, I'm having trouble getting it to boot with no vid, key, etc. Just plugged in a key & vid and boots fine into Winders. Subsequently removed the key and boots fine into Winders... so I guess my question is.

Do I just physically remove the vid card while windows is running? ...after turning off and disconnecting the monitor of course. I've always been of the school that doesn't do such things while the board is powered up.

Thanks!
-H

[sno.lcn]

Every time I even bump one of the cards on my caseless rigs, the whole compie pretty much seems to go down. Did you try turning the thing in your bios to ignore stuff not being connected?

[harlam357]

Well... I'm not having the "bumping" problem. I was just picking up the board at a 30 degree angle or better while running whislt also shaking the two expansion cards back and forth.

What I'm doing for the time being is just leaving the vid card in the board with no monitor plugged in. I'm hoping ghetto(the headless/diskless guru) comes around sometime today and tells me that it's ok to just remove the card while I've got it running. I swear I read a post from ghetto that said doing so was ok. .. but I'd rather confirm before trashing this extra 1.6GHz I'm getting going again. :D

[sno.lcn]

I can try yanking the vid card out of one of my rigs to see what happens if you want.

[LiveSideways]

The rigs I set up I just set 2k to auto logon with the service version of F@H, with the folder shared. Then I use EM-III to check and make sure its good. I get set everything up then rip out the kb/mouse and it still works.

[ThePCGuy]

Umm, no. Do not remove the videocard while the machine is running. Are you in need of that particular video card? I don't believe you'll be able to vnc into a box without a videocard simply because Windows won't have a desktop environment for you to log into. Someone can correct me if I'm wrong. I don't believe you can do that. I can try it on my server (has a videocard, not plugged in to anything), but I have a feeling it will not work. If you are looking to run headless, you may just want to find a board with built in video. Good luck :).

- Jim

[threeme2189]

i would suggest against that.

[harlam357]

No... don't need the old PCI vid @ the moment. I agree Jim, if the board has no vid, it has no desktop. I didn't think ripping it out while running was a good idea... just goes against what I've always been taught about adding/removing devices. After all, PCI cards have never been labeled as 'hot swappable'. :D

Maybe b/c ghetto's setup is also network boot/diskless, those boards can run without vid since they're being fed their OS anyway. Would still like to have his opinion on the setup... down the road I do plan to go with a small 4-5 board diskless setup and this board I'm working with now will be one of those boards. However, I'll probably set it up in Linux instead of Windows.

[WarriorII]

Don't rip it out while running ! the power surge will make it reboot.

In the BIOS, under general settings- usually 1st option in list,

It'll say "Halt on:" and usually we say all but keyboard.

Choose NONE. as in Halt on NO ERRORS.

the error being, no keyboard, no vid card etc.

Give that a whirl.

[benbaked]

i agree with warrior II and thepcguy, removing the video card while the computer is on is not a good thing at all. if you want to run headless, windows will boot just fine with no monitor attached. i have several of my computers at home folding with only one monitor to share between them and no switch.

[TalRW]

don't remove the card while it's on, I can't think of anything worse. Basically you know what I would do, get the PC running with folding running as a service and set it so that windows can boot without having to enter a password. Finally share the folding@home folder over the network so you can monitor it remotely with EMIII. Then set the BIOS to ignore all errors. Try booting it with no video card at the start and once it's fully booted monitor it with EMIII for a little while. If it works EMIII should show some folding progress if it doesn't show any progress it probably isn't working.

[dz_jad]

Maybe b/c ghetto's setup is also network boot/diskless, those boards can run without vid since they're being fed their OS anyway.

thats exactly what he does...just uses to make sure everything is alright (initial setup) and then does a network-boot. I forget what its called already....

[harlam357]

10-4 guys! Thanks for the help! :thup:

I'm going to leave it be for the moment, it's kinda tucked away in a corner and not easily accessable... so when I find a need for the PCI vid I'll see if I can get it booted into Windows without it.

The full diskless/network boot will come when I find some old used mobos for these other socket A cpus I've got listed in my sig. I'll have to re-visit ghetto's thread when that time comes.

Cheers! :beer: