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Running a Firewall PC w/o display, kb, or mouse

I

imported_Kiwi

Golden Member
Server motherboards have options in Setup to skip over the POST checks for terminal type peripheral parts. I'm putting this here, in case there are Linux users here familiar with what I hope to do. (OR do you have to contrive some sort of dongles out of otherwise junk cables to get a "regular" MB to run on a day to day basis without its own terminal bits?)


😕:
 
Pretty much anything will run without a monitor these days, and I've generally had good luck with turning off or ignoring checks for keyboard and mouse. I have run into a few crufty boards tha won't(Compaq has a special reputation for a reason). Odds are you'll be fine.
 
I just use regular ol' computer. Older PCs wouldn't bootup without a keyboard and/or monitor attatched, but most newer (say p2 or newer) won't have this issue. (my router won't reboot without a keyboard for instace.. that POS)

The only time I need a cdrom/keyboard/mouse/monitor for it is when I install the OS or to fix a issue that is causing a bootup problem. Other then that I access everything thru SSH and X over SSH. VNC would work fine also as well as KVM switch.

In a server room setup it's easy enough to make Lilo or maybe newer versions of grub to send console output to the serial out. Then it's a issue of having a special machine set aside with a few multiport serial cards to take all the inputs. Also there is many serial ports products to manage the same things. Lots of products, different things you can do. just google around for headless linux, serial ports and whatnot. If you have a older laptop with a borked up battery then those make great serial terminals to carry around.

Just becarefull on what type of serial cable you use. There are no protections and using the wrong type of cable can damage hardware. They are called 'null modem cables' or 'laplink' cables.

But like I said, I just use ssh over ethernet for everything.
 
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