Comments on: Off with his head!

Question: Off with his head!

le morte de bea arthur — Thu, 12 Feb 2009 12:13:49 -0800

Hopefully simple Ubuntu display question.

I've got a little PC running Ubuntu 8.10. I use it mainly as a development server but I also like to use the desktop for various tasks (I'm not really a command-line person) and I do that via VNC from my main PC.

The problem is when I try to boot the Ubuntu machine without a monitor attached. It stops with a warning about running in low graphics mode. I then have to connect a monitor to fix the issue.

What I want is for Ubuntu to boot into the desktop without any warnings. I then want to be able to use VNC to view the desktop. Essentially I want it to behave as if a monitor were attached (without trying to autodetect the screen resolution and refresh rate).

I found this thread on the Ubuntu forums, but it wasn't much help.

By: chrisamiller

chrisamiller — Thu, 12 Feb 2009 12:18:42 -0800

If you haven't already, try asking your question on the Ubuntu forums.

By: odinsdream

odinsdream — Thu, 12 Feb 2009 12:29:26 -0800

Could you provide more specific wording of the error message?

By: devbrain

devbrain — Thu, 12 Feb 2009 12:31:41 -0800

Alternate method to consider.

By: grippycat

grippycat — Thu, 12 Feb 2009 12:34:25 -0800

Found a link on ubuntu forums that might help:

"I think I've got it cracked, I deleted ALL files beginning with xorg.conf* (probably including the fallback one by mistake) in /etc/X11 and did a dpkg-reconfigure -plow xserver-xorg making sure nothing was auto-configured. Then I removed all the screen resolutions except 1024x768 from the new xorg.conf and it now seems to boot into X OK when it's headless. I've no idea which one of those things did the trick."

By: niles

niles — Thu, 12 Feb 2009 12:36:17 -0800

Does this thread (specifically towards the end) work for you? It looks like setting the xorg.conf drive to Driver "vesa" is the fix.

By: cowbellemoo

cowbellemoo — Thu, 12 Feb 2009 12:43:08 -0800

If you don't have the stomach to wade through the XORG configuration or install a VNC server with it's own virtual X server, you may be able to try a hardware 'solution' like a VGA terminator to trick things into thinking there's a monitor. Apparantly you can make your own out of a junked CRT monitor.

By: cowbellemoo

cowbellemoo — Thu, 12 Feb 2009 12:47:28 -0800

You may also have luck fiddling with BIOS settings. I don't think there's going to be a clearcut software answer unless you get up to your elbows in X settings. :(

By: le morte de bea arthur

le morte de bea arthur — Thu, 12 Feb 2009 12:49:58 -0800

Found a link on ubuntu forums that might help:

Thanks grippycat... but that didn't work for me when I tried it yesterday - I think the xorg configuration process has changed slightly since 7.10. (Hope you're feeling better soon by the way).

Does this thread (specifically towards the end) work for you?

You know what? It did! Screen resolution in VNC appears to be 800x600 now, but it's good enough.

Thanks all.

By: cowbellemoo

cowbellemoo — Thu, 12 Feb 2009 13:02:19 -0800

yay!