booting an intel 815 fc3 without monitor

[Jonathan Berry]

On Thu, 17 Mar 2005 21:07:35 -0800, bruce <bedouglas at earthlink.net> wrote:
> john...
> 
> thanks for getting back to me. i had actually tried both... i screwed up at
> 1st, and then found an example...
> 
> unfortunately, it didn't work...
> 
> my grub.conf file is:
> 
> -----------------------------------------------------
> [root at lserver4 etc]# cat grub.conf
> # grub.conf generated by anaconda
> #
> # Note that you do not have to rerun grub after making changes to this file
> # NOTICE:  You have a /boot partition.  This means that
> #          all kernel and initrd paths are relative to /boot/, eg.
> #          root (hd0,0)
> #          kernel /vmlinuz-version ro root=/dev/VolGroup00/LogVol00 rhgb
> quiet
> #          initrd /initrd-version.img
> #boot=/dev/hda
> 
> #
> #b douglas added params to kernel line.. due to boot without monitor
> #
> 
> default=0
> timeout=5
> splashimage=(hd0,0)/grub/splash.xpm.gz
> hiddenmenu
> title Fedora Core (2.6.9-1.667)
>         root (hd0,0)
>         kernel /vmlinuz-2.6.9-1.667 ro root=/dev/VolGroup00/LogVol00 quiet
> noprobe skipddc
>         initrd /initrd-2.6.9-1.667.img
> 
> #linux noprobe skipddc nofb vga=0
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> 
> as i said, i plug the monitor, it works... i unplug the monitor, it hangs..
> 
> it's seriously frustrating... and there are no BIOS options that i can
> manipulate..
> 
> so.. any clues/suggestions would be helpful.
> 
> bruce

Very strange indeed.  Perhaps upgrading to a newer kernel might help. 
Looks like you are still running the original FC3 kernel.  I know that
one has trouble with the Intel 810 chipset (I've seen enough messages
about it), maybe there are fixes for the 815 in newer ones as well, I
don't know.  It's worth a shot at least.  From your other mails, it
seems like it has worked at times for you.  Anything you can think of
that could have caused it to work?
Are you booting into run level 3 or 5?  Do you need X to be running
(to use forwarding to client machines)?  How far does it get without
monitor (or can you tell)?  What happens if you plug in a monitor
after it has booted (or hung as the case may be)?  If you can boot to
run level 3 (just stick " 3" at the end of the kernel line, press 'a'
at the boot line to edit it for that one boot), then it could be
something in your X configuration.
Your best option may be to just connect some junk monitor to it if you
have one you can spare.  I understand this may not be an option,
though.  I just booted up my desktop system without a monitor and it
worked fine, though I have an AGP nVidia card in it and it has not
integrated graphics.

Jonathan