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How to make "headless" system?

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  How to make "headless" system? Dennis Wicks <wix@mgssub.com> - 2015-11-07 21:50 +0100
    Re: How to make "headless" system? John Hasler <jhasler@newsguy.com> - 2015-11-07 23:00 +0100
    Re: How to make "headless" system? Glenn English <ghe@slsware.net> - 2015-11-07 23:00 +0100
    Re: How to make "headless" system? Miles Fidelman <mfidelman@meetinghouse.net> - 2015-11-08 05:10 +0100
    Re: How to make "headless" system? Matt Ventura <mattventura@mattventura.net> - 2015-11-09 19:10 +0100
      Re: How to make "headless" system? X <lists04@fastmail.fm> - 2015-11-09 22:30 +0100
        Re: How to make "headless" system? Himanshu Shekhar <irm2015006@iiita.ac.in> - 2015-11-11 12:20 +0100

#160289 — How to make "headless" system?

Greetings;

I have a number of older PCs that I use for testing/local 
webservers, fileservers, backup machines and other stuff. A 
couple of these have "glass ttys", ie. no graphics at all, 
and others have old low-res monitors of 800x600 at best. 
Also, they are all in the basement, which is a trip I don't 
like to make very often!

I want to force these systems to support hi-res 1680x1050 or 
better so I can VNC to them from my main machine and be able 
to use graphic software to operate and maintain these machines.

Right now I mostly use ssh and it can be a real pain!

Can anybody tell me how to accomplish this or point me to a 
"How To" somewhere?

I am running Jessie and XFCE.

Many TIA!!
Dennis

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#160291

Dennis Wicks  writes:
> I want to force these systems to support hi-res 1680x1050 or better so
> I can VNC to them from my main machine and be able to use graphic
> software to operate and maintain these machines.

Use ssh -X to forward the X connection.  Then you can just run your
applications on the remote machine and have them display on your main
machine.  The remote machines need not support any graphics at all.
-- 
John Hasler 
jhasler@newsguy.com
Elmwood, WI USA

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#160292

On Nov 7, 2015, at 1:36 PM, Dennis Wicks <wix@mgssub.com> wrote:

> I have a number of older PCs that I use for testing/local webservers, fileservers, backup machines and other stuff. A couple of these have "glass ttys", ie. no graphics at all, and others have old low-res monitors of 800x600 at best. Also, they are all in the basement, which is a trip I don't like to make very often!
> 
> I want to force these systems to support hi-res 1680x1050 or better so I can VNC to them from my main machine and be able to use graphic software to operate and maintain these machines.
> 
> Right now I mostly use ssh and it can be a real pain!
> 
> Can anybody tell me how to accomplish this or point me to a "How To" somewhere?

How about Webmin and a browser? Webmin saved my life many times when I was learning IP and *nix. I suspect there are more sophisticated systems, Nagios comes to mind. But you really don't need the machines downstairs to make any pictures -- all it has to do is make some HTML and give it to a web server.

Or CLI software watching what goes on in your servers. Like Logwatch or Monit or a script or two that you've written that emails you about things that need attention.

Or all of the above...

-- 
Glenn English

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#160302

On 11/7/15 3:36 PM, Dennis Wicks wrote:
> Greetings;
>
> I have a number of older PCs that I use for testing/local webservers, 
> fileservers, backup machines and other stuff. A couple of these have 
> "glass ttys", ie. no graphics at all, and others have old low-res 
> monitors of 800x600 at best. Also, they are all in the basement, which 
> is a trip I don't like to make very often!
>
> I want to force these systems to support hi-res 1680x1050 or better so 
> I can VNC to them from my main machine and be able to use graphic 
> software to operate and maintain these machines.
>
> Right now I mostly use ssh and it can be a real pain!
>
> Can anybody tell me how to accomplish this or point me to a "How To" 
> somewhere?
>

As someone else pointed out, you can always use X-windows over SSH.

But, speaking as someone who administers lots of servers - the command 
line rules. GUIs are for amateurs.

  If you really want to use graphical tools to manage servers, use some 
kind of client-server tool like Nagios.

Miles Fidelman

-- 
In theory, there is no difference between theory and practice.
In practice, there is.  .... Yogi Berra

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#160354

On 11/07/2015 12:36 PM, Dennis Wicks wrote:
> Greetings;
>
> I have a number of older PCs that I use for testing/local webservers, 
> fileservers, backup machines and other stuff. A couple of these have 
> "glass ttys", ie. no graphics at all, and others have old low-res 
> monitors of 800x600 at best. Also, they are all in the basement, which 
> is a trip I don't like to make very often!
>
> I want to force these systems to support hi-res 1680x1050 or better so 
> I can VNC to them from my main machine and be able to use graphic 
> software to operate and maintain these machines.
>
> Right now I mostly use ssh and it can be a real pain!
>
> Can anybody tell me how to accomplish this or point me to a "How To" 
> somewhere?
>
> I am running Jessie and XFCE.
>
> Many TIA!!
> Dennis
>
If you absolutely must have a full X running on the machines, you can 
use xvfb to create a "fake" X that doesn't actually display anywhere, 
and use VNC to access it. There's also xvnc which is specifically for 
use over VNC.

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#160373

On Mon, Nov 9, 2015, at 01:06 PM, Matt Ventura wrote:
> On 11/07/2015 12:36 PM, Dennis Wicks wrote:
> > Greetings;
> >
> > I have a number of older PCs that I use for testing/local webservers, 
> > fileservers, backup machines and other stuff. A couple of these have 
> > "glass ttys", ie. no graphics at all, and others have old low-res 
> > monitors of 800x600 at best. Also, they are all in the basement, which 
> > is a trip I don't like to make very often!
> >
> > I want to force these systems to support hi-res 1680x1050 or better so 
> > I can VNC to them from my main machine and be able to use graphic 
> > software to operate and maintain these machines.
> >
> > Right now I mostly use ssh and it can be a real pain!
> >
> > Can anybody tell me how to accomplish this or point me to a "How To" 
> > somewhere?
> >
> > I am running Jessie and XFCE.
> >
> > Many TIA!!
> > Dennis
> >
> If you absolutely must have a full X running on the machines, you can 
> use xvfb to create a "fake" X that doesn't actually display anywhere, 
> and use VNC to access it. There's also xvnc which is specifically for 
> use over VNC.
> 

A bit off topic but I thought it might be worthwhile to consider this:
Consolidate your OSes running on those old PCs into a virtual
environment. You can have local desktop window for them or run them
headless and remotely connect via console or VNC. This will also help
reduce your monthly electricity bill.

-- 
  KS
  lists04@fastmail.fm

-- 
http://www.fastmail.com - mmm... Fastmail...

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#160429

[Multipart message — attachments visible in raw view] — view raw

You can also set up a headless system, and use Webmin like tools if ssh, or
VNC appears troublesome.

Regards
Himanshu Shekhar

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