On Friday 06 November 2009 07:27:11 and regarding:
Hi,
I'm trying to recycle an old machine as a headless server alongside my main desktop machine. The two machines will be linked through my ADSL router. I have done a standard openSUSE + KDE4.1 install on it, but now need to get it able to run in headless mode.
I have set the BIOS to 'Halt on none', so hopefully it will boot without mouse, keyboard or monitor.
I now need to set it to boot into runlevel 3, as there is no need for a GUI, but I am not sure which file(s) need editing.
My user was set to 'Automatic login' at installation.
Hopefully, I will then be able to ssh into my user, having put my id_dsa.pub key into ~/.ssh and into ~/.ssh/authorized_keys
I'd be very grateful for any advice or a pointer to a How-To document.
TIA
Bob
Bob, Sorry for the late reply. I run about 5 headless servers and there really is nothing to it. Just get the box configured so that it boot reliably and pull the monitor off of it. Over the past 7-8 years, I have only had a handful of occasions where I actually had to plug a monitor back in (aside from upgrading the system). It is very rare that an online update or update from OBS will leave you unable to boot. The number 1 problem that catches people is forgetting to open a port for ssh in their firewall, or changing the ssh port and not updating the firewall. In those cases, since you desktop is right along side, just plug the monitor in and all will be well. If you have suse on both boxes, the don't forget you can use "ssh -X yourheadlessbox" and then "su" and "yast2" to run the gui yast from the other box. In fact you can run all X/KDE apps on the headless box in the same way. If your headless box isn't suse, then you may have to edit /etc/pam.d/su and make sure the line: session optional pam_xauth.so is included in the file so your headless box can use pam to authenticate the xsession request/magic/cookies. It wasn't until this year I learned about ssh -X. For seven years I administered all headless boxes in text more. Forwarding X make headless boxes no different than managing your desktop. Good luck. -- David C. Rankin, J.D.,P.E. Rankin Law Firm, PLLC 510 Ochiltree Street Nacogdoches, Texas 75961 Telephone: (936) 715-9333 Facsimile: (936) 715-9339 www.rankinlawfirm.com -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse+help@opensuse.org