On Fri, 28 Mar 1997, Henry B. Hotz wrote:

> At 6:27 PM 3/28/97, Dan Jacobowitz wrote:
> >On Fri, 28 Mar 1997, Bill Studenmund wrote:
> >
> >> > BTW I have another question.  To boot 'headless' requires shorting out
> >> > pins 4 and 11 in the monitor port....but will a monitor still work after I
> >> > short them out if I need to use one at some point?
> >>
> >> ?? Yes. All that shorting does is fake the computer into thinking there's
> >> a certain type of monitor connected. If you later connect that type of
> >> monitor, all is well. It's not good if you try to attach a different
> >> type of monitor. :-(
> >>
> >The problem here is, what kind of monitor does it think?  I have a NEC VGA
> >connected to a VGA-Mac adapter....will this work?  And All I have to do to
> >short it out is to stick a paperclip into those two holes and turn the
> >machine on, right?
> 
> Actually you are already all set.  The VGA/Mac adapter does the shorting
> for you.  Just unplug the monitor and leave the adapter in place.
> 
Hmmm.  I would still like an answer to the question...I am _unbelievably_
broke right now.  Just bought the other Mac in my LAN (7300/200).
I truly can't afford the $20 for an adapter.

Alas for the plight of starving high school students.

Is there a chance I could modify the kernel sources to simply not check
for a monitor?  I considered leaving serial console spouting off into an
empty port, but then I discovered I needed both of my serial
ports...running PPP off the console is a recipe for disaster whenever
error messages pop up.
So I would like to make a mutilated kernel that would simply discard all
video without redirecting to serial console- a true headless kernel.
Any ideas on this or the effect of shorting the pins?