> > I just took apart my IIvx to use one of it's video cards in my IIcx, which
> > i just installed NetBSD on.  I set the machine to auto-boot itself and set
> > up it's ethernet and stuff.  However, I really would like to put the video
> > card back in the IIvx, and the keyboard/mouse belongs to one of my other
> > computers.  I just attempted to boot the IIcx headless (and
> > video-cardless) and mouse/keyboard-less, and it doesn't seem to even be
> > booting up the MacOS (no noise from disk drive).
> 
> Unfortunately, this won't work at the moment under NetBSD.  The older
> II-series machines (the ones with dirty ROM's) appear to have problems
> booting without a keyboard and mouse connected.  I know where the problem
> is, but I just don't know why.  To work around this, you'd either need a
> kernel with HWDIRECT ADB support, else compile ADB support out of the
> kernel completely (I'm not sure what this would break, if anything, tho).

hmm....i'd be willing to pull out the mouse and keyboard after the system
is booted, i guess. this can't be that big of a problem. not supposed to
be done, though...i know.

> > Can this machine be booted this way? or does some hardware limitation
> > prevent this machine from working with this configuration?
> 
> I don't know of any reason why MacOS would refuse to boot, but if you look
> in the FAQ, I think there is a Q&A about booting headless.  I believe a
> paperclip is all you need to do it the somewhat unsafe way (well, I don't
> know that it's unsafe, but shorting pins with a paperclip just seems a
> little kludgey to me ;-)

erm, maybe i failed to mention that the IIcx has no internal video and has
been stripped of both it's monitor *AND* video card...there's nothing to
short (except maybe nubus slots - yeah right! :)...The machine won't even
boot MacOS. (can't hear any disk activity)

for the heck of it, i just plugged in a Sigma designs specialized video
card into the nubus slot (for which i have no monitor for), and the MacOS
"hears" to be booting up, but there is some kind of problem when running
into NetBSD cause the network interface doesn't come up. maybe i'll see if
booting into serial console does the trick, but i'd rather not use this
video card if i don't have to...:\

thanks,

  - a