Home / ubuntu / Questions / 26610
Accepted
Javier Rivera
Asked: 2011-02-17 01:25:03 +0800 CST

How can I force X to start in a computer without a monitor?

  • 772

I have a computer that has no monitor attached to it.

When I boot the system, X fails to start because there is no monitor detected. If I boot it with a monitor attached and after X has started, when I remove the monitor everything works fine.

Details and Background:

This computer is a kind of hardware consolidation server. It's only purpose is to run two Virtual Box VM's that run Windows XP and some important but seldom used (once or twice a month) programs. For a couple of time it has been lying in a corner with an old monitor attached to it and working great.

But space in the office was getting scarce and I moved the computer to the server room. There is no monitor attached to it there (no space), and sometimes the computer is rebooted. When it boots without monitor X is not started, the vms doesn't start and I get called to solve the problem.

10.04

3 Answers

  1. Best Answer

    According to this tread a possible solution for 10.04 may be to both

    • define a standard xorg.conf, and
    • prevent KMS at boot.

    However solution #13 there with resistors plugged to the vga port for fake monitor is really funky.

    • 4

  2. I think it's because Xorg nowdays are designed to run without a config file, that is: some kind of auto-detection. For sure, it has the "problem" that it cannot detect your monitor if it's not there ... What I would do is to create a config file for Xorg server, so you have "hard coded" config then, no need for auto detection.

    Run this command from a text VT as root:

    sudo Xorg -configure

    It will create a config file for you, if I remember well with name something like xorg.conf.new in your home directory. Move/copy it as /etc/X11/xorg.conf, also you may need to customize it a bit. If X works properly with that configuration (try that with a monitor attached first, of course), you can try it out what happens if you remove the monitor.

    • 2

  3. Check out IgnoreEDID. 

    Option "IgnoreEDID" "TRUE"
    • 1