[RealMac]

I want to build a really inexpensive PC to install Linux and/or FreeBSD on. I'm using a 20" apple cinema display which is a pain to use on anything with integrated vga video as I'm sure people on this board can attest to.

I plan on keeping a minimalist system. No extra keyboard or mouse for the x86 box. Just do everything I have to do via ssh ing into the system and having the output display through my desktop machine running OSX.

Has anyone here done this before. I know it sounds complicated. Just wondering if it would be possible.

I could burn the ISOs of linux/freebsd to CD and have the system boot off that. However how do you get the PC to recognize you want to controll everything through a shell when it hasn't even been set up yet?

TIA. I know this isn't 'team talk' per say, but it could be useful to a lot of people on the team.

[jbcool]

RealMac I did something like this but took a little different approach. I decided to use VNC and have a windows machine as the once that I could use to connect to the other machines.

I used a motherboard with an onboard lan and video to keep things cheap. I did set the machines up with a mouse and keyboard and got them working then moved them onto the rack.

I think Welnic, Scott, or Mikkyo would probably give you a much better answer. Since they are dealing with this kind of stuff all the time, I think.

And yes this is "Team talk", the rest of us would love to know when and how you were able to accomplish it when you get it working.

You might want to look at the netboot thread, they have links and information in the threads that might give you some insight.

[OneMacGuy]

Originally posted by jbcool:
RealMac I did something like this but took a little different approach. I decided to use VNC and have a windows machine as the once that I could use to connect to the other machines.

I used a motherboard with an onboard lan and video to keep things cheap. I did set the machines up with a mouse and keyboard and got them working then moved them onto the rack.

I think Welnic, Scott, or Mikkyo would probably give you a much better answer. Since they are dealing with this kind of stuff all the time, I think.

And yes this is "Team talk", the rest of us would love to know when and how you were able to accomplish it when you get it working.

You might want to look at the netboot thread, they have links and information in the threads that might give you some insight.

I use a similar approach, I use Remote Desktop (RDP) on machines running XP and VNC on the other versions. BTW, you can run both RDP and VNC from OS X and control your PC's from one Mac. I was surprised to find that Microsoft made a RDP client for their servers and workstations that would run on a Mac! It is actually a much faster way to run a virtual PC than running Virtual PC, and it can sit in another room or building, just on the same network.

I never did get up to speed on Linux, the only unix variant I run is OS X. I did discover that running small hard drives on my farm machines was MUCH easier than trying to do netboot.

[Welnic]

My farm machines all run linux and everything that I do on them I do with ssh from OSX. You are going to need to have a monitor and keyboard to set things up originally though. After you get things up and running and you get an ssh server running then you no longer need the keyboard or monitor.

I have 5 nodes running netboot, and 2 more once I make a couple of power splitter cables. With those the OS is already on the server ready to go, but I still have to start them up with a monitor and keyboard just to set up the bios.