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Running/Installing with NO graphics card

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egreena42
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Running/Installing with NO graphics card

#1 Post by egreena42 »

Not sure if this is an install problem, per se.

I'm trying to use some antique 686s as nodes in a Beowulf cluster. As such, I would like to remove or disable all graphics in the nodes. Most have built in card, but I'm sure I can disable them in the BIOS. Why? to reduce the power consumption. Yes, I know, I can run at run-level 3 (multiuser.target), and that's where I've already gone. but I Think there's still both power and compute cycles going into that card/device that I would like to eliminate.

Thanks for any suggestions.

Evan

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Re: Running/Installing with NO graphics card

#2 Post by steve_v »

Serial consoles perhaps? SSH is all well and good, but sooner or later you'll want a local(ish) console of some sort. AFAIK, redirecting the TTY(s) to somewhere other than the GPU (and "vga=off" on the kernel command-line) is as close as you will get to "no graphics" with the hardware still present.

As for cutting power to the GPU entirely, I'm pretty sure that's out of the hands of the OS, at least on conventional PC hardware. i686 era onboard graphics doesn't tend to use much anyway though.
A bigger concern might be the tendency of consumer motherboard BIOSes to refuse to boot with no GPU...
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egreena42
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Re: Running/Installing with NO graphics card

#3 Post by egreena42 »

Yeah, I was figuring on having to use serial ports. Many of my older nodes still have serial devices. And I'm so old, I actually have an honest to god REAL terminal! that takes a 9600 baud serial line and all! And the null modem I need! LOL. but yeah, I'm wondering how the BIOS works in that case.
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Re: Running/Installing with NO graphics card

#4 Post by ab1jx »

I've run headless machines (like web servers) before. You'll need a monitor when setting them up probably (look at ssh flag in /boot though instead) but after that ssh (plus maybe some vnc) works fine. My question is why you'd want to do this when you can pick up a flea-powered Raspberry Pi for under $50. You can drop to a Zero for $10 with a little work. Yeah, I did it 20 years ago before such things, retired workstations were free and it wasn't my electric bill so I kept a couple under my desk, with a KVM switch I think.

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