setup of a headless-system: boot without a keyboard, mouse, screen

hi there - good day dear community

the question of today: setup of a headless-system: boot without a keyboard, mouse, screen

I recently put together a pc to use as a server.

The pc uses an** GigaByte B460 HD3 **mainboard.

the system should be able to boot with

  • having no keyboard attached.
  • having no screen attached
  • having no mouse attached

**question: **Do i have to do some BIOS change here… or so I thought?
As far as I can tell from examining every setting in the BIOS is that the system allready is able to boot - with or without keyboard attached…
in other words - it does not matter if i

  • connect the keyboard or disconnect it…

Anyone know of a way to make sure that this will work surely - and what about the setup that takes care that all boots well with

  • having no screen attached
  • having no mouse attached

Note: i need to have a setup that is able to propperly boot with any of the devices above mentioned:
in other words: i need the computer will be able to boot without the mouse and monitor and the keyboard.

Do i need to have to enter BIOS to change settings to achieve this behavior,

Some friends mentioned: You will have to plug in the monitor to see what is going on. Once you have it booting without the mouse and keyboard, then unhook the monitor.

btw: we can call this a headless-system:

cf: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Headless_computer: A headless computer is a computer system or device that has been configured to operate without a monitor (the missing “head”), keyboard, and mouse. A headless system is typically controlled over a network connection,

look forward to hear from you

Well, install the system with mouse, keyboard and monitor attached and remove said devices later. Whats the problem with that? If you use a Raspberry Pi you could install a Linux on the SD-Card, plug it in and boot it up. So, whats the problem with what your friends suggested?

And, usally no BIOS changes needed. Tried it already without changes?

Otherwise you need to look up for a “Unattended Installation” https://www.windowscentral.com/how-create-unattended-media-do-automated-installation-windows-10 like this.

hello dear Negreheb,

many many thanks for the quick answer.

well generally the system shold say … after booting.

no os found - since there is no os on the drive…(allready installed)

see the start of the system…

https://photos.google.com/share/AF1QipPg3RAsXWpUAx7KdTuzM0L7zv5iTRrx8S2yjBLCEh1nSXf5hEj-X1aLRaJHtxhfYA/photo/AF1QipPG27nQI1KPlVCmLYtUwQODFp-xsCCZcx85go6t?key=LXkzeWY5UWxYcEcxS3hTcWFYZjFxajQ5QThuMU93

look forward to hear from you… regards …

Hey tagtheworld,

no problem. Hm, i see, you have 2 different SDD in your computer. Maybe installed it on the wrong drive? You can just try to switch the boot-order and try it again. If that is solved, the system should boot up, even without display, if i recall correctly.

Regards

hello dear Negreheb,

first of all: many many thanks for the quick reply. Well i have only one SSD and one HDD

Intel i7 10700T

  • RAM; 64 GB RAM
  • WesternDigital 2 TB HDD Purple-Series
  • Samsung 1 TB SSD

At the moment i do not have any os installed. What i want to check is the abilitiy to do Booting without any keyboard.
these checks are necessary since my serveradmin wants me to put the machine into the Colocation-Center - then i add the two drives of the old server - and then we have a operating system again…

i hope that at the moment all is okay - and the system is able to boot without any issues - and that it will do this at the colocation - center too…

many thansk dear Negreheb for your help.

have a great day…:slight_smile:

Don’t get me wrong, but why don’t you just install it and try it out and ask when you face a problem? I don’t know if you will install Windows XP, Windows 7, Win 10, Windows Server, Ubuntu, Ubuntu Server, whatever. Its a bit hard to help or predict all the “what could happen”-cases.

My suggestion would be - install it with Ubuntu Server, set up SSH, with your regular computer try to connect with ssh with the server. When connected, disconnect the display and all other peripherals from the server and restart the server with SSH. Try connect again with SSH after it booted up. If it does not, connect a diplay and check.

You are putting in to much thought. Just install it and try it out. Nothing will get destroyed, the worst thing is, you have to set it up again. Other than some minutes/hours lost, nothing bad. I’m sure you will sort it out :slight_smile: