Hi all, this is my first post and i'm asking all kinds of newbie questions right away.. 1. Is it possible to have an automatic startup, with an automatic logon and all services/programs start automaticly without having a keyboard/mouse/screen connected to the computer? I would like to know this because i would like to run a fileserver at home, without a keyboard/mouse/computer screen, which i can manually turn on and then connect to it via a remote (like ssh or a VNC). Is this possible? And under which distro? Can i find a bit more info about this topic? Thanks, Barrie
There is no need to logon automatically. Services can be started at boot time without you being logged on. This should work in all distros. Automatic login is always a security risk and it wastes resources if you are not using it anyway. Automatic startup scripts are specified in /etc/inittab (usually). From that file (and included ones) you can see what services are started in what runlevel. Runlevels are usually stored under the /etc/rcX.d directories, where X is the runlevel number (0-6 in most unix systems). 0 being halt and 6 reset. You can define 1-5 yourself, but they are usually defined already. Usually there are comments in /etc/inittab that tell you what each runlevel is and which one is the default (id:2:initdefault: means runlevel 2 is default). For a detailed description: http://www.tldp.org/HOWTO/HighQuality-Apps-HOWTO/boot.html (bookmark tldp.org ;-) ). If you have no keyboard, the first thing you have to make sure is that you can login via ssh. This is installed by many distros as a default but not by all. If you can access the box initially with a keyboard (and maybe mouse), you can install ssh (and/or vnc). I cannot give you a detailed howto. There are many already on the web. Just browse the howtos here and google for 'vnc howto' or similar.
Great reply, thank you geek.de.nz! I would have a keyboard/mouse/monitor initially to install and setup the system, but the point is to have it running without all that and connect to it via SSH or a VNC to control the system.
I would say this holds mostly true. I have seen some hardware/BIOS combos (albeit older) that do not allow for keyboard-less use. If you do find that the server is hanging during POST (waiting for a keyboard) check the BIOS for a keyboard setting first.
I would setup Samba for your filesharing. Works like a charm. My Samba box serves WinXP boxes, Linux boxes and an OSx box with no one being the wiser. Samba is relatively easy to setup and there is plenty of information already written in these forums and elsewhere.
