🚀 go-pugleaf

Jim.Matthews@dartmouth.edu (Jim Matthews) writes:

} Monty Solomon writes
} > Is there any way to run a NeXTcube or NeXTstation without an attached  
} monitor?

} Yes, it's possible -- Dartmouth's e-mail and name directory systems are  
} running on six monitor-less NeXTstations (all in a huge black box,  
} complete with black UPSs and disk drives :-)).  The main problem is  
} turning the machine on and off -- the power button on the keyboard gets to  
} the motherboard via the monitor.  Our hardware guy designed the  
} NegaPixel(TM) display -- an on/off switch that plugs into the monitor  
} port.  A cheaper alternative is to use a paper clip to short the  
} appropriate pins (preferably with a stethoscope to tell you whether the  
} machine is running or not :-)).

} It may be possible to turn the new ADB-based machines on and off with just  
} a keyboard, but I suspect that the keyboard still plugs into the monitor.

} Jim Matthews
} Dartmouth Software Development

Yup, very possible. We have more as 100 NeXT stations running without
monitors. First, we also made a hardware shortcut with a switch that plugged
into the monitor port. Make sure you turn off the rom routines that check
for monitor/sound, etc at startup time, also you can't use the switch to turn
the machine off because it asks the "Are you sure you want to powerdown ?"
question on the (not present) console, you have to use the /etc/halt -y -p to 
correctly powerdown. Since all our NeXT stations are running as server to
some specific task our main objective was to have them running whenever
possible, it turned out that later version of the hardware had an option
in "Preferences" that allows you to specify that it should boot whenever
there is power(current) present, without waiting for someone to press the
powerkey. This is exactly the type of behavior you want from a server: even
if you have a power failure, as soon as it is resolved your server reboots !
It turned out that this option is present only in the newer version of the
NeXT stations and depends on the version of the clock chip on the motherboard
(and which, unfortunately, is not placed on a socket). You can still
powerdown but you have to be quick : issue /etc/halt -y -p, put your ear to
the machine, as soon as the fan stops, pull out the plug.
-- 
Maarten Huisjes.	mjh@cs.vu.nl (192.31.231.42)
			(..!uunet.uu.net!cs.vu.nl!mjh)