Xserve

tyche · #1 July 1st, 2005, 12:30 PM

I have an Xserve g5 dual processor with no video card. It is running 10.3 I would like to see the darn desktop!! I have tried to place OS X VNC in the startupitems by going to ~/library/ and creating a startupitems folder and placing the various OSX VNC items. No joy. Short of purchasing a video card which the company will NOT fork out for how can I achieve gettignt othe desktop. I know, I can set up the server without seeing the desktop and have already done most of the setup remotly but, policy and procedure requirements you know.

Thanks for all the help
Tyche

neophyte · #2 July 1st, 2005, 02:25 PM

Have you edited your /etc/hostconfig file to accept VNC connections? Where I work, we use Apple Remote Desktop to admin the servers.

L

clive · #3 July 2nd, 2005, 01:24 PM

A video card is around forty quid!? Why won’t they pay that?

Anyway, I never used the Remote Desktop Client, but I'd recommend doing the following:

Rip a video card out of something else, stick it in the G5 and boot it up, set up what you need to set up, then take the card out again - easy enough?

Personally prefer Timbuktu for this kind of thing.

Pengu · #4 July 2nd, 2005, 08:46 PM

um. it needs to be a small, pci video card don't forget.

tyche · #5 July 4th, 2005, 09:52 AM

Okay cool. Had already tried to install a video card, serveral did not help it would boot but no video. Now 40 quid seems small to you but translate it to african money and then it is not an option for a one off thing. Plus time is against me It has to be out of the door in 3 days Shipping from UK takes a good old 2 weeks.
In what way would I edit the /etc/hostconfig?

tyche · #6 July 7th, 2005, 02:02 AM

I tried to use Timbuktu, but that will only work unless you have enabled remote login on the server. Hmm, is it possible to remolty enable remote login? Anyway I will hunt for a loan video card and enable everything to my hearts content.

Go3iverson · #7 July 7th, 2005, 08:33 PM

I think the RAGE 128 cards and the cards from the B&W G3's will work in this. Even so, the cost of a video card is nothing compared to the rest of the Xserve.

I use ARD2 and love the product. You could also use any sort of VNC.

reg28 · #8 July 24th, 2005, 12:10 PM

Hi - I have gotten two XServe G5's to install / configure and
experienced the same problems. I found this worked,

Steps:

1. Assuming you're on a network with a DHCP server,
set your DHCP server to assign an IP address to the
headless XServe via it's Ethernet ID for port 1 printed on the back,
and connect to the network to port 1.

2. Download OSXvnc.app to the desktop of a machine with a monitor
3. Open Terminal and copy the application to the XServe via scp, eg.

cd Desktop
scp -r OSXvnc.app root@ip-address-of-xserve:~/.
[password]

The password is the first 8 letters of the XServe's serial number,
or 12345678 for old XServes

4. log in to the server with ssh by typing from Terminal

ssh root@ip-address-of-xserve
[password]

5. Start the VNC server by running with these commands on the XServe

cd OSXvnc.app
./storepasswd MyPassword the_password_file
./OSXvnc-server -rfbauth the_password_file &

The server will print some status text and wait for connections.

6. Download a VNC Viewer, eg. I found "Chicken of the VNC" to work
and connect to the XServe at the IP address and with the password you stored.

You need your firewalls, etc. set up to allow you to connect to port 5900
on the XServe from the machine that's running the VNC Viewer.

Hope that's useful

Richard