Hello! I converted an old laptop with a broken screen into a home server, and it all works well except for one thing: when I reboot it (via ssh), if no screen is connected, it will get stuck and refuse to boot. as soon as I connect an HDMI monitor, the fans will start spinning and it will start booting as usual. Then I can remove the HDMI and it will work flawlessly. I don’t know if this is a linux problem, a GRUB problem, or a firmware problem.
Any idea on how to solve this, or on how to fool it into thinking a screen is connected? The problem is not the lid switch as I removed the magnet from the screen, so it thinks the lid is always open

Thanks in advance!

  • mofongo@lemm.ee
    201·
    9 months ago

    On windows I think you need a HDMI dummy plug as others mentioned here before but Linux has to have a way to run headless. You can run Linux in Qemu without a connected display. If you find anything on why it’s not booting please let me know!

    • ahto@feddit.de
      29·
      9 months ago

      Linux supports it, but (some?) motherboards won’t boot without a display connected. I had this issue recently when I converted my old PC to a NAS and I had to buy a dummy plug.

      • mbfalzar@lemmy.dbzer0.com
        12·
        9 months ago

        It’s definitely only some. ASRock motherboards almost always allow headless boot, MSI almost never do iirc, Gigabyte and Asus are really model specific

      • kevincox@lemmy.ml
        4·
        9 months ago

        I had this issue as well where my mobo wouldn’t boot without a GPU. In my case a BIOS update resolved the issue (it just beeps angrily a few times but continues booting).