[SOLVED] Machine wont boot without a monitor.

ifdog · 2018-01-05 01:54:50

It's Archlinux on my HTPC newly installed.I followed the installation guide ,installed successfully and it just worked fine.
However when I try to remove the display and use it as a headless server , problem came out.It appears that It won't boot without monitor attached.It worked when I use Fedora 27 workstation.
My mother board is a BIOSTAR J1900NH3, a ITX board with on board Intel Celeron J1900(2.0 GHz), which has an on board Intel HD Graphics chipset. I use grub as bootmanager for EFI.

This is how it behave:
1.Power on the machine with monitor, and later the login request appears on screen,successfully Ping from IP on Ethernet.
2.Login to my router and machine is in my device list(I use systemd.networkd to configure the machine a static IP,192.168.1.40/24 )
3.Power off and disconnect monitor, and power on again.power LED on and HDD LED start blink,but timeout when Ping.
4.Attach the monitor, but display is blank.seems no signal on VGA line because later the monitor turn into power saving mode.
5.I login to my router ,machine is not in the device list.
6.Power off with power button seems no effect.Reset button first and power button again to power it off.
7.Attach the monitor and power on, boot success, same as 1.

Then I googled the keyword "linux won't boot without monitor" and several post shows that, similar problem appered on some ubuntu and fedora machine.
post in ubuntu forum marked as solved
post in fedora forum marked as solved

I tried based on my research by:
1.Disable on board graphics chipset. no success.
2.Adding "vmalloc=256MB video=LVDS-1:d" to the GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT and regenerating GRUB config (via grub2-mkconfig -o /boot/grub2/grub.cfg) no success.
3.Replace my bootmanager to systemd-boot(aka bootctl). no success.

So, can anyone help? thanks for your time.

Last edited by ifdog (2018-01-08 01:32:32)

jasonwryan · 2018-01-05 02:30:03

Does booting the fallback initrd make any difference?

How are you attemtping to reach the headless machine (other than ping)? Does netstat show a port listening?

ifdog · 2018-01-05 02:34:01

jasonwryan wrote:

Does booting the fallback initrd make any difference?
How are you attemtping to reach the headless machine (other than ping)? Does netstat show a port listening?

No, no difference.
I attempt to connect it with ssh first of course and later I will install in it services like vsftp or so.

jasonwryan · 2018-01-05 02:44:09

Please post the output of:

systemctl list-unit-files --state=enabled

ifdog · 2018-01-05 02:46:52

Seems solved!

I followd this way:

sudo vim /etc/default/grub

GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="nomodeset text"

uncomment #GRUB_TERMINAL_OUTPUT=console

grub2-mkconfig -o /boot/grub2/grub.cfg

and reboot

It seems OK now.

But here is another question : what is the equivalent operation for systemd-boot ? I prefer to use this as a bootmanager.

Last edited by ifdog (2018-01-05 02:50:52)

ifdog · 2018-01-05 02:47:54

jasonwryan wrote:

Please post the output of:
systemctl list-unit-files --state=enabled

[ifdog@j1900nh3 ~]$ systemctl list-unit-files --state=enabled
UNIT FILE                             STATE
autovt@.service                       enabled
dbus-org.freedesktop.network1.service enabled
dbus-org.freedesktop.resolve1.service enabled
getty@.service                        enabled
sshd.service                          enabled
systemd-networkd-wait-online.service  enabled
systemd-networkd.service              enabled
systemd-resolved.service              enabled
systemd-networkd.socket               enabled
remote-fs.target                      enabled

10 unit files listed.

Here is it.

Last edited by ifdog (2018-01-05 02:49:52)

jasonwryan · 2018-01-05 02:48:05

Please use code tags when pasting to the boards: https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Co … s_and_code

ifdog · 2018-01-05 02:50:17

jasonwryan wrote:

Please use code tags when pasting to the boards: https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Co … s_and_code

Sure, updated.

ifdog · 2018-01-05 03:16:49

ifdog wrote:

Seems solved!
I followd this way:
sudo vim /etc/default/grub

GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="nomodeset text"

uncomment #GRUB_TERMINAL_OUTPUT=console

grub2-mkconfig -o /boot/grub2/grub.cfg
and reboot
It seems OK now.
But here is another question : what is the equivalent operation for systemd-boot ? I prefer to use this as a bootmanager.

I configured systemd-boot again by:

bootctl install
vim /boot/loader/loader.conf

as:

default arch 
timeout 3

And do

vim /boot/loader/entries/arch.conf

as:

title Archlinux
linux /vmlinuz-linux
initrd /initramfs-linux.img
options root=PARTUUID=xxxx nomodeset text

and

pacman -Rcnsu grub

and reboot.
Now I lost communiction with my machine.T T.
Sad.

Last edited by ifdog (2018-01-05 03:19:23)

jasonwryan · 2018-01-05 03:33:51

Where did you get `text` from? And why are you passing `nomodeset` to a headless box?

ifdog · 2018-01-05 04:18:34

jasonwryan wrote:

Where did you get `text` from? And why are you passing `nomodeset` to a headless box?

I found the parameters form the link I listed in main post above. In fact I dont know ther meaning.
Im wondering why it will work too.Any explantion is welcome...

seth · 2018-01-05 11:07:28

The black screen when booting w/o a monitor likely stems from modesetting (and no usable resolution available) - thus nomodeset could indeed help.

However I suspect an xy issue here because you're not interested in a visual output itfp. Since the system seems to boot your core problem would be the failing network connection, so the first thing you should try is to side step systemd-networkd (in slight exaggeration I could imagine that it depends on gnome ...)

ifdog · 2018-01-08 01:29:00

ifdog wrote:

jasonwryan wrote:
Where did you get `text` from? And why are you passing `nomodeset` to a headless box?
I found the parameters form the link I listed in main post above. In fact I dont know ther meaning.
Im wondering why it will work too.Any explantion is welcome...

Finally when I physically reached to my machine, It turns out that my grub was not correctlly removed because it entered a grub rescue screen.
After empty the /boot and reinstall a systemd-boot and add a "options root=PARTUUID=xxxx nomodeset text" in /boot/loader/entries/arch.conf, it worked.

so the answer to my question is - add parameters to kernel when boot :"nomodeset text" , of course this makes the display a little weird at monitor comparing to that without it. and make your bootmanager work in text mode.(In grub it's uncomment #GRUB_TERMINAL_OUTPUT=console. int systemd-boot its not necessary because it's defaultly act in that way.)
I will mark the thread as solved .Hope this will help others in similar situation.

However I still wonder why fedora 27 works well in my situation without any config.

Last edited by ifdog (2018-01-08 01:31:47)

Arch Linux

#1 2018-01-05 01:54:50

[SOLVED] Machine wont boot without a monitor.

#2 2018-01-05 02:30:03

Re: [SOLVED] Machine wont boot without a monitor.

#3 2018-01-05 02:34:01

Re: [SOLVED] Machine wont boot without a monitor.

#4 2018-01-05 02:44:09

Re: [SOLVED] Machine wont boot without a monitor.

#5 2018-01-05 02:46:52

Re: [SOLVED] Machine wont boot without a monitor.

#6 2018-01-05 02:47:54

Re: [SOLVED] Machine wont boot without a monitor.

#7 2018-01-05 02:48:05

Re: [SOLVED] Machine wont boot without a monitor.

#8 2018-01-05 02:50:17

Re: [SOLVED] Machine wont boot without a monitor.

#9 2018-01-05 03:16:49

Re: [SOLVED] Machine wont boot without a monitor.

#10 2018-01-05 03:33:51

Re: [SOLVED] Machine wont boot without a monitor.

#11 2018-01-05 04:18:34

Re: [SOLVED] Machine wont boot without a monitor.

#12 2018-01-05 11:07:28

Re: [SOLVED] Machine wont boot without a monitor.

#13 2018-01-08 01:29:00

Re: [SOLVED] Machine wont boot without a monitor.

Board footer