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16-05-2007, 12:26 PM
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Regular
Group: Regulars
Location: NSW
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HOWTO: Running a mac headless without paying for a DR Bott Adapter.
Running a PowerMac Headless - Finally a soluton that is cheap!
After searching around on the net i have rarely found much info on running Powermac G3, G4 or G5's headless - the only thing i did find was some $30US DR Bott headless adapter which is quite a bit of money to trick the card into thinking there is a monitor attached. overall cost under $10
After some research the result is very simple -
What you will need:
3x 75Ohm Resistors if you can't get 75Ohm try what i did and get something else close to 70
1x DB-15HI Male Connector
1x DB9 Shell
1x 1N4004 Rectifier Diode
Solder the resistors to connect
Pins 1&6, 2&7 and 3&8.
Using the 1N4004 connect pins 4&5 with the silver stripe side connected to pin 5.
Put on the casing and voila! a headless connector that should work on Most cards with an 15-Pin PC VGA connector (G3,G4 Powermacs)
For the Powermac G5 or any other DVI system just connect this adapter to a DVI-VGA adapter and you should also be fine.
Basically what this does, is pulls a load on the signal wires to the same amount a normal monitor would, and also provides an ID Signal to the video card, as far as your mac is concerned there is a screen connected!
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16-05-2007, 12:31 PM
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Regular
Group: Regulars
Location: Perth
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Thanks!
I (should) be receiving a g4 powermac soon which I am probably going to use as a fileserver or something. I hadn't even considered that it wouldn't run headless. This is definitely going to help me out - and I have all the stuff on hand, too 
Jeremy
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16-05-2007, 12:36 PM
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Regular
Group: Regulars
Location: NSW
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Quote:
Originally Posted by jubilantjeremy
Thanks!
I (should) be receiving a g4 powermac soon which I am probably going to use as a fileserver or something. I hadn't even considered that it wouldn't run headless. This is definitely going to help me out - and I have all the stuff on hand, too
Jeremy |
no worries!
They sort of run headless but don't initialise the GPU so you can ssh into them but can't plug a monitor in after boot to play around - this adaptor resolves this. |
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16-05-2007, 12:37 PM
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Regular
Group: Regulars
Location: hobart
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lol. effort...
i ran my G4 without a screen for a long time (just remoted into it) no issues.
if you need a plug just get a DVI > VGA dongle (free or cheap with most cards) or get a DVI/VGA cable...
W2ttsy
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16-05-2007, 12:46 PM
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Regular
Group: Regulars
Location: NSW
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Quote:
Originally Posted by W2ttsy
lol. effort...
i ran my G4 without a screen for a long time (just remoted into it) no issues.
if you need a plug just get a DVI > VGA dongle (free or cheap with most cards) or get a DVI/VGA cable...
W2ttsy
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DVI>VGA dongles and VGA>DVI dongles do not resolve the headless issue, that's why DR Bott make a killing on their headless adapters.
Google Headless powermac and you'll see what i mean.
Those adapters only change the connector but don't provide EDID values or even a load on the VGA R/G/B Lines and as such the card doesn't know the adapter is plugged in. |
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16-05-2007, 01:05 PM
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Regular
Group: Regulars
Location: In a secret red pillar box
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eh?...is this jsut a powermac thing? I have a G4 Mini that I run headless and I can remote desktop into it perfectly fine. I've had a couple of powermacs but I must have not run them headless as I've never heard of the problem before.
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16-05-2007, 01:06 PM
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Regular
Group: Forum Leaders
Location: Sydney
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I researched this sometime ago, and found the following page on how to make something similar to what you have suggested.
The site I found is here.
__________________
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1Tb Time Capsule
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16-05-2007, 01:10 PM
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Regular
Group: Regulars
Location: Perth
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Quote:
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eh?...is this jsut a powermac thing? I have a G4 Mini that I run headless and I can remote desktop into it perfectly fine. I've had a couple of powermacs but I must have not run them headless as I've never heard of the problem before.
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You can RD into them, but you can't plug a monitor into them. This 'dongle' makes it possible to boot the mac without a screen attached, then plug in a screen later if you need to..
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02-10-2007, 08:24 AM
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: hopelessly addicted
Group: Regulars
Location: destined for sea-change
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Quote:
Originally Posted by purana
I researched this sometime ago, and found the following page on how to make something similar to what you have suggested.
The site I found is here. |
Sooo, based on that page, is the connecting of pins 4 and 5 necessary? |
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02-10-2007, 08:52 AM
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Merry Pagan Sun God's day
Group: Administrators
Location: Fukuoka, Japan (originally Canberra)
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I run a headless G4, I simply get 1024x768 via ARD. Such a guide would be useful if you wanted to fool a Mac into thinking it has a larger monitor connected than it really does.
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02-10-2007, 08:54 AM
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Regular
Group: Regulars
Location: NSW
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Currawong
I run a headless G4, I simply get 1024x768 via ARD. Such a guide would be useful if you wanted to fool a Mac into thinking it has a larger monitor connected than it really does.
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I only did it so that I can plug a monitor in when shit turns bad, I used to have problems with connecting to the machine when I was experimenting with firewalling rules and software crashes.
Plus the machine takes longer to boot without a monitor attached. |
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