Ubuntu headless final hack: the VIRXGA

As mentioned elsewhere,  running  an headlless server on  recent distro like Ubuntu with Xserver can be a real pain in the axe,  if you want to use X11VNC or similar tools, as Xserver will complain about the missing monitor and prompt you for a low resolution mode graphic setting. This may be especially annoying.  Gone are the days when you could simply tell Linux to do something and it would stick to it. Or I am a bit busy and have less time to fiddle with it.

I decided to deal with it the hard way: in the old days I used to run a Freebsd server on a old Siemens with a Pentium 133 on it, and it refused to boot without a keyboard. The bios didn’t have any setting like “Stop at any error but the keyboard” like modern motherboards have. So I took the guts off an old ps2 keyboard and put them into a soapbar box.
I decided to do the same with the monitor and found VIRXGA, an interesting project from Professor Renzo Davoli, from University of Bologna. Basically it’s an XGA termination, it fools the Xserver into thinking it has a real monitor (a XGA projector, to be fair) plugged in. The construction is really simple and the hardware cost is under 5 euros.
Davoli relased VIRXGA undo the CreativeCommons Attribution-Share Alike 2.5 License.
Btw,  while you are at it,  you may find Davoli stance on free software interesting: read more about his point of view here.



Original article (credits to Renzo Davoli) here: VIRXGA. Read it before going on. Do it.

The usual disclaimer: please follow the procedure outlined only if you are a skilled technician and feel confident about yourself. Molten tin is especially unconfortable on the legs: please avoid soldering wearing only underwear.  The solder iron is a deadly tool: please keep it away from pets, and small childrens.
I disclaim all liability or loss in conjunction with any content provided here. I disclaim any liability for  procedures mentioned and described here  including  indirect, special, incidental or consequential damages, mild or severe injury, hardware damage,  death, mutilation, money loss, loss of confidence and/or loss of sleep  arising out of the use or the inability to use the tools/materials/information published and mentioned on this page.

Tools:

• Solder iron
• Solder wire (small)
• a D-sub 15 VGA male (don’t confuse it with the similar DE-9 connector, used in serial ports)
• A shell enclosure for the d-sub connector (for a neat work).
• small insulated wire (for bridges)
• Three 100 ohm 1/4 watt resistor (brown-black-brown-gold). * See Craig’s suggestion at the bottom.
• Scissors
• Optional: a multimeter to check for shorts.
• Optional: a third hand tool or a pal handling the connector while you solder (I didn’t have and that’s why I’m never gonna show you the solder side of the connector)
• Optional: a firm hand.

Please note: I didn’t have a real virgin D-sub 15 VGA connector handy, so the photo below is a bit fake (it’s an image of a female connector mirrored), but should be useful to understand the connections.
I suggest you to start cutting the resistor wires quite short (remember, it’d have to fit into the shell) and soldering the resistors on pins 6-7-8 (see Davoli article). From now on you can basically solder the rest.
Remember to check for shortcuts before trying it out. A multimeter could be handy.
If everything seems ok, fit into the shell, plug it and boot into your headless server. You should be able to set and retain a decent resolution and color depth for your remote desktop and never see again the hatred LOW RESOLUTION BLAH warning message.

Let’s hope it’s finally OVER.

Update(02-Jan-2010): Thank you to Craig, who pointed out there was an error in my awful drawing.  The correct schematics is the one he mentions, and the original one displayed in Davoli’s article.

Moreover, if you have trouble finding 100 ohm resistor, you can always try Craig’s suggestion and use some common resistor available in parallel. He used two 220 ohm in pairs. Space could be an issue, but it should be possible to work it out.

Update(04-Feb-2010) Prof. Renzo Davoli (the maker of VIRXGA) pointed out that Craig was right all along thel line. Quoting him:

VGA specifications define the monitor id as follows:
4:n/c,11:n/c,12:n/c=no monitor,
4:n/c,11:n/c,12:GND=Mono monitor which does not support 1024×768,
4:n/c,11:GND,12:n/c=Color monitor which does not support 1024×768,
4:GND,11:GND,12:n/c= Color monitor which supports 1024×768.
Thus the one for VIRXGA is 4 and 11 connected to 5, which is ground, and 12 not connected.
Modern Monitors use i2c to provide more info on the geometry and many other parameters, but the “good old way” is enough for VIRXGA.

Thank you for VIRXGA and for contributing.