Mac Mini: do I need a screen?

[gdekadt]

[missed Decado's post - D'oh. It's beautifully simple.. but does it work with a fresh mini? ]

Couple of things to add/question...

For remote access (VNC style); which video cards need a dongle to keep the OS drawing the display even when none is attached? Anyone out there got a mini that you can VNC without a display attached?
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Mac mini as a file server might be overspend if file serving is all you want... there's a new product due out from LaCie - the Ethernet Disk Mini that you should have a look at. It has a 250GB, 7200rpm drive (much bigger and faster) on the end of a 100BaseT (fast but not gigabit) connection for half the price. And it doubles as a USB2 external drive - which is nice.

If you want iTunes streaming or anything like that then it won't be any good - and there's no built in wireless - so you'd need a wireless router to plug it into but it's caught my eye. LaCie do good stuff.
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Gosh darnit I want a me a McMini - connected to the living room telly - the stereo and plug a little keyboard into it for some iLife fun with my kids. Oh and for a little file sharing too.
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Oh and the reByte thing looks interesting, pipermalibu, you got some more setup info - maybee you could grab a pic of the cases you've got them in - 'cos that sounds like a very good system. (I'm also a semi-pro photographer. More semi that pro though.) But how do you stream your mp3s to the AirPort Express?
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Gabs

[bobw]

The Mac Mini doesn't need a monitor, adapter or dongle to run headless. Apple states that.

[aicul]

Well ALL,

Thanks for the feed-back. All sounds good.

The CRT option is clean but we'd rather not have such a box in the house.

The S-Video solution requires a TV. We don't have one (you read that right, NO TV!). I'm actually waiting for Apple to issue a serious TV demodulator for the Mac.

Concerning the file server, maybe I should have been clearer. Most of the time this mini would be used as a source for iLife products such as iTunes. So I actually need more than a file server, I need something that can run these applications also (ie. iTunes music sharing over airport). Maybe even use it to pipe internet to airport. Hence the idea of a mini.

Getting a mini with a large disk or extra disk (and airport) would also resolve the smallish 60Gb disk of the powerbook. Those photos are getting voluminous...

Originally Posted by Decado
connect them with firewire and then hold alt when you start the powerbook and choose the minis hard-sdrive as start disk.

I guess this should also work between iMac an powerbook. I'll try this tonite!

Originally Posted by gdekadt
It's beautifully simple.. but does it work with a fresh mini?

Can someone answer this?

Thanks again...

[bobw]

Originally Posted by gdekadt
It's beautifully simple.. but does it work with a fresh mini?

I think you'll need to start the Mini on it's own with a monitor, keyboard and mouse to finish the initial setup before using Target Disk Mode, could be wrong though.

[bookem]

Originally Posted by bobw

The Mac Mini doesn't need a monitor, adapter or dongle to run headless. Apple states that.

I've been told otherwise by people who have mini's. Aparrently, there is no display output, but everything else works. Could you please state where Apple say that?

This guy has tries VNC, Teleport, and even RD but still no display output.

[bobw]

http://www.macworld.com/2005/01/news...ifaq/index.php
Can I use the Mac mini as a headless server?

Hoo boy, there’s a whole article in there. Stay tuned for that one. But yes, you can. You’ll need to attach it to a keyboard, mouse, and display to get it set up the first time, and if your Mac mini has Bluetooth, be sure to uncheck the “Open Bluetooth Setup Assistant at startup when no input device is present” option in the Bluetooth System Preferences, or every time your headless Mac boots it’s going to complain that it doesn’t have a keyboard or mouse. Turning off Sleep in the Energy Saver control panel would be a good idea, too.

[gdekadt]

Hey bookem - I could never get a VNC connection to work until I used Apple's Remote Desktop 2 Client software. Install that and you'll get a VNC server. It only works in 10.3 Panther - but even though its supposedly a little slow its very easy to set up and its the only VNC to support multiple monitors (not that that's an issue here). Oh yes and it works. Once installed configure it in System Prefs->Sharing->Services->Apple Remote Desktop->Access Priviledges->CHECK VNC viewers may control screen with password.......

I also have to big-up Chicken of the VNC as my now favourite VNC client app. Also very easy. (Host = IP address, Display/Port=5900)

Gabs