Xserve

tyche

Registered
I have an Xserve g5 dual processor with no video card. It is running 10.3 I would like to see the darn desktop!! I have tried to place OS X VNC in the startupitems by going to ~/library/ and creating a startupitems folder and placing the various OSX VNC items. No joy. Short of purchasing a video card which the company will NOT fork out for how can I achieve gettignt othe desktop. I know, I can set up the server without seeing the desktop and have already done most of the setup remotly but, policy and procedure requirements you know.

Thanks for all the help
Tyche
 
Have you edited your /etc/hostconfig file to accept VNC connections? Where I work, we use Apple Remote Desktop to admin the servers.

L
 
A video card is around forty quid!? Why won’t they pay that?

Anyway, I never used the Remote Desktop Client, but I'd recommend doing the following:

Rip a video card out of something else, stick it in the G5 and boot it up, set up what you need to set up, then take the card out again - easy enough?

Personally prefer Timbuktu for this kind of thing.
 
Okay cool. Had already tried to install a video card, serveral did not help it would boot but no video. Now 40 quid seems small to you but translate it to african money and then it is not an option for a one off thing. Plus time is against me It has to be out of the door in 3 days Shipping from UK takes a good old 2 weeks.
In what way would I edit the /etc/hostconfig?
 
I tried to use Timbuktu, but that will only work unless you have enabled remote login on the server. Hmm, is it possible to remolty enable remote login? Anyway I will hunt for a loan video card and enable everything to my hearts content.
 
I think the RAGE 128 cards and the cards from the B&W G3's will work in this. Even so, the cost of a video card is nothing compared to the rest of the Xserve.

I use ARD2 and love the product. You could also use any sort of VNC.
 
Hi - I have gotten two XServe G5's to install / configure and
experienced the same problems. I found this worked,

Steps:

1. Assuming you're on a network with a DHCP server,
set your DHCP server to assign an IP address to the
headless XServe via it's Ethernet ID for port 1 printed on the back,
and connect to the network to port 1.

2. Download OSXvnc.app to the desktop of a machine with a monitor
3. Open Terminal and copy the application to the XServe via scp, eg.

cd Desktop
scp -r OSXvnc.app root@ip-address-of-xserve:~/.
[password]

The password is the first 8 letters of the XServe's serial number,
or 12345678 for old XServes

4. log in to the server with ssh by typing from Terminal

ssh root@ip-address-of-xserve
[password]

5. Start the VNC server by running with these commands on the XServe

cd OSXvnc.app
./storepasswd MyPassword the_password_file
./OSXvnc-server -rfbauth the_password_file &

The server will print some status text and wait for connections.

6. Download a VNC Viewer, eg. I found "Chicken of the VNC" to work
and connect to the XServe at the IP address and with the password you stored.

You need your firewalls, etc. set up to allow you to connect to port 5900
on the XServe from the machine that's running the VNC Viewer.

Hope that's useful

Richard
 
Well thanks for all the help!! I have CHicken up and running, the explanation was cool but I just had to restart the remote login using putty to get everything up again!
 
figures. I had a related issue where i stuffed my ARD install on my g4 server (it has a video card, but way too much effort to stick a monitor on it....)

anywho. this: http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=108030 and the cli version of installer worked wonderfully.

Code:
sudo installer -pkg RemoteDesktop.mpkg -target /

sudo /System/Library/CoreServices/RemoteManagement/ARDAgent.app/Contents/Resources/kickstart -activate -configure -access -on -restart -agent -privs -all

then i used the ARD Admin tool to upgrade the client (from 2.0 to 2.2) and make the settings i wanted (restricting who does what)
 
Actually, Apple has a very elegant way of handling this which doesn't require all these back-flips. Install "Server Assistant" onto your workstation and boot the xserve from the CD/DVD. You server will appear in the Server Assitant program and you can set it right up from there. Should be no problem. We do it all the time.

Oh, you log in as "root" and the password is the last 8 chars of the xserve's MAC address.

After that, use ARD or Server Admin, and Workgroup Manager to manage it.
 
I have a head node running 10.3.9 and six cluster nodes to setup.All of them are connected to a Gigabit ethernet switch.I have tried using the server assistant from the head node and no server shows up on the server list.I have also tried booting of the CD/DVD but I was taken to refresh installation menu on the head node.I am lost and would appreciate any assistance.
 
no.. you need to open Server Assistant on ONE machine, then boot from the CD/DVD in a DIFFERENT machine, and it will appear as an option to configure it.
 
Only the head node has a cdrom.I have edit the /etc/hosts on the head node(10.0.0.1-10.0.0.7).I can ping the headnode (10.0.0.1) but cannot reach the cluster nodes.How can I access these clusternodes?.
 
Back
Top