Dummy video card

Hi

I was talking to a friend and I got curious, is there a way to set up a dummy video card so that a server like machine can boot with a pc that does not have an integrated video chip. Without a video card in theory it should be accedes via serial port or ssh (linux). I tried googling but I got no relative results.

It is hard for me to tell what you are asking, could you clarify? Most servers are operated headless, with no video output (and if they have a video card, it will usually be something like an 8mb ATi Rage or something designed to only display basic console output) and are accessed remotely, either using SSH, or orchestrated as part of a cluster.

not sure if i understand correctly but you may think of KVM card (remote management pci card), or in terms of 'dummy' video card you can take the cheapest there is.

I mean to have a regular desktop pc working without a physical video card. When there is no video card it does not post, so is there a way around it? Like when having equipment that can be accessed only via serial port or ssh.

Despite that there is no real hardware requirement for a video card, most if not all BIOS/UEFI in PC boards have software requirements. It is simply expected that PC compared to network/server devices will have a video card.

Some board vendors in more workstation aimed boards are including a connector to a special iKVM module that for example uses:

https://www.aspeedtech.com/products.php?fPath=20&rId=200

ASUS example:

It is VGA "card" with its own CPU and small software hat simply takes the "image" from the card and makes it available over network (additionally to keyboard and mouse as KVM suggests).

If you have a PC board not aimed at workstation, then you need to buy such module on the PCIe card (but I'm not sure if every BIOS/UEFI of every vendor will work with such module) .
And to be honest, I just tried to do simple search on two online shops and no such thing appeared in the results.

So you might be better with some real cheap graphics card.. In such case, this is what I would choose:
1. something like GT710 (or older if you find it).
2. one slot (look closely on the photos, most such cards have only one slot outside but radiator takes two slots)
3. have one small fan. (probably all vendors overclock those GPUs, so even two slot radiator without fan gets uncomfortably hot - for a card that might be in next slot).

Zotac is my favorite vendor for this, because they have at least one card that meets that criteria. Other vendors too often do two slot radiators.

Thanks for the reply.
I did not know about the iKVM device, that is one way of solving the problem.

As I said, I'm not doing anything, I'm just curious.

Problem with a lot of cheap GPUs is the small shitty fans. Bought a GTX 710 for this purpose and it was so loud that I couldn't use it.

I've got an old matrox videocard from 95' that works even with the new windows, it does not even have a heatsink, would be just fine for such applications.

True, but then again if you're just using it as a "dummy" and the PC is in the closet, that doesn't really matter all that much :wink:

Usually you should be fine with a really really low-end passive card too, provided the airflow in the case/closet is fine.

There are also VGA/DVI/HDMI to LAN adapters to grab the signal, but I have no idea if or how well they work (just googled them real quick cause I was curious).

Just get cheap video cards used for this sort of thing. Seriously. LOL!

I've never had any problem getting a regular desktop board to boot without a GPU. Just check the Bois options, particularly the halt on error option, you want that set to none.

Ha, I'll have to try that once, if the bios on the pc I end up using will have that option available.