HowTo use a computer without a screen attached

The Problem:
I have a Linux machine (Fedora 14)  with no screen attached. I view the graphics via VNC server. I had to adjust the system to use the Nvidia driver and tweak it for no screen.

The solution:
First we need to install the Nvidia driver. Then, we need to adjust the X configuration for no screen and our preferred resolution.

for more details see: http://forums.fedoraforum.org/showthread.php?t=204752

1. Update the kernel:

su
yum update kernel*
reboot

2. Add rpmfusion to your repository.

su
rpm -Uvh  http://download1.rpmfusion.org/free/fedora/rpmfusion-free-release-stable.noarch.rpm   http://download1.rpmfusion.org/nonfree/fedora/rpmfusion-nonfree-release-stable.noarch.rpm

3. Depending on your card add nvidia akmod to the kernel and the proper driver. for a Gforce 9500GT on my 64bit machine:

yum install akmod-nvidia-260.19.36-1.fc14.x86_64 xorg-x11-drv-nvidia-libs-260.19.36-1.fc14.x86_64

4. Edit the xorg.conf file. don't forget to  adjust the Nvidia card for no screen attached by adding:
 Option "ConnectedMonitor" "CRT"
to the device section and adjust the screen resolution under the Screen section:

Section "Device"
    Identifier     "Card0"
    Driver         "nvidia"
	Option "ConnectedMonitor" "CRT"
EndSection

Section "Screen"
    Identifier     "Screen0"
    Device         "Card0"
    Monitor        "Monitor0"
    SubSection     "Display"
        Viewport    0 0
        Modes      "1280x1024"
    EndSubSection
EndSection

Working on two machines at once

The Problem:
On my work I use two computers, one is Linux based which carry out all the heavy processing and another is windows based for viewing results, office related jobs and other Microsoft compatibility issues.

My problem was I had two mice, two keyboard and two screens. it is very confusing and tiring to switch from one to another.

The Solution:
The Linux distro comes with a wonderful component - VINO SERVER a VNC server which connects to your display 0 (the main display).
so I installed REALVNC viewer on my windows computer, connected one screen to the DVI exit and one to the D-sub (VGA) exit on the graphic card.
now, all need to do is to enter the Linux machine via VNC, drag the window to the second screen and use "Full Screen" view. This allows me to use one set of keyboard and mouse and move from one machine to another just by moving from one screen to another.

Tips:

• autologin:
  Since you can't "see" the Linux machine without connecting to it, you can tweak the bootloader to load you user automatically:
  edit /etc/gdm/custom.conf (as superuser if needed) and change:
  [daemon]
  TimedLoginEnable=true
  TimedLogin=yourusername
  TimedLoginDelay=0
• ssh first:
  if you don't want to use autologin for security or other reason, you can login via ssh and start a gnome session and then use the VNC viewer. just enable ssh daemon and vino server.
• othere VNC servers:
  you can always use different VNC server and connect to other displays then 0.
• graphic card:
  I tried to use this method with an onboard G. card and only got low resolution screen size.
  it might be my mother board (intel DQ965GF) or bad X settings but using a GeForce card I managed to use my desired resolution with no problems.