[PLUG] Headless Linux Machine

[Paul Heinlein]

On Mon, 10 Nov 2014, Robert Citek wrote:

> Thanks, Paul.  I meant to have written "Here are just two of many 
> ...".

I didn't mean to imply that you were suggesting your list was 
exhaustive. In fact, your solutions are probably the most accessible.

The VNC installation may be unique to Red Hat-based distributions (I 
don't recall seeing it as an option in Debian or Ubuntu, but that may 
be my oversight).

Installation via serial console is definitely not a beginner-level 
operation and probably more of an acquired taste. Then again, beer is 
also an acquired taste, so there's that to be said in defense of 
serial consoles.

I didn't mention a fifth option, but will do so now:

5) Put the laptop's hard drive in another machine, do the installation
    there, then move the drive back to the original machine.

Of course, that doesn't solve the "how do I get a local console?" 
issue, but with Linux (pace Windows), it's a very viable solution.

-- 
Paul Heinlein
heinlein at madboa.com
45°38' N, 122°6' W