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I still don't understand why operating systems can't properly work without a screen. I have a Linux "home server" and I haven't found a way to boot up a graphi

I still don't understand why operating systems can't properly work without a screen. I have a Linux "home server" and I haven't found a way to boot up a graphical session with everything working (there were bugs in some applications, like menus not showing up, you couldn't change resolution, etc.). A dummy HDMI plug fixed it, but still. It's 2025, come on.

shepherdjerred 2y ago
You can definitely run graphical environments without a screen in a virtual environment, e.g. https://github.com/selkies-project/docker-nvidia-egl-desktop https://github.com/selkies-project/docker-nvidia-egl-desktop which is even GPU accelerated
Rohansi 2y ago
Parsec has a driver which adds virtual monitors so you should be able to use that instead of a dummy HDMI plug. Another issue is not having a mouse plugged in will mean you have no mouse cursor when remoting in.
- packtreefly 2y ago
  > not having a mouse plugged in will mean you have no mouse cursor when remoting in. Parsec has a setting to fix that too. Look in the host options.
thatfrenchguy 2y ago
macOS has no issues with no monitor fwiw
kevin_thibedeau 2y ago
Headless X11 machines were a thing then it was all abandoned.
- washadjeffmad 2y ago
  Wayland. Solving the problems of yesterday, tomorrow.
- genewitch 2y ago
  You can run Windows server headless too, and run individual applications over the RDP protocol, exactly like using an X server on a machine with a screen to run Xeyes on a headless machine.
  - alchemist1e9 2y ago
    Anyone have a good tutorial or reference for doing that on a modern windows system? It would be very useful alternative to VM seamless style and allow Linux X11 system as the hypervisor with windows VM.
    - genewitch 2y ago
      Well, i buried the lede. you need windows server to do it easily; once you have windows server set up, you need terminal services to be enabled and installed for that server. Then you can set up "single application mode" application. https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/troubleshoot/windows-server/remote/terminal-server-startup-connection-application#running-an-application https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/troubleshoot/windows-serve... I didn't really need a guide, it's pretty straightforward; we ran firefox on a windows server VM in AWS and watched youtube videos, in 2009, just to prove it could be done. We offered thin client conversions to companies. never had any clients, too early, i guess, and everything went to cellphones instead. When i say we watched youtube videos, i mean on our test computer in front of us there was a firefox icon on the windows desktop local, and double clicking it, after a few seconds, would launch a firefox window, but instead of the firefox icon it would be the mstsc.exe icon, and you were not looking at an executable's output on your screen, you were looking at the output of the executable in the cloud. anyhow the windows server software takes care of bundling/packaging/deploying of the the little "scripts" that let you have a desktop icon and everything else. I think there's a wizard. edit: i buried another lede. The video quality of youtube over terminal services in 2009 with our crappy dsl was... "talking head" - or as i like to call it "peak apple quicktime video circa 1996" - approx. 15fps
      - alchemist1e9 2y ago
        Thank you for these details. When I looked into doing it once on a modern system and stopped when window server entered the story. I’ve been hoping there might be a simple solution but that had me stumble upon Parallels RAS which I’ve been considering doing an evaluation of. https://www.parallels.com/products/ras/remote-application-server/ https://www.parallels.com/products/ras/remote-application-se... My primary battlestation system (not gaming but for business) is 8X4k monitors on a custom Linux system driven by 2 high end GPUs. What I’d ideally like to have is many Win11 pro application windows managed by my X11 windows manager.
Fnoord 2y ago
Back in days (around twenty years ago) I used NoMachine on Debian/SPARC to do exactly this: run GNOME remotely. Waypipe nowadays allows the same, but I don't think it has resuming support.

shepherdjerred 2y ago

You can definitely run graphical environments without a screen in a virtual environment, e.g. https://github.com/selkies-project/docker-nvidia-egl-desktop https://github.com/selkies-project/docker-nvidia-egl-desktop which is even GPU accelerated

Rohansi 2y ago

Parsec has a driver which adds virtual monitors so you should be able to use that instead of a dummy HDMI plug. Another issue is not having a mouse plugged in will mean you have no mouse cursor when remoting in.

packtreefly 2y ago
> not having a mouse plugged in will mean you have no mouse cursor when remoting in. Parsec has a setting to fix that too. Look in the host options.

thatfrenchguy 2y ago

macOS has no issues with no monitor fwiw

kevin_thibedeau 2y ago

Headless X11 machines were a thing then it was all abandoned.

washadjeffmad 2y ago
Wayland. Solving the problems of yesterday, tomorrow.
genewitch 2y ago
You can run Windows server headless too, and run individual applications over the RDP protocol, exactly like using an X server on a machine with a screen to run Xeyes on a headless machine.
- alchemist1e9 2y ago
  Anyone have a good tutorial or reference for doing that on a modern windows system? It would be very useful alternative to VM seamless style and allow Linux X11 system as the hypervisor with windows VM.
  - genewitch 2y ago
    Well, i buried the lede. you need windows server to do it easily; once you have windows server set up, you need terminal services to be enabled and installed for that server. Then you can set up "single application mode" application. https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/troubleshoot/windows-server/remote/terminal-server-startup-connection-application#running-an-application https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/troubleshoot/windows-serve... I didn't really need a guide, it's pretty straightforward; we ran firefox on a windows server VM in AWS and watched youtube videos, in 2009, just to prove it could be done. We offered thin client conversions to companies. never had any clients, too early, i guess, and everything went to cellphones instead. When i say we watched youtube videos, i mean on our test computer in front of us there was a firefox icon on the windows desktop local, and double clicking it, after a few seconds, would launch a firefox window, but instead of the firefox icon it would be the mstsc.exe icon, and you were not looking at an executable's output on your screen, you were looking at the output of the executable in the cloud. anyhow the windows server software takes care of bundling/packaging/deploying of the the little "scripts" that let you have a desktop icon and everything else. I think there's a wizard. edit: i buried another lede. The video quality of youtube over terminal services in 2009 with our crappy dsl was... "talking head" - or as i like to call it "peak apple quicktime video circa 1996" - approx. 15fps
    - alchemist1e9 2y ago
      Thank you for these details. When I looked into doing it once on a modern system and stopped when window server entered the story. I’ve been hoping there might be a simple solution but that had me stumble upon Parallels RAS which I’ve been considering doing an evaluation of. https://www.parallels.com/products/ras/remote-application-server/ https://www.parallels.com/products/ras/remote-application-se... My primary battlestation system (not gaming but for business) is 8X4k monitors on a custom Linux system driven by 2 high end GPUs. What I’d ideally like to have is many Win11 pro application windows managed by my X11 windows manager.

Fnoord 2y ago

Back in days (around twenty years ago) I used NoMachine on Debian/SPARC to do exactly this: run GNOME remotely. Waypipe nowadays allows the same, but I don't think it has resuming support.