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Running a Mac Mini without screen

The Mac Mini is really a cute little machine, it’s completely silent and consumes practically no power. The ideal Linux home server if you ask me. There is only one drawback if you use the BootCamp BIOS emulation + Linux: the Mac Mini doesn’t boot when there is no screen attached to the VGA output.

This is Apple’s BIOS emulation’s fault, it’s trying to detect a screen and has no timeout…fortunately, there is a workaround for this!

  • Find a 75 Ohm resistor, any power rating is ok.
  • Connect the resistor between pins 2 and 7 of the DVI to VGA adapter (any adapter will work)
  • Done

The 75 Ohm resistor lets the BIOS think that there is a screen and voilà, you can boot without a monitor now :)

This entry was posted on Saturday, June 21st, 2008 at 10:02 am and is filed under General Linux. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

One Response to “Running a Mac Mini without screen”

  1. gandalfk7 says:
    November 17, 2008 at 11:13 pm

    thnk you, you’ll be remembered in the ages.

    now the last step is to find a damned way to abilitate the auto power up
    after power failure…

    and it will be a perfect mini-server..

    thank you

    cheers.

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