Running a core on a 'server' with little / no graphics card ???

[al99]

Hi,
I'm about to try to get MCE running within a a VMWare server on a dedicated server machine (HP Proliant). My MD will probably be a shuttle  SG33G5M which comes with all the graphics/sound capabilities I think I need. (The server machine already has the TV card installed, but just the basic graphics card - it is a server after all).

The question/problem I have surrounds installing on the core. Can I install MCE in the core in effectively a 'text only' mode? I normally connect to the core from another machine and would like to install the core this way if possible. So basically from the command line. Does the MCE install process support this - can it be done pls?

Thanks vm,
Alex

[Zaerc]

LinuxMCE does not support a text based installation.  It probably can be done, but if you have to ask...

See also:
http://wiki.linuxmce.org/index.php/Testing_with_VMWare
http://wiki.linuxmce.org/index.php/Clean_Core

Furthermore I doubt a vmware guest would be able to use hardware like TV cards directly, with the possible exception of USB devices.

[Hagen]

You will need a monitor on the computer during the install.
Any graphics card will support UI1 atleast down to the ATI Rage generation graphics card.
WmVare sounds a bit more dubious, you will most likely need the ressources of a dedicated server, running a virtual sollution implies other things running as well?
In addition you will possibly have trouble with the network configuration in a virtual machine?

I would rather install a bare core on a "not brand new" machine and try it out on a dedicated machine than mess around with virtual machines (that's just me I guess), but Linux and LMCE have very few problems with "previous generation" hardware.
For a test setup with a couple of MDs a 1.7GHz PIV with 768MB RAM worked for me, and you can buy those at yard sales for 50$/35£/45€, and if it doesn't work for you what have you lost 

[al99]

Ok thanks for both those comment,
Yes I am planning to run other things as well on the machine (a few dev servers, a subversion repository). Since the server is a decent spec I doubt I would be using it to its capacity hence why I'd like to try and get MCE running in a VMWare server on it too.
I'll give it a go on VMWare and see how it goes.
thanks,
alex

[Hagen]

Please tell us how your testing works out.

[totallymaxed]

LinuxMCE does not support a text based installation.  It probably can be done, but if you have to ask...

See also:
http://wiki.linuxmce.org/index.php/Testing_with_VMWare
http://wiki.linuxmce.org/index.php/Clean_Core

Furthermore I doubt a vmware guest would be able to use hardware like TV cards directly, with the possible exception of USB devices.

We're successfully using VMware on a MacBook Pro to pxe boot the VMware session as an MD to a 'real' Core... not sure though if that is a good comparison (but its a cool demo of lmce!!!)