Boot Q68 without monitor and keyboard

[afx]

Is there a way for Q68 to fully boot the operating system (SMSQE) without having the monitor and keyboard connected?

[martyn_hill]

Hi afx

I believe that the PS/2 KB must be present to allow the Q68 to boot, but no monitor need be attached.

[afx]

Hi, Martin.

Thanks for the answer. I just tried it and indeed, no monitor need be attached.

I could "simulate" the presence of a keyboard by plugging a ps2 mouse into the keyboard socket? That could damage my Q68?


( It would be great if Q68 could boot without a keyboard, ... only in "server mode" with the network connection and rs232 ) .

[martyn_hill]

As far as I recall, the Q68 start-up code will complain and stall if a mouse is plugged in to the KB port (i.e. in to the wrong socket in the splitter), so you are stuck with needing a KB...

Perhaps Peter G will know of a work-around?

[Pr0f]

how about a small 8 pin PIC pretending to be a keyboard - that would probably work...

[Martin_Head]

If you've got an old keyboard you don't care about. Rip it apart, and just plug the bare electronics board in. You don't need the actual keys.

[Derek_Stewart]

Hi,

Maybe a Keyboard/Mouse switch box is a possible solution. I have a PS2/VGA switch box for the Q68 and PC running QPC2.

Just switch to the Q68 on power up and the PS/2 mouse and keyboard is detected by the Q68 firmware. Once booted, switch to PC,
the PC USB Keyboard and Mouse go through USB-PS/2 adapters. All work great.

I also have links from the same switch box to a FreeNAS Raid server, Raspberry PI and another Linux workstation PC.

THE PC running QPC2 is running under Windows, as I am still trying to get Wine on Linux to configure the serial port to look like a Windows serial port and be able to use SerNET under Linux in QPC2.

[afx]

Hi guys, thanks.

The old keyboard or the switch box could be affordable options. About the little PIC, ... ufff .... I don't have the skills to design that solution (although it would be the best option for me).

Best regards.

[Peter]

Is there a way for Q68 to fully boot the operating system (SMSQE) without having the monitor and keyboard connected?

Just detach them and boot the Q68. No idea what problems people are seeing here.

[afx]

Just detach them and boot the Q68. No idea what problems people are seeing here.

Hi Peter, you're right, I just tried it again and everything is fine. SMSQE starts even if there is no keyboard and vga.

Excuse me, I don't know what happened to me. In the past I thought that the keyboard and VGA were necessary due to some problem that I had, but now I cannot reproduce that problem.

Best regards.

PD:
Now my Q68 acts "unattended" as a server and gateway with QPC2 <-> BBQL . Everything is OK!!