Re: My Mac Mini

Fri, 02 Apr 2010 12:20:06 -0700

Most better KVM switches will properly terminate the VGA connection so it appears to have a monitor connected even when it does not. For Macs this goes way back (OS8/OS9 days) where servers in a rack booted up headless would never do video again unless they were rebooted with some monitor or simulated monitor connected. The trick back then was to use a Mac to VGA adaptor (back when Macs had their own proprietary video connector) which let you set little dip switches to say what kind of monitor to pretend to be. So this is really not a new problem except that now when OSX can't find the display it seems to lose it's mind and run like sludge. 

CB

Brent Harding wrote:
I had a PC that was like this at the bios level. I wanted to, since it was so old and was good for little else, use it as a headless Linux box. I discovered that the hardware's so bad, not even that would install. I wonder what that company that hosts these mini's as servers does about the monitor thingy. They certainly don't have a monitor hooked to every server they host, but there could be a device to bring it to something you could remote connect to. 

----- Original Message ----- From: "Sarah Alawami" <[email protected]>
To: <[email protected]>
Sent: Thursday, April 01, 2010 8:56 PM
Subject: Re: My Mac Mini
actually a friend of mine used a mini with out a monitor for years until the upgrade to snow leopard so yes apple changed something I think in there OS. 

Take care.
On Apr 1, 2010, at 5:31 PM, Chris G wrote:


Hi,

Now I understand what you and the other user are saying, when you leark
for months before buying your mac mini and you read time and time again
that yes it works without a monitor, yes it works without a monitor and
yes it works without a monitor, it is frustrating when you buy it
because you don't need the monitor only to find out that oh, I guess you
do need a monitor.

It wasn't a real issue for me until I upgraded to snow leopard, then
browsing the net was all but useless.
I ended up having to buy a mini to vga adaptor and connect a 15 inch
flat panel monitor to it.  The monitor isn't even on neither is it
plugged into electricity.

Truthfully If I knew I needed a monitor connected when I bought my mini
I wouldn't have bought it and would've got an iMac or MacBook instead.
I didn't get the $500 mini either, I got the $800 mini.



On Thu, 1 Apr 2010 19:02:52 -0400
Bryan Smart <[email protected]> wrote:
Its fine to experiment with round pegs and square holes, also. But, if things don't work out, that is an obstacle for you to overcome or forget about. Round pegs weren't designed to work in square holes, and the people that make either won't have a lot of sympathy that you aren't using their products as intended. 

Bryan

-----Original Message-----
From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Ricardo Walker 
Sent: Thursday, April 01, 2010 1:02 PM
To: [email protected]
Subject: Re: My Mac Mini

Hello,
I think people are confusing portable with mobile. It is a small difference but a difference none the less between the 2. The mac mini is a portable desktop. It was not meant to be moved from room to room like a cordless phone. lol. This Is why there is no battery. You can move it easily enough but really. Its a stationary machine. It not working without a monitor is not a bug. Who but blind people would even dream of using a computer with no monitor. What if there is a problem where you require sighted assistants? Do you then scramble to get a monitor, or must they bring their own to the party. lol. A macbook is a mobile computer. Meant to go with you anywhere. Note the battery and keyboard built into the machine , with trackpad and monitor. I just kind a feel like some people are trying to put the round peg in the square hole here. 
On Apr 1, 2010, at 10:40 AM, Joe Plummer wrote:


No, I dis agree with this. They made it small and portable just so you
could move it around easily. Now for the monitor part you can get real
small monitor like a 7 or 9 inch monitor to do what you want that is
very portable and some even runs off a battery.


Sign,
JP ( Joe Plummer)
[email protected]


-----Original Message-----
From: [email protected]
[mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Bryan Smart
Sent: Thursday, April 01, 2010 10:25 AM
To: [email protected]
Subject: RE: My Mac Mini

I think that people are getting the concept of the Mini all wrong.

The Mini is not a laptop. If you try to use it like some sort of
portable, then you're of course free to try, but Apple has not
designed it to be a portable computer, and so, if it doesn't work like
that, they won't care that you can't make it suit that purpose. Its
also not intended to be a headless Mac for blind people.

The Mini is designed to fit two types of situations only.
1. You don't know if Mac is for you, and you want a cheap way to try it out. 

2. You need a low-powered Mac to handle some basic tasks, such as
being a home or small office server.

That's it.

If the Mini feels underpowered, it is because its underpowered. It is
powered by a mobile processor, uses laptop memory, and slower laptop
hard drives.

If the Mini sucks at being a portable computer, it is because it isn't
a portable computer. Its a cheap desktop Mac.

If the Mini sucks as a headless Mac, then that is because it isn't
designed to run without a monitor. People are supposed to buy a Mini
to use with their existing PC hardware, as part of evaluating if
they'd like to really use Mac in the future. Of course, using a Mac
with a PC keyboard and mouse means that you miss out on a lot, also.
Stil, it is a way to try this stuff to see if you'll like it, or if it
will be a waste of money, without forcing you to pay a lot for the chance to try it out. 

If you're serious at all about using the Mac, you probably won't stay
with a Mini for very long. The internal hard drives are slow, the
capacity won't go any higher than 500GB, the memory won't expand very
far, the processor is underpowered, so on and so on.

Not trying to rain on your parade. I love hacking around with what's
possible in equipment. The thing is, if, after using a Mini, you've
become serious enough to get frustrated with what it can't do, then it
is time to sell your Mini to another newbie, and upgrade to a MacBook,
an IMac, or a Mac Pro that will do more.

For example, if you're moving a computer from room to room to browse
the web, then you really should be using a MacBook.

Bryan

-----Original Message-----
From: [email protected]
[mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Chris G
Sent: Thursday, April 01, 2010 8:30 AM
To: [email protected]
Subject: Re: My Mac Mini

Hi,

It makes it more convenient to move the mini from room to room within
ones house.  Now you need to move a monitor just to browse the web.

Chris



On Thu, 1 Apr 2010 07:23:44 -0400
Ricardo Walker <[email protected]> wrote:


Hi,

I was just wondering why people find this so important?  Monitors are
very

cheap and you can even hook up Your Mac to newer TVs.

On Mar 31, 2010, at 10:23 PM, Sarah Alawami wrote:


I myself have not reported but I might even though I own a macbook.

Take care.
On Mar 31, 2010, at 5:34 PM, E.J. Zufelt wrote:


Good evening,

Has this issue been reported to [email protected]?  Perhaps

there's nothing that they can do, but it might be worth sending a
quick message.



Everett Zufelt
http://zufelt.ca

Follow me on Twitter
http://twitter.com/ezufelt

View my LinkedIn Profile
http://www.linkedin.com/in/ezufelt



On 2010-03-31, at 8:31 PM, Dan Roy wrote:


Yes, that's definitely true, I wish I had known that before I

purchased the mini, but, live and learn.



On Mar 31, 2010, at 8:35 AM, M BROWN wrote:


Several months ago I bought a Mac Mini without a monitor.
Everything

went well until I tried to use Safari to browse the web. To say the
least, it was painfully slow, and at times refused to open the web
page at all. All I got was Safari busy. However, when I attached a
monitor, all the above problems went away. Even though I do not have
the monitor powered up, it still works perfectly. So, just a warning
to anyone buying a Mac Mini who intends to browse the web, forget it unless you have a monitor attached. 
Kind regards
Martin

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