I removed the VGA card and the server still worked.

This was on ClearOS 7.6 in case that's important. RYZEN 5, AsRock B450. These have no graphics unless you have a card as the onboard only works with a graphics type APU rather than the CPU I was using.

The reason I removed the VGA card was so I could put my 10gbs network card in the x16 PCIe slot. However the act of moving the network card broke the network rendering the server broken. I had to plug the VGA back in to fix things.

It's worth having a graphics output always available because you never know when there might be a hardware fault printed on the screen or you have to go in directly and fix a problem. I would not waste money on a good one and I would not use a RYZEN APU as that's a waste of two cores for graphics performance you will never use.

Unfortunately moving the NIC changes its name. There is a way to go back to the old ethX designations, in which case identification should be by MAC address and won't break things (fingers crossed). If you're in Gateway mode and move one NIC at a time you can get back in using the other NIC.

Like you I would always like to have backup graphics capability just in case. Cheap and cheerful (and low power) is fine.

Nick, I used to setup ClearOS with a removable NIC so I could transfer it and the Hard Drive to new hardware when it arrived. That trick stopped working, now I know why. I have since figured out how to get it going again from the terminal.

If you need the big PCIe socket for a RAID card or a 10gbs NIC then you can plug the VGA card into a x1 PCIe. You need a hacksaw to cut a second slot in the VGA card so it fits in the little x1 socket.

I've been able to get ClearOS installed on systems that have never had a graphics card. For example, the Dell IOT Gateway 300x series has two devices that don't have a graphics card. The trick is to get the recovery partition to embed a version of ClearOS that will auto-install via a Kickstart file whenever it is selected for UEFI boot.

Moving network cards does change their name because of the way that systemd works. If you are doing a transitional install where you set it up one way and the configure it another post-boot, you can also employ the use of serial ports to push a tty terminal over serial. This will allow you to connect with tmux or minicom to that port from another box and configure your NICs after you move things around. You can install via this method as well.

Dave that sounds technical. Another way would be to plug in a VGA card just for the install. Those Crypto Miner PCIe risers allow you to use a x1 slot for a full sized card. I was doing that yesterday. You can even get an adaptor for a laptop style PCIe slot.

In some ways the new eth naming is better but in others it's not as good.

Wayland Sothcott wrote:

In some ways the new eth naming is better but in others it's not as good.

Even with the Eth naming convention, you still need to pre-change udev to the MAC address of the new card or it will may well get the next available ethX number