In setting up a Ubuntu 9.1 computer for a client, I discovered a frustrating problem with the latest version of this popular Linux distribution.

This client, like many individuals and businesses, wanted to run this machine “headless.” That is, with no mouse, keyboard, or monitor. It’s a popular approach if the machine mainly “does its own thing,” like acting as a dedicated video server, web server, and countless other applications that require infrequent human intervention.

The idea is that the “headless” machine is remote-controlled over the network, in a window on the client (controlling) machine, which can act as the headless computer’s keyboard, mouse, and monitor.

The good news is that it’s really fast, easy, and free to set-up… That is, if you want to see it in really low resolution (800 x 600) on the client machine.

Seems the folks at Ubuntu assumed you couldn’t possibly see high resolution output without a monitor (they didn’t give a lot of thought to headless applications).

It was a real hassle trying to find a fix, and when I did, figured I should document it here, knowing others will hit the same brick wall.

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