this is a known problem (and documented in the FAQ I think)
The paper clip trick is definitely the way to go.

My Quadra 650 boots fine with paper clip and no mouse/keyboard.

--brendan

On Thursday, February 13, 2003, at 11:45 AM, chris wrote:

> I have mac68k 1.5 installed on a Q610. It sits in a room with other Mac
> servers, and I share one monitor between them all. No KVM, I just plug
> the monitor into which ever machine I need at the time. Each machine 
> has
> its own keyboard and mouse.
>
> It seems whenever I reboot the NetBSD machine, if the monitor is not
> attached, it doesn't reboot properly. It never comes back online.
>
> I know that the Mac will disable the video port if no monitor is 
> detected
> at boot... will NetBSD not launch properly if no video is detected? I
> have the booter set to auto boot 5 seconds after it is started, and an
> alias is in the startup items folder. So basically, when the mac 
> reboots,
> it will automatically boot NetBSD. This means I can reboot from remote
> like I did the other day, but once again, it didn't come up. The only
> common thread seems to be if no monitor is attached.
>
> Is there something I need to do get it to boot without a monitor? Or is
> it time to jam a paperclip between pins 7 and 10 on the RGB port and 
> make
> the mac think a 640x480 screen is attached.
>
> While on the topic, is it safe to boot without a keyboard and mouse?
> Since I can do everything with NetBSD by remote, I am kind of thinking 
> of
> disconnecting everything and just let the box sit by itself and do
> everything over the network.
>
> -chris
> <http://www.mythtech.net>
>