booting ubuntu without a monitor

[Councill, David]

I am trying to set up a remote Linux computer, no monitor, accessible by
vnc. So I built it with Ubuntu 8.1 until I found it would not boot up
afterwards without a monitor. This was because Ubuntu goes into a "low
graphic mode" with a message box that needs acknowledged. Then I tried
Debian - it would boot up but the vnc connection would cause an error
due to a bug already acknowledged. So I went back to Ubuntu and tried
the new Ubuntu 9. Same problem as 8 except now it not only has to be
acknowledged at the low graphics mode messagebox, it now has to be
rebooted rather than continuing after pressing OK. I've searched
extensively and found only a few solutions which did not work - this
included turning off the autodetect using dpkg-reconfigure. And the
suggestion of using Option "ConnectedMonitor" set to CRT in the devices
in xorg.conf. But I still cannot get past the "low graphics mode"
without an attached monitor. Any suggestions? I hate to go back to XP
but I've already spent a number of hours trying to get this to work and
I can have XP on the same computer doing what I need it to do in about
an hour (security wise I like the idea of a non-windows computer doing
monitoring in an AD domain).

David Councill