booting headess is slower than with screen?

[f32mark]

I've noticed that it takes about 15 seconds longer to boot my Pi without a screen attached (I mean without a HDMI cable attached). The only other two connections are power and ethernet (no usb). I'm timing this from when an ssh connection is made. Obviously I cant see any messages without the screen when headless, so is there any particular reason for this? (or is there a way to see the console via the network?)

[malakai]

As a guess I would say without the HDMI cable attached it is probably going through all the various HDMI modes trying to connect. Then factor in the time it takes to actually ssh in and the authorization process it should take longer for the pi to be responsive headless. Without actually getting a board and script to light up a led once booted it would be hard to say just how long it takes the pi to boot.

[tedhale]

If you connect to the serial port on the GPIO you can see all of the boot process.
If you use something like this http://adafruit.com/products/954
you won't have to build a serial interface module.
If you would like to build one anyway, there are instructions on my blog.

I am curious about this since I tend to run all my RasPis headless.

[redhawk]

Running the PI with or without a HDMI cable won't make any difference to boot-up time what you're probably experiencing is a delay in starting network connectivity.
The PI console doesn't have to wait for a valid internet connection therefore login would always be quicker than using remote ssh.

Richard S.