orin-nano-env-setup/docs/impl/reports/HEADLESS.md

type, date

type	date
report	2026-10-09

Headless: No Desktop, No Sound Server

Why

The car unit has no display of its own; the display is the tablet app. Anything graphical on the Orin uses unified memory, which the voice stack (GPT-SoVITS TTS, Whisper ASR) needs more.

Result

Item	State
Default target	multi-user.target (was graphical.target): GDM, Xorg and GNOME no longer start
Local console	getty@tty1 enabled, so a text login appears on a directly attached monitor/keyboard
Sound servers	PulseAudio and PipeWire disabled for all users. ALSA kept: devices are still there for mic capture
Camera	nvargus-daemon kept (used by camera-webui and the later vision service)
Memory	"used" went from 1206 MB to 1005 MB (~200 MB) on an idle system (GDM greeter only, nobody logged in graphically)

Per-process RSS for the desktop added up to ~550 MB, but that counts shared pages once per process. The free difference is the real saving.

Commands

sudo systemctl set-default multi-user.target
sudo systemctl enable getty@tty1
sudo systemctl --global disable pulseaudio.socket pulseaudio.service \
    pipewire.socket pipewire.service pipewire-media-session.service
sudo systemctl isolate multi-user.target      # apply now, without a reboot

disable rather than mask: nothing is removed, and each step reverses cleanly.

sudo systemctl set-default graphical.target
sudo systemctl --global enable pulseaudio.socket pulseaudio.service \
    pipewire.socket pipewire.service pipewire-media-session.service

To start the desktop once without changing the default: sudo systemctl start gdm.

Audio

Project Yukart's plan keeps the microphone on the Orin (Whisper) and sends TTS to the tablet as chunked utterances. Neither needs a desktop sound server:

• capture: read the ALSA device directly (arecord -l lists it; a USB mic adds its own card);
• playback on the Orin itself isn't needed (only HDMI is present: card 0: HDA).

If a service later needs PipeWire anyway, run it for that service's user with loginctl enable-linger <user>, so it starts at boot without a login session. Don't re-enable it globally.

Side effects seen when switching live

systemctl isolate re-ran two NVIDIA oneshot units, which then failed because their setup was already done:

• nvzramconfig: mkswap: /dev/zram5 is mounted. All six zram swap devices are active, so nothing is missing.
• nv_nvsciipc_init: exits 1 on re-run.

Both run only once on a normal boot. Confirmed at the next boot (2026-10-09): systemctl --failed lists nothing, the default target is multi-user.target, and LTE, can_onboard and the USB tablet link (with mass storage still off) all came back unattended.

Unrelated, pre-existing

logrotate.service fails every night: stat of /data/logging-volume/*.log failed: Permission denied. /etc/logrotate.d/jetson-logging (package nvidia-jetson-services) rotates as user logging, but /data is drwx------ root. Harmless because nothing logs there. Left as is, since it's a package-owned file.