Ok, I'm using Sarge and I wanted to install the Nvidia driver but as I remember from the Mandrake days to type in the console
but runlevel 3 in debian includes the X-server
what runlevel is recommended for installing the nV driver??
and is there anyway for completely exiting X without runlevel switching


Thanks

Try /etc/rc.d/gdm stop or /etc/rc.d/kdm stop

init 1 should work.

As reddazz said above, stop your display manager and you can install the Nvidia's driver then. No need to fiddle with the runlevel. Debian doesn't utilize them as quite extensively as some other distributions do. Debian's policy is to only have the minimum amount of runlevels in use. That means that in runlevel 2 everything is running, whereas in other distros the equivalent functionality can be found in e.g. runlevel 5



For detailed instructions regarding the installation of Nvidia's display drivers on Debian, see the instructions regarding that that I have written: http://serios.net/content/debian/nvi...ay-drivers.php