LinuxQuestions.org - [SOLVED] Re-installing NVidia video driver

I recently upgraded my kernel from Ubuntu 10.04 to 11.10, but after doing that I lost my Nvidia GE Force 8400 GS driver. Well, I thought, I needed to re-install it like I did on 10.04, which I did with the commands below:

Code:

sudo apt-get --purge remove nvidia-current

sudo apt-get --purge autoremove

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:ubuntu-x-swat/x-updates

sudo apt-get update

sudo apt-get -y install nvidia-current

Well, it didn't work, even though it appeared that the installation was successful. I still get the vga compatible driver, as shown.

Code:

williepabon@WP-WrkStation:~$ sudo lshw -C video

[sudo] password for williepabon:

  *-display

      description: VGA compatible controller

      product: nVidia Corporation

      vendor: nVidia Corporation

      physical id: 0

      bus info: pci@0000:05:00.0

      version: a2

      width: 64 bits

      clock: 33MHz

      capabilities: pm msi pciexpress bus_master cap_list rom

      configuration: driver=nouveau latency=0

      resources: irq:16 memory:de000000-deffffff memory:c0000000-cfffffff memory:d0000000-d1ffffff ioport:cc80(size=128) memory:dfc00000-dfc7ffff

Someone suggested to download the latest driver directly from the Nvidia site, which I did. It comes as a shell script that needs to be run on terminal as root. When I tried this, I got the following error:

ERROR: You appear to be running an X server; please exit X before installing.

My experience with Ubuntu is not enough to do much work in command mode (unless I am very well guided). I learned how to run a shell script, and I got the message as explained above. But I don't know how to stop the X server and turn it on again. And, I'm not sure if after installing the driver using the shell script, everything will work automatically as it does when you install using the Ubuntu repos (as I did when I had the 10.04 kernel). Thanks for the help.