How do I turn off X?
 

Hi,
I am trying to install some drivers for either a radeon or an nvidia graphics card. I have some drivers for the nvidia but after getting the installation script to run it suggests that I need to turn of 'X' I understand this to be the graphical interface for the desktop.

I have Ubuntu installed on a fairly old system but these graphics cards work fine in, dare I say it, Windows :-).

Thanks for any help

Den

press CTRL_ALT_F1
login
type
replace gdm with kdm if you use KDE
or edit
/etc/inittab,
and set the runlevel to 3
reboot

Kind regards

The latest Nvidia drivers (Maybe ATI?) should be in the Ubuntu Software Center.

*

Menu : System > Administration > Hardware Drivers :

And the correct drivers will be installed automagically.

You can set the runlevel to 3 by issuing the following command as root.

telinit 3

you can then go back to the GUI login with

telinit 5

Using this, you don't need to manually stop GDM (or KDM or XDM), as it will terminate when switching to run level 3.

Thank you all for your help, I will try all suggestions and post back. I did try the software centre in Ubuntu but I couldn't find any drivers for either the Nvidia or the Radeon cards, maybe I should re-check.

Kind regards

Den

Hi,

I should explain my situation a little further: I would like to install the software drivers for the mentioned graphics cards to enable better support for playing games as the officially supported ones don't allow games such as quake to run. I have read about the undesirable effects of installing the drivers found on the Nvidia or Ati web sites but am willing to try them because I have used a live distro called Sabayon using the mentioned graphics cards and all was well with quake.

Using the help that you have kindly given I have tried to turn off the X server using 'sudo /etc/init.d/gdm stop', this seemed to work but all I have is a black screen so I still cant install the drivers.
I know I am missing something any help please

When I run the Nvidia script to install the drivers I get the following error message:

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

installing. For further details, please see the section INSTALLING

THE NVIDIA DRIVER in the README available on the Linux driver

download page at www.nvidia.com.

I have visited the Nvidia site but couldn't find any help with the correct way to install these drivers.

Thanks in advance for any help

Den

As stated in my earlier message, switch to run level three.

When you are staring at your graphical log in screen press
CTRL-ALT-F1
or
CTRL-ALT-F2 if CTRL-ALT-F1 doesn't give you a text based log in screen

Log in a root

run
# telinit 3

This will switch to run level three, which is basically multiuser mode without graphical login. It will stop GDM and more importantly, stop it from restarting should you kill it.

Run the installer for your graphics card.

Then when done, run
# telinit 5 to bring back the graphical login.

This has always worked for me.

Thanks for your help,
I didn't realise you had to press CTRL+ALT+F1 at start up! didn't have any success with 'telinit 3' but I used 'sudo /etc/init.d/gdm stop' and the installer ran for the first time. unfortunately there was an error, it appears the drivers are for a different kernel so I will have to try and find the correct version of the drivers for my system.
Thanks for your help so far as I am now able to run the installer scripts.

Den