I've got an NVidia GeForce 6600 and have got the drivers for this card from NVidia's site.

The only problem I've got is every time I try and install them it tells me that X is running. I'm running Fedora Core 3 Kernel 2.6.9-1.667-stk16 and I've tried to close X but it automatically starts up on boot. I've also tried CTRL+ALT+BACKSPACE which just takes me back to the login screen, and tried using the failsafe terminal which is a terminal emulation in X.

So is there a way to unload X so I can get to a basic terminal prompt so I can install these drivers? And if not how am I supposed to install them??

try a telinit, init command or edit /etc/inittab and reboot.

ctrl-alt-backspace kills X. Or you can kill it from a console by doing

ctrl-alt-f1

Login as root, then..

pkill [loginmanager]

Where [loginmanager] will either be xdm, gdm or kdm. Theres also the option of using init scripts but I can't remeber where fedora keeps those of the top of my head.

You must not let X start. Either reboot to single user, or login as root and run "init s". Then, from the single-user root prompt, run the NVidia installation script. When the installation is finished successfully, you can reboot to your normal X operations.

when you enter the grub ,you enter "e" then edit the boot screen ,
at the end of second line ,you enter "linux 3" ,
then enter "b" ,you can enter a full command enviroment.
regards

CTRL-ALT-F6, then login as root and do init "3". Install the drivers then do "init 5".

Thanks, I got my nvidia drivers kind of installed now. Only prob I have now is I changed it back init 5 and now it wont load X, it hangs before loading X... wonder if there's anyway to break into the boot sequence now whilst it's loading.

Did you edit your X config file to use the new Nvidia drivers? You need to change the videocard driver from nv to nvidia when you install the drivers.

Yes, I think RemusX2 is right. I remember the new driver requires unloading some modules and switch the driver name. Look at the README.txt file on NIVIDIA driver download page.

Sometimes rebooting after installing the driver helps.

Yes, I edited the xorg.conf file to NVidia. Might just start again from scratch and re-install Linux as I can't seem to get into X to Logon now and can't seem to force it into init level 3 before it tries to load X. Next time I'll check that X works before changing the init level back to 5!