Hi. I'm running Red Hat 9 and I want to close the X server for installing a graphics driver. But when I press Ctrl+Alt+Backspace, after closing, it automatically restart, but the driver won't install if a X session is running.

How can I close it COMPLETELY??? The driver must be installed from the VGA shell.

Thanks in advance.

Try typing this at root shell:

This worked for me when i tried to install nvidia drivers.

as root:

# telinit 3
bash: telinit: command not found

Don't know why this does not work, but you also can manually edit your /etc/inittab file:
You need to change this:

(assuming your default runlevel is 5)
to this:

After this you need to reboot your machine. After reboot It will boot only into a shell.
To test if drivers work type startx.
After driver installation you should change it back to normal (unless you prefer shell).

On my RedHat 8.0 box, I have the same problem. The only way telinit 3 works is if I log into the computer as root. su and su - to root will not let me telinit 3. I get "bash: telinit: command not found" if I su to root or I get nothing if I su - to root.
Here's what does work.

ctrl + alt + F1 gets me to a console screen, sometimes it's a login screen, but sometimes it's a screen that I can not use, typing there is ignored by the system, in that case, alt + F2 (through F6 I think) gets me a new log in screen. I log in there and use that, then alt + F7 returns me to X, unless I had telinit 3 , in which case I have to startx

your mileage may vary.