So far everything I've read, nothings worked! Sudo, sh, synaptic manager thingy, nothings worked! I have the package downloaded to my desktop (NVIDIA-Linux-x86_64-100.14.19-pkg2.run) and I've tried
'sh NVIDIA-Linux-x86_64-100.14.19-pkg2'
- says cannot run
'sudo apt-get install linux-restricted-modules-generic'
-went though the steps but it didnt work
and all the sudo install combinations I've seen on numerous sites, and nothings worked! And I'm tired of switching over to vista to surf the net since my screen can't be any larger than 640x480 with half my desktop off my monitor. I need help! >.<

The reason it cannot run is that you can't run that script while you're inside of X, and you also have to run that as root (or use sudo, i.e. sudo sh NVIDIA-blahblahblah). From things you've typed, I assume you're trying to use Ubuntu. To kill X, hit CTRL+ALT+F1. Then login as your user. Then run sudo /etc/init.d/gdm stop to kill X. Then you can navigate to your desktop (cd ~, then ls (list contents), then cd desktop (or whatever name the desktop is given). Then run the sh command with sudo.

You also might need to install kernel headers or build-essential.

if it's just basic nvidia drivers you need, you could always do it the Ubuntu way..

http://ubuntuguide.org/wiki/Ubuntu:F...rivers_in_7.04

didnt work...and when i try sudo sh i get this,

'greg@ubuntu:~$ sudo sh NVIDIA-Linux-x86-100.14.19-pkg1.run
Password:
sh: Can't open NVIDIA-Linux-x86-100.14.19-pkg1.run'

im on ubuntu right now so if anyone has some helpful info...this 640x480 is getting to me though

Hi

will need someone with more experience to verify this, but from what I remember of how I dealt with this,

go into the synaptic package manager, search for nvidia, and install the "new" driver

Drop out to the command line, run sudo dpkg-reconfigure -phigh xserver-xorg

RESTART (What is this? windows? try it, worked for me)

also, if in doubt, take backups of the xorg.conf from /etc/X11/

Regards

@pljvaldex
'greg@ubuntu:~$ sudo ect/init.d/gdm stop
Password:
sudo: ect/init.d/gdm: command not found'

@jayla
ive tried that and it just doesnt work.

i can get it to start unpacking it but this is what happens...
'greg@ubuntu:~$ sudo sh /home/greg/Desktop/NVIDIA-Linux-x86-100.14.19-pkg1.run
Verifying archive integrity... OK
Uncompressing NVIDIA Accelerated Graphics Driver for Linux-x86 100.14.19........................................................................................... .................................................................................................... .......................................................................................

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.
'
How do i exit X?

First things first. The nvidia driver file should not be executable until you make it executable. System security thing.

As root, give the command to make it executable:
chmod +x NVIDIA-Linux-x86-100.14.19-pkg1.run

Then try to run the installation.

To exit X to run the installation, as root, give the command:
init 3

to drop down to runlevel three (text mode).

When it's done installing and you get your shell prompt back, init 5 or startx to get back to GUI mode.

You may have to re-configure your graphics card to use the new driver.

It's "etc" not "ect". And if you're using Kubuntu, it's kdm instead of gdm. You can always do cd /etc/init.d then ls
to see which one is installed...

This is a long way of doing it, but it should work.

Open your terminal.

Type

Find the line

You need to change this line to

To save and exit, type

The 'w' means 'write', the 'q' means 'quit', and the '!' ignores any fuss given by vim.

Then, restart your computer. Once it reboots, you should be in text mode. Login as your user. Then follow the instructions for installing the nVidia drivers (should be something like 'su -c sh\ nvidia-blahblahnumbersetc')

Once that's finished and you've run the nvidia-xconfig (I believe) script, you'll need to open inittab again and reverse what you've just done. That is, change the runlevel to 5 instead of 3. Then simply type

and you'll be good to go.

EDIT:

I didn't see that you had typed 'ect' instead of 'etc'. Two totally different things (mostly because one doesn't exist). Try the methods of the posters before me. If they still don't work, try what I suggested.

greg@ubuntu:~$ su -c vim\ /etc/inittab
Password:
su: Authentication failure
Sorry.

PWs right...any ideas?

Are you absolutely positive the password is correct? Did you just try it once, or did you try multiple times, slowly pressing each character as applicable? And I probably don't need to say this, but remember that it is case-sensitive. If you're positive it fails, you might have a serious problem. However, seeing as how 'sudo' didn't fail to authenticate, I'd wager you didn't enter the password correctly. If you're sure you did, try what I told you to do, but with 'sudo' instead.

my PWs 1 letter so yes im sure

@pljvaldez heres what i get now

'sudo /etc/init.d/gdm stop
OK
sudo sh /home/greg/Desktop/NVIDIA-Linux-x86-100.14.19-pkg1.run
(the little accept/do not accept terms thing pops up)
Accept
No precompiled kernel interface was found to match your kernel;
would you like the installer to attempt to download a kernel interface
for your kernel from the nvidia ftp site?
Yes/No
Yes
No matching kernel, this means the installer will need to compile
a kernel interface for your kernel.
Ok
Error: you do not appear to have libc header files installed on your
system. Please install your distro's libc development package.
Ok'

goes back to the beginning...and saying No does the exact same thing.
Any ideas?

Open your package manager and install your libc package? Also (again I don't recall...been a while since I installed nVidia drivers) you might need to have the kernel source.

Success! It's installed...now to figure out to switch it to my 22" WS monitor and not my 17" LCD...I see where I'd go about doing that but I can't hit the apply button...it's below the little bar at the bottom and it won't let me move the window up past the top bar! >.< Thanks for all your help guys!