killing X
 

i need to shut down X so i can install the nvidia drivers. How do I shut down X and go into the prompt( like shutting down win98 into MS-DOS mode)
note i DONT want to change boot files and stuff like that.
Also could I force the file to install?

please I need help with this. If u dot have any real information Dont say anything. I hate BS so dont use it on me.

I am useing suse 8.2

I installed the same drivers no more than 10 minutes ago.
I killed X by editing my /etc/inittab file
There was an option there with the default loader was the X option
I changed it to single user mode and followed the instructions from the NVIDIA README file to a T.
Once I had everything installed, I changed the option in the inittab file back to the X option and rebooted by giving the command `shutdown -r now`
After the computer restarted, everything worked A-ok.

I honestly don't know if there's an easier way to do it, but this worked well for me.

pifly

You can boot into single user mode without editing any files. I use RH and GRUB. Here's a link for a howto:

http://www.redhat.com/docs/manuals/l...ng-single.html

try ctl+alt+F1

That gives you just a terminal without X, but doesn't shut down X. You can either do CTRL+ALT+Backspace (kills X) or use the normal SuSE shutdown button, which brings you to the login menu in the first step. There you find (on SuSE 8.1) a drop down menu which lets you stop X. This is also the level (KDE shut down orderly) where you try the CTRL+ALT+Backspace.

After that you can do your tricks...

Correct me if Im wrong, but wouldnt typing "init 3" in a console window do the trick also? Im not sure if that kills X or just has the same result as Ctrl+Alt+F1 (terminal with no X, but X still running)

Dunno. You could find out, using a terminal (shell window) running X (or KDE) typing that command. Remember that KDE is then not properly shut down (possible loss of new changes).

Easy way to not load X
 

The way that I installed the nVidea drivers under SuSE 8.2 was by booting the "failsafe" option in Grub. Make sure that you have all of the required packages installed to install the drivers also. After I had logged in as root, I ran the .run file using the "sh" command and it was installed but not enabled. I still needed to run "sax2" and enable the hardware 3D acceleration option. After saving quitting "sax2" I logged in under my normal user account and typed “startx” and was up and running (and gamming). If you are running Mandrake or a few other distributions you will need to edit the “XF86Config” or “XF86Config-4” file as directed in the nVidea install guid.