can someone plz tell me how to boot into command line, or how to close x server.

i am trying to install nvidia drivers and it says i need to close x server.
i have red hat linux 9

I'm not that familiar with RH so you should verify the correct setting here, but you can check for the file /etc/inittab

Edit the file as root and find that looks similar to:

id:4:initdefault:

The important part of the line is the initdefault portion, that is the default runlevel for your system when you boot.

On my system (slackware 10.0) I change the 4 to a 3 and then run:

shutdown -rfn -t5 now

This will reboot your system in multi muser mode, but with standard TTY type console.

Log in with your normal userid/password, and then you can su into root. To start X just type

startx

and x windows will start as normal. When you exit x windows you'll go back to the console.

umm how do u exit x

I'm not sure I understand the question...

You don't want to edit x at all. Just the file inittab

I do most of my editing from xterm, using midnight commander It's a tty based filemanager. If that's not installed you can use JED, jove VIM or even VI.

Hit ctrl-alt-fn, where n is one of your function keys - this will switch to another screen which is not running X. You can then do the install and reboot.

how do u exit x windows?

thx for the help i got it working

Good deal. If you edited your inittab file you can go back and change the number back to its original value and you will be back to normal.

FYI to exit x windows, you would do the same as if you wanted to log off your system.

Cheers

Or:
<Ctrl> + <Alt> + <Backspace>