Permision error when trying to edit 'inittab'

/home/kyle · 03-12-2004, 01:37 PM

Hey.
I am trying to edit my inittab file so that I can install my nVIDIA drivers, but when I edit it then try to save, it says I am not allowed...how can I edit and save this file?

Oh, and after I do get it edited, and boot up without the X server thing running, what happens?
Will I log in just like I normaly would, just without this X thing? or will I boot up to a thing where I can only type?

pingswept · 03-12-2004, 02:01 PM

If you type:

su

and then your root password, you will become root until you type exit. This will allow you to save changes to your inittab file. However, I don't know enough about nVidia drivers to know whether or not this is a good idea.

About the X server, I think you will still want to have it running. Without it, you would just have a text interface, and I doubt that you're installing nVidia drivers to get that.

CarterUK · 03-12-2004, 02:15 PM

To install the nVidia drivers, you do need to boot into run level 3 (which is why you're editing inttab).

After you're done, edit inittab so it loads run level 5 and you'll get back into X (which is the grahical interface). You could just copy inittab to inittab.old before you start to edit it and then just copy it back when you're done.

/home/kyle · 03-12-2004, 02:47 PM

IM afraid I'll mess somthing up.

I log in as root, then stay in terminal, copy the file to inittab.old, then edit the real inittab, reboot and type:

sh NVIDIA-Linux-x86-1.0-5336-pkg1.run to install the driver

But befor I do this, I need to know how to copy the file to inittab.old, and copy it back when im done.. Sorry if this is a dumb question but ive only been using Linux for about 4 days.

CarterUK · 03-12-2004, 03:01 PM

No worries!

I meant that you copy your inittab (that's in /etc) to a backup file before you edit it to make it run level 3. Then reboot your system. If you get problems, you can just copy the backed up inittab back and re-boot.

/home/kyle · 03-12-2004, 03:05 PM

Yes, but how would I copy the inittab back in a text only interface, I do not know what I would type to do that.

And when you say copy it to a backup file, you just mean copy it somewhere so you have it as a backup right? or do you mean make a .bak file of it for backup?

slakmagik · 03-12-2004, 03:16 PM

The console is your friend.

cd /etc
su
cp inittab inittab.old (doesn't matter what you call it as long as it's unique)
vim inittab (or the editor of your choice - try 'man -k edit' if you don't know what you've got)
(edit)
(do stuff, reboot, do stuff)
vim inittab
(might as well keep your backup but, if you wanted,)
rm inittab.old.

'man bash', 'man su', 'man cp', 'man vim', 'man rm' for hours of entertaining reading.

/home/kyle · 03-12-2004, 03:37 PM

Awsome, Thanks

. Im going to jot those commands down incase I forget and install this driver

.

Thank you
~Kyle.

DrOzz · 03-12-2004, 03:39 PM

http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...ghlight=NVIDIA

read that ...
the explanation i gave uses the method of editing the inittab just in case
something does go wrong, and its easy to recover ...
or you can keep scrolling down and read what MasterC has to say

all commands are shown step by step ...
you'll get the nvidia drivers installed in no time with this thread ....

/home/kyle · 03-12-2004, 03:48 PM

ok..I got all this down.. and I edited the file, and backed it up, hope everything goes well

Komakino · 03-12-2004, 04:38 PM

You know to change runlevel all you have to do is run "telinit 3" for runlevel 3...
Failing that, if you start the computer, when you get to the lilo prompt (assuming you're using LiLO) you add the runlevel after the image you wish to load, i.e.
linux 4
boots into runlevel 4.

/home/kyle · 03-12-2004, 05:14 PM

I had to reinstall Linux, I didnt know how to save the file with vim

I edited the file with gedit, rebooted, installed the driver, did 'rm inittab.old', but I think I accedently made the backup AFTER I edited the file, so I tried to edit it with vim, but I didnt know how to save it, so can someone tell me how to save a file I edited using vim on runlevel 3?

/home/kyle · 03-12-2004, 05:28 PM

Sorry for actling like its an urgent situation, but I realy wanna get this over with, I have a meeting I gotta go to today at my school, and it starts at 3:30, and its 2:30 now. If someone can tell me how to save a file after it has been edited using vim on runlevel 3, that would be awsome.

/home/kyle · 03-12-2004, 06:19 PM

ok, I had to reinstall Linux cus I didnt know what to do, but w/e, now it says somthing about needing some kernel_source thing, can someone tell me what that is?