Hello, I just installed slackware and whenever i try to startx my screen turns black and i get the message "Input signal out of range." This has happened to me on other distros and all i have to do is install the nvidia drivers. But how can i do that on slackware from a command line if i can't open a web browser?

Any help is appreciated, Thank You. [:

You could perhaps try reconfiguring X first. If you want to get the NVIDIA drivers, you can use a text based browser (e.g. lynx), assuming you installed one.

I already tried reconfiguring x but ill try downloading from lynx. Thank you.

If you have problem to access linux driver page with lynx, try start lynx with:

Sounds as though your xorg.conf does not contain the correct vertical refresh and horizontal sync information for your monitor. My xorg.conf Monitor sections looks like this:

Your Monitor section should look similar. Check online or your monitor user manual for the vertical refresh and horizontal sync specs. Add the specs to your xorg.conf. The HorizSync option is in units of KHz and the VertRefresh option is in units of Hz.

Although many people never have problems installing the proprietary nvidia drivers, like most things with computers, some people do. Therefore, having a Plan B is a good strategy. That means using the standard nv drivers when necessary. The nv driver provides no 3D or direct rendering support, but is useful for getting into X.

To avoid potential issues with the X drivers, I create optional xorg.conf files. I use the proprietary nvidia drivers and I have a two backups for my xorg.conf: 1) xorg.conf.bak and 2) xorg.conf.nvidia. The latter is the master configuration file for the proprietary drivers.

I also have configured the standard nv drivers. Therefore I have an xorg.conf.nv file in /etc/X11.

If I should botch an xorg.conf modification attempt, I can copy the original xorg.conf.nvidia or xorg.conf.bak to xorg.conf and recover my system.

Should I try to update the proprietary nvidia drivers and the install fails, I can temporarily copy xorg.conf.nv to xorg.conf and then I have a way to start X while I troubleshoot, which often includes using a graphical web browser to surf the web.

Consider configuring and installing the standard nv drivers before moving forward with the proprietary nvidia drivers. Then you'll always have a way to get into X. The standard Slackware tools for configuring X with the stock/standard drivers are xorgconfig and xorgsetup.

When you are ready to install the nvidia drivers, visit www.slackbuild.org to download and build the driver and kernel module packages for Slackware. If you want complete packages only, then visit www.slacky.eu.

It appears you have some kind of Internet access.

Two options:
a) download the drivers with the system you used to get to linuxquestions.org and then ftp the drivers to your slackware box… once you get ftp running in slackware.

b) Use wget. I use wget to get a lot of things for slackware.
Head to www.nvidia.com with the computer that got you to linuxquestions.org
Click on Linux, FreeBSD, and Solaris Drivers towards the bottom middle page
(under OTHER DOWNLOADS & SUPPORT)
Then click on the driver you need.

Then right click url next to the Download the driver file and select properties. In my case it is:
And finally wget the information from the properties (on your slackware computer):
-JJ