Hi

I'd really welcome some advice with this please. I'm sure it's the most simple of problems, but I'm a Linux newbie and haven't managed to find the answer elsewhere.

I have Ubuntu 6.06 and XP on dual-boot. Everything was working perfectly until I switched from an ATI graphics card to an NVidia 8800GTX. I remember having issues with the ATI card but eventually managed to install the right drivers. That was when I still had a gui in which to work though. Now that I have the Nvidia, I never reach the graphical logon screen. Instead I have a textual logon screen. I can enter my username and password, but beyond that I'm stuck.

I'm sure all I need to do is download and install the latest Nvidia drivers, but I have no idea how to go about doing this. Please could someone help?

Many thanks and happy Christmas

First thing to do is to get yourself a gui. From the command line type sudo dpkg-reconfigure xserver-xorg. When it asks you to select a driver, pick either VESA or NV (nvidia). These are both generic drivers that should work with nvidia, but don't have any 3D acceleration like the proprietary drivers you want to install.

Once you get your gui back, you can download the drivers and follow their installation instructions.

Thanks very much for the advice pljvaldez. I've done that, and am thankfully back at the slightly more familiar gui. I've downloaded the correct driver from nvidia to my Home directory. I've followed the instructions on the nvidia site, but at the beginning of installation, it fails as it says that X Server appears to be running. Predictably, I don't know how to stop it from running. Presumably once I manage to stop, it's just a case of typing the install command again.
Thanks again

I run Debian (the father of Ubuntu) and to install the nvidia drivers I have to do the following:

Prep:
1) sudo aptitude update && sudo aptitude install build-essential - installs compiling tools
2) uname -a (you should see something like linux-image-2.6.18-1-386 or something like that)
3) apt-cache search linux-headers and look for the one that matches your kernel
4) aptitude install linux-headers-2.6.xx-x-xxx (replace with the one you found in step three) - this installs the kernel headers for compiling.

Now you're ready to install:

1) from a command line type sudo /etc/init.d/gdm stop - this will put you back to a command line only and stop the X server (your current error)
2) change to the directory (cd will change directories) with the Nvidia driver file (NVIDIA-Linux-xxxxxxxxx-pkg1.run)
3) issue the command chmod +x NVIDIA-Linux-xxxxxxxxx-pkg1.run (hint type "chmod +x NV" and then hit the Tab key to complete the filename). This will make the file executable.
4) type sudo sh NVIDIA-Linux-x86-1.0-XXXX-pkg1.run --x-module-path=/usr/lib/xorg/modules
5) Go through the install, let it change xorg.conf. After it's done, type lsmod | grep -i nvidia to see if the module was loaded
6) sudo /etc/init.d/gdm start

And it should boot to a login screen.

If it messes up, you should be able to restart the xserver at anytime prior to it changing your xorg.conf file using the command at step #6. After that, you can just use the reconfigure command I gave you before.

The simplest way to get Nvidia 3D support is to do System-> Administration-> Synaptic. Use the search button to find nvidia-glx and click apply to install. All dependencies are taken care of automatically. This will be a recent driver that has been tested with Ubuntu. I'm not familiar with the 8800 as its a new card so the latest driver may squeeze a little more out of the card.

Ubuntu repositories do not usually have the latest packages of the software. For Kubuntu 8.10 (on NVIDIA GeForce 9600M GT), we have 180.11 in the repositories while NVIDIA's site has 180.51 as the latest version. We are dealing with a driver in this case which is continually updated. Also, many users have reported that latest driver solves the tearing problem (refer nvforums.com for this). I have experienced the same.
Hence, in my opinion, following pljvaldez's method will give best results for ben909.

Find the driver best suited for you by going to NVIDIA's site.

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOPPPPS! Just noticed the date at which the query was posted!