To install the latest nvidia video card drivers, I need to run their installation package in console mode... with no X Windows server, no X windows applications, and no OpenGL applications running (or even suspended).

I guess this means I need to boot up into console mode. How do I accomplish that? The main/boot hard drive only has ubuntu on it... no multiboot (version == ubuntu 64-bit v10.04).

PS: If installing the latest nvidia drivers is dangerous for some reason, please say why. I am resuming development of a large 3D graphics server/engine that I put aside for several months.

hit ctrl+alt+f1. Log in. Do /etc/init.d/gdm stop.

To stop X in Ubuntu 10.04 go to a virtual terminal (ctrl + alt + F1, or F2, etc), login, and run:
Then to start X:
It is not dangerous, but it is not the recommended way to install the nvidia driver in Ubuntu. Ubuntu has the nvidia drivers in the Ubuntu repos. See this:
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Bi...erHowto/Nvidia
The newest nvidia driver in the Ubuntu repos is the 195 driver, This should work just fine for all but the newest nvidia cards. The nvidia driver from the Ubuntu repos is also packaged as a .deb package, so it integrates better with the system, as the Ubuntu developers intended.

What nvidia card do you have?
If you feel you absolutely need the newest nvidia driver from nvidia.com, see this:
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/NvidiaManual
You need to install the build-essential package first. And you also need the linux-headers for your kernel. You may need the linux-source package also.
You will also need to blacklist nouveau in /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist.conf. Or remove the nouveau driver as per the first link.
You may also need to reinstall the nvidia driver from nvidia.com whenever there is a kernel update for Ubuntu.
If you install the nvidia driver from the Ubuntu repos, then nouveau is blacklisted automatically for you. The driver in the Ubuntu repos will also automatically be reinstalled as needed for kernel updates.

Write back if you need more help.

Okay, those steps got me into the console/terminal mode perfectly.

Unfortunately, I ran into the following error message when I tried to install the nvidia driver, and don't want to continue without asking someone here who has a clue (that's not me!).

I ran the nvidia driver with:

sudo sh <nvidia-driver-filename>

Then I accepted the agreement... but it immediately displayed the following message:

The distribution-provided pre-install script failed! Continue installation anyway? [Yes] [No]

This is nvidia 64-bit linux driver package v255.44 (Linux-x86_64).

Should I continue anyway? What is this problem related to?

Well, first off, are you absolutely, positively sure you need the newest driver from nvidia.com?
If you have concluded that you absolutely need the latest (and hopefully greatest!!) driver, you should first remove the nouveau driver according to:
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1553741
This guy seems to have a good grasp of installing the nvidia driver from nvidia.com on Ubuntu 10.04:
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1467074
Hope this helps.

I always use jockey-gtk on my ubuntu installs with 10.04
apt-get install jockey-gtk
it also has a command line ui

to boot to console you can just edit grub2 boot kernel line
and remove the words "quiet splash" and use "text" instead and it will boot to
console login

you could also maybe try the smxi scripts specifically sgfxi
http://code.google.com/p/sgfxi/

http://smxi.org/