i am currently booting into the gui by default. i need to boot up with no gui to install Nvidia drivers.. someone help :(

i know i have to edit the "inittab" file and change the default value of 5 to 3 but i cant seem to be able to edit it... I can view the file but cant make any changes under the GUI. I am logged in as root. Any suggestions?

Hmmm, weird. first check who is the owner of the file. if it isn't root, log in as the owner of that file or change the permissions. then change the 5 into 3 and reboot. or isn't there an option when you want to log in to shut down the X-server? if not, try hitting ALT+CTRL+F2. you'll get a console. from there you should be able to kill xdm, kdm or whatever you're using to login. Johan

thanks but i figured it out. You have to edit the "inittab" file and change the 5 value to a 3... i have a new problem now.

sorry for my incopitence i was not loged in as root. i'm sure i tired thta.. ino some how it just worked for me. ok i have a new problem now.

You can actually install the drivers from the GUI. Here's part of an article on how to do it. It mentions using the console but I did it all with konqueror and a terminal logged in as root. I don't think that the drivers are in the same place anymore (where it mentions using wget). I just downloaded them from the Nvidia site. Installing NVidia Drivers: This tutorial is a revision of the original NVidia tutorial. It is aimed for those interested in building their NVidia drivers using only the command line, which is the way I recommend doing it anyhow, and is a requirement if you choose GeForce4 during the Mandrake install. At least using a GeForce4 Ti4200, I couldn't start X without installing these drivers in the console. REMEMBER: If you update or recompile your kernel, you will be required to recompile the NVidia drivers, or else X won't start. This is one great reason why you should never boot into a GUI login sreen. This is also the reason that this tutorial covers recompiling the SRC.RPMs instead of using the pre-compiled drivers available. NOTE: This tutorial does NOT require you to recompile your kernel! I've received many comments about people being afraid of recompiling their kernel and so forth. So here it is now, in black and white (or whatever colors you're viewing this page in): YOU DO NOT NEED TO RECOMPILE YOUR KERNEL TO COMPLETE THIS TUTORIAL! Yes, one file does have the word "kernel" in it, but that is because it is a kernel module, which is a driver, basically. In any case, it has nothing to do with recompiling your kernel. CONVENTIONS USED IN THIS TUTORIAL Please note that you require XFree86 4.0.1 or higher to use the NVidia drivers. You will need wget installed, as well as an editor, such as pico or vi. I use vi myself, but you can use any editor you wish, so long as it runs in the console. On top of that, you need to have your kernel-source installed, as well as GCC, GCC-cpp and rpm-build. Basically, you need to be able to compile programs. This is a basic funtion of Linux, IMHO, and you should become familiar with compiling things. But again, this is just my opinion. I will assume that you are logged in as a user and are sitting at the command prompt for purposes of this tutorial. Type in su and hit Enter. You will be prompted for the root password. Type that in and hit Enter. Now type in cd /tmp and hit Enter. This changes us to the temporary directory. Okay. Now you download the latest NVidia drivers from NVidia's website. If these links are broken, then NVidia probably updated their drivers, and I would really appreciate it if you contacted me to let me know (I am on the mailing list, but just in case, contact me anyhow). Type in wget http://mdkxp.by-a.com/rpm/NVIDIA_GLX-1.0-3123.src.rpm and hit Enter. This will download the GLX RPM. Type in wget http://mdkxp.by-a.com/rpm/NVIDIA_kernel-1.0-3123.src.rpm and hit Enter. This will download the kernel module RPM. . Next, you need to recompile the source and produce installable RPMs. Do this by typing in rpmbuild --rebuild NVIDIA* followed by Enter. This will unpack the SRC.RPMs and begin compiling them. Once it is done, it will pack the compiled files back into a new RPM for you. If there are no errors and all goes well, you will end up with the final result in the /usr/src/RPM/RPMS/i586/ folder. If your architecture is different, the built RPMs will be in the appropriate directory, such as i486, i686, athlon, etc.. Next, type in cd /usr/src/RPM/RPMS/i586/ (assuming that the RPMs are located in here) followed by Enter. Type ls to ensure that they are in there. If they are there, then you can now install them. Type rpm -ivh NVIDIA* and hit Enter. If you had a previous version of the NVidia drivers installed, you need to remove them first. The way to do this is to type in urpme NVIDIA_ and hit Enter. You will be notified of all the packages you have installed, and it should only list two - the GLX and the kernel packages. If it lists more, you will need to remove each one of the NVIDIA driver RPMs separately, so put in n and hit Enter. But it should list only two, so you can type in y followed by Enter. You are nearly ready to test out the new drivers. Type in vi /etc/X11/XF86Config-4 and hit Enter. This is assuming that you don't want to use an alternate editor (ed, nano, joe, emacs, etc.). I used to use Pico, but since Mandrake is now 100% GPL, it doesn't include Pine, which Pico is a part of. You can get Nano, a Pico clone, on the Internet or just get Pine, if you can't stand vi. I'm starting to like vi though. If you don't know how to use vi, then you should practise a bit with it, or read a bit on the Net or in the man page. Now, find the part of the file where it says: Section "Module" Load "dbe" Now, add in a line just after the Load "dbe" line. It should say this: Load "/usr/X11R6/lib/modules/extensions/libglx.so" This will tell XFree to load the OpenGL module, which provides 3D accelleration. Some people have had luck using Load "glx", but it never worked properly for me, so I recommend the aforementioned method. Please note that if you are using Mandrake 9.0, it may already have the line Load "glx" in it. You can either try just using this line, or remove it and add the line above. If you see any lines that read Load "dri" or Load "GLcore" then you should remove them. Next, we need to set XFree to use the NVidia driver. Look for the lines that look like this: Section "Device" Driver "nv" Change the Driver "nv" line to read like this: Driver "nvidia" Now, save the file and exit the editor. Now you must ensure that there is a symlink to the proper libglx.so file. Do this by typing cd /usr/X11R6/lib/modules/extensions/ and hit Enter. Now that you are in this directory, type in ls libglx* and hit Enter. You should see two files listed, one of which would be called libglx.so and is a symlink. If you don't, you need to create one by typing ln -s libglx.so.1.0.3123 libglx.so and then pressing Enter. If the symlink does exist, you can ensure that it is pointing at the proper file by typing in ls -l libglx* and hitting Enter. If it shows that it is not pointing to the proper file, you should remove it and create a new one. Remove it by typing in rm -f libglx.so and hitting Enter. Then follow the above step to re-create the link. Next, type in modprobe NVdriver and press Enter. This will ensure that the NVidia driver is loaded. Now you are done! Switch back to your normal user by typing in exit and hitting Enter. Type in startx followed by Enter to start XFree and load your desktop. In the event that you get an error about loading the NVdriver at this point, then you will have to reboot your system, and all should be well. Once you get there, open a console and type in glxgears followed by Enter to test OpenGL functionality. If the program runs, then OpenGL is setup properly! Congrats! Now you can go on to the Unreal Tournament or AvP tutorials and enjoy your new 3D acceleration!

OK, and did you manage to solve your problem or are you having difficulties with the HOWTO? JOhan