Okay, so i downloaded the Nvidia driver for my quadro2 mxr card. I go to run the install package but it tells me that it can't be installed with x server running, so I "init 1" to change to run level 1 and no x server. Then I run the install again but this time it says that "run level 1 may cause problems because some distributions that use devfs don't run the devfs daemon in run level 1. Making it difficult for 'NVidia-installer' to correctly setup the kernal module configuration files." then it recommends me to change to runlevel 3. So I do, but it brings me back to the gui, which means the x server is running again.

So I guess my question is, how do I get to a command prompt where I can run this installer but not have the x server running??? I've tried run level 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5.

Thanks in advance for any help.

That is odd behavior for 'init 3' to take you to gui mode. Which distro are you using?

@bigrigdriver
In which subforum is this posted And Ubuntu does things different (don't ask me why).

This will probably work:

1. Boot the normal way but don't login at the graphical user interface
2. Switch to a console (press <ctrl><alt>Fx> where X is 1..6) and login
3. Type sudo /etc/init.d/gdm stop and press <enter>
4. Install the driver
5. Type sudo /etc/init.d/gdm start and press <enter>
6. Not sure if you will get the graphical interface after the last command; if not, you can try to switch to to the graphical environment using <ctrl><alt><F7>

Please note that this applies to Ubuntu and will more than likely be incorrect for Kubuntu or Xubuntu (try to replace gdm with kdm if you use Kubuntu)

You might still have to configure X afterwards.

If it does not work, pleaae post which Ubuntu version your using (Ubuntu, Kubuntu, ...; 6.06, 7.04, ...)

Ubuntu 7.04 feisty fawn. Wim, that worked great, thank you much. I'm still running into problems with installing this driver though. Doing what you said finally lets me start the installer. But when it starts to compile a kernal for me it then returns this error message:

ERROR: Unable to load the kernel module 'nvidia.ko'. This happens most
frequently when this kernel module was built against the wrong or
improperly configured kernel sources, with a version of gcc that differs
from the one used to build the target kernel, or if a driver such as
rivafb/nvidiafb is present and prevents the NVIDIA kernel module from
obtaining ownership of the NVIDIA graphics device(s).

I'm not really sure what this means or how to fix it. Any suggestions while I continue to try and work it out?

go into synaptic and install the resticted modules and kernel modules for you kernel. then try again, this should fix it