How do I reboot Linux with Nouveaux turned off ??

[eppur_se_muova]

Last edited Sun Feb 8, 2015, 10:46 AM - Edit history (1)

I have been trying to install an Nvidia driver (provided as a .run file) and it's thrown one error message after another at me. I've tried three different installs of Linux (Lubuntu, Scientific Linux, Linux Mint) and none works. Lubuntu lets me login to root if I choose "recovery mode" on startup but for some reason that doesn't work either. Nvidia provides three different sets of instructions, each of which fails in some fairly unique way. I've checke that my card is compatible. I've checked that Linux is compatible. I've checked that gcc is installed. But I still can't get it to run if X windows is running.

ETA: OK, I've figured out how to do that. But now when it try to run the installer (sudo sh NVIDIA...etc.) it tells me that Nouveaux is runnng, and must be turned off. I removed Nouveaux in the Package Manager *and* installed the config file as suggested in the installer and it **STILL** tells me that Nouveaux !

Is there anyone, anywhere on the planet, who has actually installed Nvidia drivers on a Linux system ??? If so HOW DID THEY DO IT ??

[PowerToThePeople]

1. Give this a try

http://askubuntu.com/questions/481414/install-nvidia-driver-instead-nouveau

[eppur_se_muova]

2. Thanks for taking the trouble to answer -- I had eventually gotten the install done ...

every place I've found what look like directions for how to do this, the details have been different, so I'm saving them all. The version which worked for me can be found here: http://forums.linuxmint.com/viewtopic.php?f=109&p=306308#p402888 in the response by Vaxxipooh, following the long quoted reply. After that, there was still more to do to install the drivers (requires sudo sh ./NVIDIA*.run which may produce a score of error messages, but at least they are intelligible and actionable). Got one of two GPU-based programs running (again, proper error handling by the program's author helped immensely); not sure what the problem with the other is, but I may have to do a custom compile eventually.

BTW, I disabled Xwindows by just renaming the X11 folder to zX11 as superuser. Re-renamed it after install, and everything was fine. I've never reinstalled Nouveau, which means the messages at bootup are now in larger, more readable typeface. I'm not sure why so many IT types have decided that teeny-tiny fonts are the way to go, but I detest them.