Booting without xorg running mint 17.1 cinnamon

[Eric Gunther]

On Tue, 2015-10-06 at 18:06 -0600, David wrote:
> OK, so I guess this is a different way of askinga question I've been
> wrestling with for a few days now.  I need to install a driver
> downloaded from nvidia, which when run tells me to stop xserver and
> try running again.  I've tried several commands but haven't had any
> success this time.  I installed the driver once before with the sudo
> service mdm stop command but this time it also results in a blank
> screen.


I have had success with sudo init 3, after logging out --> ALT F3 (or
any F key below 5) to get to a command line in OpenSUSE.  As far as I
know, init 5 is X while init 6 is reboot. Init 1,2,3 *I think* are 
appropriate for installing nvidia driver.  That is the ".run" driver file.
Where one would issue the command "sudo sh nvidia_driver_name.run" to run
it.

The ALT F3 is to change virtual terminals on the computer, where the gui 
inhabits 6 or 7 on this OpenSUSE machine and a text line login is on a few
of the others, while logging information is on others yet.  There are 12
Function keys.  I think this can be configured and so may be specific to a
distribution.


>   So my thought now is to find a way to boot directly into a command
> line without xserver starting in the first place, I've read that there
> are options to edit /boot/grub/grub.Cfg and edit a line so that it
> goes something like boot..... quiet splash text.


Personally, I would not edit grub cfg to do this.  I have a a lot of
missteps when I work on the computer and that would cause undo
complication.  I think that often there is a ESC command or F10 or
something while booting.  I think you may find this on the nvidia site
(they have an extensive manual/reference section for the CUDA toolset at
least and I think that they often do have good reference)
this may be a start:

http://us.download.nvidia.com/XFree86/Linux-x86/256.35/README/index.html



>   The result of this was finally that I had to use my install disk to
> be able to get back into terminal so I could revert the file back to
> it's original setting.  I've read that there are ways to set it to run
> at default 'run levels' 0-6 with some of them running without x
> loading, but I don't feel like I understand at all where to change
> that or which run levels do what.  So I'd really appreciate it if
> anyone knows how and where to edit run levels to boot without x
> starting I'd really appreciate it, or any other ways to stop x and be
> able to install the driver.  I still have no internet so anything that
> requires Internet access is out for me.  
> Thanks for any advice
> David
> 


I think* that one can exit X with the key combination CTRL ALT
BACKSPACE, although I think this may be disabled in some distributions ...
or X just restarts at that point.

Which Nvidia driver did you download? Specifically which file extension?




Have a good day,

E


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