Debian runs entirely in runlevel 2. The various "init" stuff you've been
pointed to won't be very helpful.

wagz, what you want to do is:

Ctrl-Alt-f1 to get to a console
Login as root
/etc/init.d/gdm stop # at this point your X session will crash
install your nVidia stuff and modify your X config
Restart GDM. You will have to hit Ctrl-Alt-F7 to get back to the window
environment. Once you are sure it is working, reboot to test it works on
boot.

You may want to IRC to irc.freenode.net- #debian is the best linux
channel I have ever seen. The bot there (named dpkg, naturally) has a
TON of factoids and the poeple there are generally very knowledgeable
and helpful. As a bonus, it's an international crowd, so the place is
still hopping at 4am MST ;)

dpkg says:
empty: nv
dpkg: rumour has it, nv is the X4's free video-driver for cards from
nVidia (Like the TNT2 or gForce), the cursed (non-free) one is nvidia,
or nv does not support 3D acceleration with DRI and/or GLX, or however
nvidia's drivers do that
empty: nvidia
dpkg: rumour has it, nvidia is DO NOT use nvidia.com's installer! Ask me
about "nvidia installer". Instead, read "nvidia-howto" for instructions,
or "nvidia one-liner" for a reminder if you've done it before. "Off to
break the nvidia driver by changing the kernel interfaces again, this is
becoming a fun hobby..."  - Greg Kroah-Hartman, Linux kernel hacker, on
linux-elitists, or the nvidia-kernel-source package
empty: nvidia-installer
dpkg hmm... nvidia-installer is a clever cross-platform way of
installing nvidia's proprietary drivers, which works fine on systems
with stupid package managers (i.e. not so good with Debian). more
specifically, prone to dying if any X or kernel related packages are
upgraded or removed. see <nvidia-howto>, or <nvidia one-liner>
empty: nvidia-howto
dpkg: somebody said nvidia-howto was
http://home.comcast.net/~andrex/Debian-nVidia/installation.html for
complete instructions for installing the NVIDIA DRI drivers "The Debian
Way" on Sarge or Etch. Warning : follow the instructions with some care.
in particular, if you don't know better, set NVDIST=stable instead of
testing or unstable
empty: gentoosmite Windows
* dpkg spends 7 days recompiling Windows, and when it's all done,
Windows runs no faster than previously

Hope that helps ;)

~Ben

Technomage wrote:
> thats rather easy actually.
> just do a ctrl-alt-f1 and login as root.
> then at the prompt: init 3
> 
> then install the nvidia drivers, run the config tools and after everything is 
> done, you can restart GDM with init 5
> 
> On Sunday 28 August 2005 21:39, wagz211@isp.com wrote:
> 
>>Hey I know this probably sounds like a dumb question but how do I turn the
>>graphical login manager GDM off temporarily so that I can install the
>>NVIDIA graphics drivers. Would really appreciate some  help. ps Im using
>>debian with a 2.6 kernel if that matters.
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