I've recently installed the new distro of Debian on my new computer, but I'm having a problem.

When it boots, it boots directly into a GUI and I can't get it to go back into the command line. I want to install the beta nVidia drivers, but I can't do it while X is running and I can't figure out how to stop X. When I try Ctrl+Alt+Backspace, the screen goes black and the computer beeps every few minutes. I have to Ctrl+Alt+Del and restart the computer.

I'm using gdm as a login manager and KDE as the desktop session.

Anyone able to help?

Try pressing Ctrl-Alt-F2 and see if it switches you to another virtual terminal. From there, you can kill X and install the driver.

Same as before, screen goes black and nothing else happens.

[EDIT]I'm beginning to think it's something with the video card driver I selected, because It'll go to a black screen from the login screen sometimes. It looks like I'm going to have to boot directly into the command line, how would I go about setting that up?[/EDIT]

What kind of hardware are you running on?

You could try changing the default boot runlevel in /etc/inittab to 1 or 2 (I'm not really sure which is right :P). Though if it's a hardware problem displaying the console that may really screw you over.

last time i used linux it was 5 to boot into x or 3 to get a console. install the driver and then you can change it back

Just turn off gdm/kdm

as root

/etc/init.d/gdm stop
or
/etc/init.d/kdm stop

That should let you drop out of x and back to the command prompt

when you are done installing your drivers, you can turn back on gdbm or kdm, with:

/etc/init.d/gdm start
or
/etc/init.d/kdm start

(runlevels are set up differently in debian, the default is 2 and I doubt you'll see a change if you change it to anything 3-5, because debian doesn't really set them up like redhat does)

Have you tried simply installing the drivers with X running? I never had problems doing it that way. I just have to remember to unload and reload the module, if I shut down X later on.

I would take Impi's advice. When I first tried to install ATi drivers with Gentoo on this computer, I had a similar problem. I ended up just using free ATi drivers. I got similar problems with a number of livecds. A few weeks later I ended up scrapping Gentoo and going to SUSE, since the black screen was the least of my problems. Looking through Google, it seems the problem is a combination of finnicky drivers and hardware. The fact that you got to X means you were better off than me.

Kubuntu detected my ATI card automatically and it works quite well. (Radeon 9200)

I don't think the nvidia drivers let you install them if you have x running. At least, it used to be that way.

Impi, stat: I can't install the drivers while X is running, I've tried.

Brian: I've tried doing that too, it gives the error that "gdm is already running, Aborting!!" when I try /etc/init.d/gdm stop. [just tried it again, it does the same as the other ways, blank screen]

gbk: this is the computer I have it on, all except the harddrive and RAM is the same, I put an old hard drive in for this and some of my RAM was bad, so I had to send it back to newegg.

[EDIT]On a side note, how might I get debian to find my onboard sound? It works when I use a Knoppix liveCD[/EDIT]

What the hell are you all talking about?

I think you should try ubuntu You seriously fubard something if killing your display manager drops you at a blank screen. Sounds like you have a faulty framebuffer setting, although that's a difficult thing to diagnose. Ubuntu should set up *all* your hardware for you. And it's easier to get help with. And the installer is easier to understand.

How comitted are you to debian?

I don't know what I would have done, I installed the base system using the net install and used the installer to to get the desktop system. I havn't done anything else yet.

This computer can't read my ubuntu (or Kubuntu) disk, It gives a logical read error.
I'll try burning another copy at a lower speed.

I'm just looking for a linux distro that I can be happy with, I'm not really committed to any to them right now.

This is generally true, aside from wi-fi. (I never did get mine working).

I guess I should say, get all your SUPPORTED hardware working.

Stormtrooper, I actually use debian every day, it's installed on both my home computer and my laptop. I only boot into another operating system about once a month or so.

Instead of worrying about getting nvidia drivers installed, you should be worrying about why you can't get to a command-prompt after exiting X.

I would recommend removing ALL display managers, meaning, xdm, gdm, kdm, etc., and then rebooting. If that doesn't get you to a real-live-text-based login prompt, I don't know what to tell you (you're probably screwed at that point).

What debian net installer did you d/l? I just reinstalled my debian a few days ago after literally years of using the same install (and reinstalled it on a new, much larger hd). I downloaded the "testing" release, which is now called Etch. I didn't have the problem you're describing. I have a P4 and an AGP nvidia 5900 or something.

I'm trying a reinstall right now in case I did screw something up.

I have the release 3.1r4 netinstall disk from one of the download mirrors (can'te remember which one, I had to try a few before I got one that didn't have a speed below 100 kbps), it's the same version as in this link though http://cdimage.debian.org/debian-cd/3.1_r4/i386/iso-cd/

[EDIT]Ok, It was the driver I picked the first time, I picked a different one and I can get back to the console now.[/EDIT]

[EDIT2]I just have to get the sources for my kernel so the driver installation can compile a new kernel, thanks for the help everyone[/EDIT2]

Please don't get the sources manually. On debian, all you have to do is get the linux-source package that matches your installed version.

For example, my kernel package is:

linux-image-2.16.18-3-686

So, the header package would be

linux-headers-2.16.18-686

(just apt-get install it!!!)


Once you have those installed, you should be able to install the nvidia drivers without any problems on debian.

Oh, and if you are on "stable" your packages may be named "kernel-headers" instead of "linux-headers" - I like testing/etch a lot better than stable because the packages are newer, but they are still pretty stable (read: at least as stable as the "stable" versions of other linux distros).

Argh... I got the drivers installed, but now X won't start, It gives an error about not being set up correctly.

The error report says that screens are found, but none with a usable configuration.

I'm going to bed and I'll work more on this tomorrow. I remember having a problem like this when I first tried FreeBSD....

Yeah, I used sarge for awhile before jumping ship to ubuntu because I was fed up with using such old software (particularly old versions of openoffice, kde, and gnome--- backports didn't always cut it) . I never got around to using etch, but IIRC the stuff in [k]ubuntu edgy is similar.

Did you let the installer modify your configuration file? That makes it easier

Yeah, the installer asked if it should update my X configuration files to use the new drivers and I told it go ahead and do it. I'm gonna look at the config file since it finds the screen, but I think there might be something set up wrong, the error report says the color depth specified isn't supported.