Booting without xorg running mint 17.1 cinnamon

Eric Gunther egunther at warwick.net
Wed Oct 7 11:35:23 PDT 2015


On Wed, 2015-10-07 at 09:16 -0600, David wrote:
> the full name of the driver is NVIDIA-Linux-x86_64-352.41.run  
> i did try the nvidia support and they were not very helpful, they said
> i had to contact the actual card manufacturer (evga), who said i had
> to contact nvidia.... i looked through some of the nvidia forums and
> they didn't have anything that was helpful.
> it is mate display manager, although it is running in cinnamon. i
> double checked because there were several others depending on distro
> (lightdm, kdm) but mine does in fact have mdm by default.

OK

> ill look at virtual terminals for mate, would that have x stopped
> though?

I don't think it would have stopped X but uses another virtual terminal.

>   all of my f keys (2-7) result in a blank screen, f8 will switch back
> and forth from the blank screen (the others will not switch back).  i
> don't recall off the top of my head if there was anything with the
> keys above f8 but nothing that seemed any different or i'm sure i
> would remember.

OK

>   graphics is one of the things that doesn't make sense to me
> sometimes, so when it comes to things like framebuffer i'm lost.  if i
> know where to look to find out what it needs to be, and where it needs
> to be changed to make that happen i can usually handle that.  anything
> more and i'm at a loss though.

It is complicated. although as I mentioned before...


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

this might be a place to look.

> i also read that shift, esc, or del can gain access to boot options
> while on the bios screen but the only thing i was able to get (once,
> and not since then) was a grub> command line that i don't know how to
> get around in.
> 

OK, Try what Thomas has said because he is far more knowledgeable than
I:

----------------------------

Do not mess around with files in /boot!

What you want to do is on the grub screen (where you can pick the OS to
start)
a) stop the timer ;-)
b) select the Linux Mint entry
c) "[e]dit" it (this depends a bit on the grub setup, but usually
there's either a selectable "button" or you just press "e"
d) append " 1" (nothing else)
e) (b)oot that command.

This should really get you into runlevel 1, ie. a root (text)shell

Runlevel 1 is a boot directly into a rootshell (no GUI, no network - but
you can start either by hand), 3 is the CLI login (which will likely not
work because this very interesting distro doesn't seem to install
a/getty) and 5 is the GUI login.

I'd also say that you should rather seek advise in a Mint forum, since
the problem seems to be specific to that distro.

Thomas


------------------------------


Also sorry to clog up the list.


E


> On Wed, Oct 7, 2015 at 8:05 AM, Eric Gunther <egunther at warwick.net>
> wrote:
>         On Wed, 2015-10-07 at 07:08 -0600, David wrote:
>         > I downloaded nvidia 352.41 and am keeping my fingers crossed
>         it'll
>         > work last time I had to try several of the drivers before I
>         found one
>         > that did the trick.  I've tried ctrl-alt-f3 but it just
>         gives a blank
>         > screen and alt-f3 doesn't seem to do anything, I tried
>         > ctrl-alt-backspace and it just returned me to the login.
>         You're
>         > totally right about editing grub, it killed it and I ended
>         up fighting
>         > with it to reinstall mint last night.  I'm not sure if
>         there's some
>         > other setting that's not working with the ctrl-alt-
>         commands.  I've
>         > read something's that say I may need to edit default screen
>         resolution
>         > for it to be w able to display that but none of them said
>         anything
>         > about what resolution or how to find a resolution that works
>         > Thanks
>         > David
>         >
>         
>         OK, just off the top of my head, did you wait a bit after CTRL
>         ALT F3,
>         and try other ones too, in fact try them all and see what you
>         come up
>         with.  I see that you (with the command mdm) and searching are
>         running
>         MATE? on mint?  Is cinnamon a variation of the mate desktop,
>         where mdm
>         might stand for Mate Desktop Manager.   I know little about
>         either of
>         these although, you may want to search for "virtual terminals
>         on mate"
>         or "single user mode on mint" to get closer to what you are
>         looking for.
>         
>         I see that mint is based on debian and Ubuntu.  You might want
>         to try
>         help from either of those places as they have a reputation for
>         support.
>         I can only guess that the resolution is about framebuffer
>         cases... where
>         one can have graphics on the terminal, *I think*.  This may be
>         necessary
>         to use the CTRL ALT F3 command as I am confident that OpenSUSE
>         has such
>         a setup.
>         
>         Also, nvidia has support as well.  What is the actual name of
>         the driver
>         that you downloaded though? For instance,
>         
>         NVIDIA-Linux-x86_64-352.41.run
>         
>         
>         E
>         
>         
>         > On Oct 7, 2015 6:42 AM, "Eric Gunther"
>         <egunther at warwick.net> wrote:
>         >         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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> 





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