Boot to command line or low res X

[pmatos]

Hi,

I have an unsupported video card and I used nomodeset to install Mint as suggested by AlbertP:
http://forums.linuxmint.com/viewtopic.php?f=46&t=83151

I have installed mint but now when it boots it hangs while trying to load X.
How can I start Mint onto the command line or to low res X (like I did with nomodeset for install) so I can install the nvidia drivers before loading X properly?

[xenopeek]

Hold shift during boot to show the GRUB boot menu. Press 'e' to edit the boot parameters, then scroll to the "linux" line. Replace "quiet splash" on that line with "nomodeset" (without the quotes) and continue the boot.

[AlbertP]

Please tell what videocard you use. Perhaps it is easy to solve.

[pmatos]

Please tell what videocard you use. Perhaps it is easy to solve.

NVidia GEforce 525M

[AlbertP]

When you want to boot a Mint CD, you can press a key during "automatic boot in 10 seconds" and then go to Compatibility Mode. You can edit compatibility mode and add nomodeset.
After that you can install Mint. And then you can boot with recovery mode > low graphics mode. When that's finished you can install the NVidia driver from the Additional Drivers program in the menu.

[pmatos]

When you want to boot a Mint CD, you can press a key during "automatic boot in 10 seconds" and then go to Compatibility Mode. You can edit compatibility mode and add nomodeset.
After that you can install Mint. And then you can boot with recovery mode > low graphics mode. When that's finished you can install the NVidia driver from the Additional Drivers program in the menu.

Is the latest nvidia 285 (which includes support for my card) available on the repository or do I have to install it manually?

[AlbertP]

The Additional Drivers program uses the 270 driver - which does not yet support 5xxM. You can download it from the nvidia website, but installing that driver is very complex.

[pmatos]

The Additional Drivers program uses the 270 driver - which does not yet support 5xxM. You can download it from the nvidia website, but installing that driver is very complex.

Guess I have no other option then... complex way it is.
How did you find out which version the Additional Drivers program uses?

[AlbertP]

You can look in Software or Package manager for nvidia-current - and then it displays the 270 version number. And Additional Drivers installs... exactly, nvidia-current.

Here is a .deb file with the 285 driver - perhaps the easiest way to get 285 working.
http://ppa.launchpad.net/ubuntu-x-swat/ ... _amd64.deb (64-bit)
http://ppa.launchpad.net/ubuntu-x-swat/ ... 1_i386.deb (32-bit)

You can just double-click that file and then it installs. It might want to download some additional packages from the web; make sure that you're connected to internet.