Quote:
Was trying to install nVidia drivers but the installer said it could not be run from within xwindows


Ahh.. Okay, you can do this:

Ctrl-Alt-F1
(screen clears to black, hopefully you see text on the screen)
hit Enter to get a login prompt.

Login as your normal user, then do sudo bash for a root shell.

Kill off the GUI with /etc/init.d/kdm stop (kubuntu)
or with /etc/init.d/gdm stop (ubuntu)

No more GUI. Now run the NVidia installer, and afterwards either reboot or just restart the GUI by repeating the above command with start instead of stop.

But with Kubuntu/Ubuntu, none of this is necessary, since the NVidia driver is already fully supported within the distro. Just install it via the synaptic GUI (ubuntu) or the Package Manager (Adept) (ubuntu or kubuntu).

Cheers