NVIDIA Drivers on external HDD

[txwooley]

I can't seem to find anyone with similar problems, but while using BT4 on external HDD via firewire connection, I can't install NVIDIA drivers. The results of:

sudo apt-get install nvidia-drivers

I get the following:

me@me:~$ sudo apt-get install nvidia-driver
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree       
Reading state information... Done
nvidia-driver is already the newest version.
The following packages were automatically installed and are no longer required:
  python-psyco medusa-menu backtrack-firefox-profile libssh2-1 libncp
Use 'apt-get autoremove' to remove them.
0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove and 1 not upgraded.
1 not fully installed or removed.
After this operation, 0B of additional disk space will be used.
Setting up nvidia-driver (190.18-bt1) ...

Fatal server error:
Server is already active for display 0
	If this server is no longer running, remove /tmp/.X0-lock
	and start again.

cp: cannot stat `/root/xorg.conf.new': No such file or directory
rm: cannot remove `/root/xorg.conf.new': No such file or directory
dpkg: error processing nvidia-driver (--configure):
 subprocess post-installation script returned error exit status 1
Errors were encountered while processing:
 nvidia-driver
E: Sub-process /usr/bin/dpkg returned an error code (1)

I installed GNOME on this and ctrl-alt-backspace brought up a menu. I tried each option, hoping for something similar to the login screen I had before installing GNOME, but got the same error even when using the 'Safe Mode in Terminal'. How do I install this driver? I have read somewhere before that drivers installing on external USB or Firewire HDDs have a hard time, but I can't seem to find a solution. Any help?

[Unknown9]

nvidia-driver is already the newest version.
...
Fatal server error:
Server is already active for display 0

What does these two lines tell you? From my POW, they seem to indicate that you have the newest driver installed (compared to what is available at the repo), and that the driver is in use.
Now, even if you would shut down X, the driver is still not going to be installed, since it's already up to date. If you want newer drivers than the ones available at the repo, download them directly from nvidia. While you're there you can always grab the CUDA toolkit and SDK as well.

[txwooley]

The problem is that it is NOT using NVIDIA drivers. It is using vesa drivers with poor graphics quality and a max resolution of 800x600. I get a similar error when trying to enable restricted drivers and select the 'recommended' NVIDIA driver. I am not using the latest NVIDIA right now, but would very much like to be.

[archangel.amael]

Originally Posted by txwooley

The problem is that it is NOT using NVIDIA drivers. It is using vesa drivers with poor graphics quality and a max resolution of 800x600. I get a similar error when trying to enable restricted drivers and select the 'recommended' NVIDIA driver. I am not using the latest NVIDIA right now, but would very much like to be.

Switch to root and try again. NOT su or sudo

[spiffwalker]

What source are you using to install the drivers?