single-user mode? strange

[Daniel Patrick Berdine <db002i@mail.rochester.edu>]

I recently ran dselect and did an upgrade with unstable which had the
result that I can't log in at all (typing 'root' at the login promt
returns Login Incorrect, I don't even get to try the password, similar
results with the kdm login screen).

My first thought was to boot into single user mode and try and work things
out from there, not sure how but it was a place to start.  I searched the
archives and found several messages saying that to boot into single user
mode I need to add the 'single' option at my lilo boot: prompt.

So I tried 'Linux single' 'Linux Single' 'LinuxText single'
'LinuxText2.4.3 single' and was inevitablly put into normal multi user
mode.

My normal kernel is 2.4.5, but you can see I also tried 2.4.3.

Any suggestions?  I'm going to try using a boot floppy and such, but I
would still like to know how to get into single-user mode...

Thanks,

-Dan

P.S.  Please CC responses to my email, thanks