How to disable KDM on broken startup

[Erik Ryberg <ryberg@seanet.com>]

Hello,

I have a triple-boot machine, Windows 95, Debian, Corel.  I had to
reinstall Windows to try to resolve a crashing problem. (My defense: I
need Windows to run GIS software).  This wiped out Corel's LILO, which
is fine with me, frankly.

However the Corel boot disk didn't bring up corel.  So I used my Debian
boot disk and specified "linux root=hdb1" at the "boot" prompt.  Hdb1
being where my corel root system is located.  It worked great, except
upon getting into Corel my mouse didn't work.

Without thinking through why this problem occurred, I went to XF86Setup
where I discovered my mouse was set at /dev/mouse when it needs to be
dev/psaux.  I fixed it, exited XF86Setup, and still no mouse.  I
rebooted and now the screen just flashes uncontrollably and I am unable
to do anything with it.  Cannot get a text mode with alt-ctrl-f1, cannot

login, can only ctrl-alt-del to start over.

Is there a way to boot so that I am both entering a command to boot into

hdb1 (the floppy is set to boot at hdb3) and also disabling kdm so I can

get in there and work on this problem?

Thanks very much for any help.

Erik Ryberg