keyboard screwed up - how do i log in?

I've installed Suse 8.2 on a machine. i went through the whole setup - picked a keyboard, root passwd, network setup, etc but now i can't log in through the normal means because it thinks i'm using a german keyboard or something (i'm getting o's with umlats over it and stuff like that).

i've booted into rescue mode and added a normal user account, changed the root passwd and the normal user's passwd. typed commands and everything works fine (when i went into rescue mode it asked what kind of keyboard i wanted so maybe that's why)

but when i reboot and go back to the normal way of logging in it has some strange characters in my username and password. i can't get to any of the keyboard configuration utilities while in rescue mode - so i'm not sure how to fix this.

no response yet - any help with this?

Easy way would be to switch to another terminal (CTRL - ALT - F4) and play with the keyboard till you know what you'll have to type to get your password through, then go back to your login screen (CTRL - ALT - F7 probably), type it in, then go straight to the Control Center/Yast and change the keyboard layout asap...

Good luck

...or another option (assuming you're vaguely familiar with an editor such as vim) boot into rescue mode (using the Suse Grub option, or a bootable cd/floppy), and remove your password from /etc/shadow - it'll be the second field next to your login, and it'll be in encrypted form. Eg. /etc/shadow might have a line such as

pfunk:asdfalsdkfjasdfkl:12345:0:99999:7:-1::

Just remove the asdfasdfjasdfkl bit, save, and reboot.

ive had this you have to insert boot cd and it it will load a kernel
with mouse and keyboard but for some reason it does not by default install a keyboard so run from the boot cd and choose boot hard drive
then alter your kernel load up files and add keyb dev
then re boot