well...... I really screwed up this time. I just bought a new Logitech cordless optical USB mouse. I had no trouble installing it and getting SuSe 10 to recognize it. It's been working almost exactly as I wanted it to with the exception of the wheel only scrolling down a page, not back up.
So.......here is where I went wrong. Using KDE, I went into the configure system icon and tried to configure the mouse as another one in the list of Logitech mice. (my new mouse not in the list)

Now I have rebooted my system and the mouse has gone completely mad. I have no control over it and with the slightest movement it's opening up applications, windows all over the desktop..... out of control.

How can I fix my horrible error?

Try going to text console (Ctrl-Alt-F2), logging in, and editing as root /etc/xorg.conf (or /etc/X11/XF86Config). Protocol in the section Mouse may be set to auto, or ps/2...

IMPS/2 is the most common proctol for usb wheel mice.

Also, make sure you have
in the mouse section.

(from another computer)

Thanks for the assistance. will try the fix when I get home tonight.

well... I tried the advise, but for the life of me I could not remember the password I thought I had established, so going to CLI was not available. I tried doing it GUI but the mouse was so unstable that since I only had SuSe up and running for a few days I decided to do a complete reinstall.

Little more than some time lost in the process. And a valuable lesson learned.... write the password down somewhere.

Although...... I only remember establishing a SU password, not a user password, and that's what the system was asking me for.

You forgot your root password? I will go ahead and tell you now that your going to be pretty much SOL unless you can figure out your root password.

You could go into single user mode which is runlevel 1 by passing the number 1 at the boot loader screen. They type passwd and type a password that you can remember. No, runlevel 1 will not ask for the old password upon boot up.

Microsoft has brain washed you into thinking that re-installing their OS is the only fix. In Linux, there are many ways to skin a mouse.

is it really THAT easy to override a root password? Theres no way... But I believe you.

It is that easy if corresponding configuration file supposes that anyone having physical access can just boot from cd and chroot as root (chroot allows you to work as if you had the root directory in other place - for example, on mounted filesystem). Anyway, physical access means being able to edit hard disk from boot cd, so for ordinary users there is no point in defending against someone in this case.

good point.