SuSE 9 only boot to command line
 

I'm a newbie, what can I say.
I don't know what I did but now when I try and boot SuSE all I can get to is the command prompt. When I try to start KDE from here I get:

xseroot: unable to open display "
xsetL unable to open display
Ksplash: cannot connect to X Server
Warning Connect () failedL No such file or directory
KsmserverL cannot connect to Xserver
StartKDE: shutting down. . .


So this made me rather grumpy - mostly at myself as Im sure I screwed it up.

If no one has any ideas how to fix that my second alternative is how do I make a backup of information on there.

I tried booting with Knoppix which went fine, but it will not let me into my evolution file so I can copy the /mail folder. I really can't afford to lose my email. (especially since I just got all my Eudora messages transferred over so nicely.)

I have been trying chmod but it only tells me the file is read only and to go away (basically)

Please help if you can.
Thanks.