Frozen mouse on new SUSE v9.3 AFTER several successful sessions

As the subject line says, I've installed v9.3 -- a fresh install, on a newly parbreastioned HD.

I have gone on line with it, using Firefox, and am pleased. The only changes I made were in some Firefox preferences, and changing the mouse to the left-handed persuasion and a different cursor..

Whatever I did or didn't do, the system is now inoperable. When it boots, the mouse is not frozen in the center of the screen. Its buttons also do nothing. The only way I could shut the system down (twice) was with the Reset button. Perhaps there was a way with the keyboard, but I don't know it. I was able to bring up a Process List (but I'm not sure how I did that); repeatedly pressing the Tab key moved the focus from field to field, so apparently the keyboard was operational.

There is nothing wrong with the mouse itself -- it works when I boot the machine to OS-2.

How do I get out of this fix?

The last time it booted, I watched the detailed progress on the screen. I saw nothing tht looked suspicious, except one Warning near the very end, at the time when the network was being set up. I couldn't read it, and of course I can't look at the boot log.

I buttume that I need to boot to the Fail Safe option, which I understand to be a command-line mode. I am very new at this OS, and would much appreciate some pointers about how to go about diagnosing what is hanging the mouse and how to repair it.

-- Stan Goodman Qiryat Tiv'on Israel