Update automatically reverted to autologin - hangs at X

I followed the steps for changing the default user and disabling autologin, which worked very well. I even changed the DontVTSSwitch option to "no". Unfortunately, a recent live update seems to have restored some previous values which now means when my Aspire boots, it goes straight to X11 and gets stuck. If I switch to the Ctl-Alt-F1 console, I see that it's trying to login as "user" (which no longer exists). I've tried to boot using parted, but this hangs because of a problem with the wifi drivers. I'm looking for a method for booting up and mounting the SSD so I can edit the xorg.conf file on my boot disk. Can I somehow boot from grub (by hitting tab and modifying the boot line)? Or is there a preferred linux USB boot disk I can create from another machine which will allow me to mount and modify the boot sequence on the aspire?

Thanks (and I apologize if there's a HOWTO or previous posts on this -- I looked but came up empty).

 

I used the debian usb installer for this.
prepared using this information: http://www.debian.org/releases/stable/i386/ch04s04.html.en

It's a bit overkill (and potentially dangerous!) but it's the easiest thing I had handy

Just follow the installation until the partioner starts (it askes how you want to partition you SDD (guided, whole drive, etc)).
Press alt-F2 and enter.
You now get a busybox interface that lets you mount the drive (/dev/hda1) and edit any files needed (using nano).

But there are probably better alternatives than this :-D

 

Thanks -- I downloaded pendrivelinux (http://www.pendrivelinux.com/) which worked perfectly on the Aspire (followed their simple directions). After booting from the USB stick, the SSD was already mounted and I could just become the root and edit the files. Makes a super recovery system IMHO, if you just need to edit config files without destroying the whole system. Definitely a keeper for emergencies.