Fedora :: 9 - No Longer Showing GUI - Can't Log In

I was running fedora 9 on an HP pavilon and wanted to get my wirless card to work with b43, so i searched online for ways to to this and found the following: "Using the b43 driver If you need to use the b43 driver follow these steps to install the required firmware.

1. Download this file [URL]

2. Load up a terminal window if you are in the graphic interface.

3. Switch to the root user by entering the command "su -" (without the quotes) and typing in your root password

4. Extract the contents of the file you downloaded by typing the following: tar -xjvf /path/to/broadcom-wl-4.80.53.0.tar.bz2 Replace the "path/to" section with the path to the file you downloaded.

5. We now need to use the b43-fwcutter tool. A standard Fedora installation already has this tool installed however if you don't have it type in the following: yum install b43-fwcutter

6. Now run the following:

b43-fwcutter -w /lib/firmware kmod/wl_apsta.o The above assumes you are in the directory that you extracted the downloaded file to.

7. Now type in following following:

echo "modprobe b43" >> /etc/rc.modules" chmod 755 /etc/rc.modules"8. Reboot your system and hopefully you will have functioning wireless." the full page can be found here: [URL] i tried the above steps and was only able to get as far as step 6 as b43-fwcutter wouldent extract the file, so after a few tries i gave up and restarted my computer. when the computer restarted i would get the following message:

Fedora release 9 (sulphur)
Kernel 2.6.25-14.fc9.i686 on an i686 (tty1)

localhost login: however when i try to log in as root or any other user nothing happens, i type in the user name and do not recive a prompt for a pass, it then goes back to the above state. I do have data on the system and i wish to retrive it, so reformating is not realy an option.