Help!!! Root configuration goof

[edit]New to forums in general, and I neglected to check the rules for posting prior to doing so. For this I am mortified and sorry, given that my posting title exactly describes a "what not to do" scenario. Any and all future posts from this point out will be formatted the proper way. I would like to thank the moderators for their patience publishing my post anyway, despite my failure.[/edit]

Backtrack 5 Rev 2 64 bit Grub.

I made a typo in root... yeah... I was dumb.
The typo wasn't a major problem, because the system still boots and runs fine in standard user mode, but my root is buggered.

I was messing with the work space configuration, trying to load 12 work spaces for extreme multitasking, and i typoed an extra digit in there. After a very extravagant display of "WTF did you just ask me to do?!", my computer dumped. Upon rebooting, the work station option was gone completely, window bars disappeared and the work space configuration menu simply blinks uncontrollably when I try to change the settings. The computer runs great under my primary user, but root is almost unusable. I have a 2nd partition with a "clone" of my first, or as good as I could recreate, so it's more than functional, but it's annoying to have to switch to sda1 when I need to root on sda0.

I've been looking for a root user settings configuration file to no avail. I was hoping I could simply change the config file manually to change the work space number, or dump it completely and allow it to repopulate default variables, but I can't find any such file.

Anyone out there have a solution, other than dumping sda0 and starting over? Also, I wouldn't be opposed to updating to Rev 3, but I think the root config will simply migrate at that point, replicating the problem with a newer, more efficient BT5. (If there is no solution, I'll simply back up my necessary files and dump sda0, installing rev 3 fresh, but I'd like to avoid that hassle, working 60+ hours a week and all.)

Thanks in advance!

Haronfrehbycon
Linux junkie for 4 years - and still very much a rookie.

PS. Thank you Backtrack, this is my primary OS on my personal machine, and I love it for daily computing. I wish more people would learn linux so my friends and family would stop asking me to fix their constantly bunk windows machines!

Can you boot commandline (no gui) on the relevant install? Are we talking gnome?

If so then between these two links you should be able to sort things out:
http://askubuntu.com/questions/17249...e-gconf-editor
http://ubuntuforums.org/showpost.php...86&postcount=4 (http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1723321)

To answer Thorin, yes, I can get command no problem, yes, I'm running gnome, and no, those links didn't solve the problem. They provided much help, but toward my overall understanding of the OS, not the problem at hand. Compiz-1 isn't found when I use gconf. I'll post a ss when I have access to the machine again.