[CentOS] trying to install 5.2 on a laptop

Sun Mar 1 03:23:49 UTC 2009
Michael Klinosky <mpk2 at enter.net>

Hello.
I burned a CD with the 5.2 netinstall iso, and installed it onto a 
laptop (Acer Aspire 3680). Note that I'm *totally* new to laptops.

The install went fine. But, when I boot it, it errors at the user login. 
A screen comes up, stating that X11 cannot start, and that it's probably 
the mouse.

A bit of investigating revealed that there is no Synaptics module 
installed. It will boot into runlevel=3.

I tried the 'upgrade' option of the netinstall disk; it saw that 5.2 is 
installed, and quit.  |:(

The X wiki suggested that I try adding this to /etc/X11/xorg.conf:
Section "ServerFlags"
         Option "AllowMouseOpenFail" "1"
EndSection

Using "cat xorg.conf", I see    Section "InputDevice"   , which refers 
to the Synaptics module.

Being new-ish to linux, I can't figure out the text-based editor (vi) to 
modify the file. I have "System Rescue CD" and "Ultimate Boot CD", but 
(apparently) they don't mount the installed system.

I have some Fedora install disks (if they'd be of any help) - but not a 
rescue CD. It seems like CentOS doesn't have a rescue CD - would 
Fedora's help?

I need to modify xorg.conf, or figure out how to install the Synaptics 
module. How can I do that?