Login / Access preferences from terminal

Hi

I thought my laptop was off and cleaned the keyboard. I used an almost dry cloth with a very little amount of product. At start up what I typed wouldn't be recognized. Some keys have been swapped, some are not responding, depending on whether I use the Alt key or not, which doesn't work to boot on another mode. Neither does the Shift key. I understood it is both a problem of keyboard and modifications that occured in the preferences. I took a USB keyboard and managed to boot on recovery mode. Eveything I type in the terminal is recogniwed, but I tried to open the Preferences pane from the terminal and none of the commands I have used are recognized. I changed my password but I can't log in anyway because I guess that the default settings of the keyboard are not valid anymore once you restart the computer and want to login again.

Can anyone tell me how I can log in and or acess the preferences pane from the terminal ? I am an alien to programming and never used the terminal before.

I am getting quite desperate, I can't reinstall the OS , I'd loose all my work.

Thanks!!

Coralie

MacBook Pro (15-inch, Mid 2012), OS X Mountain Lion (10.8)