Stuck while booting in single user mode. How to go back?

Guys. I'd appreciate your advice very much - this concerns my main system. 
MacBook 3,1 with OSX 10.5.? (latest)
Did: activate single user boot in Onyx; reboot
Problem: stuck at boot (apple logo & spinning wheel  on gray background for 2hours+). Persistent across reboots. 
No different results for this key combinations: cmd-opt-p-r, power button for 5 sec whilst without battery/cable, cmd-s, C (possibly not recognized due to firmware password) Power button held down from switch-on moment makes the light flash a few times, produces a beep but no improvement. 
Interestingly pressing alt lets me choose the os (HD or Leopard install disc) but gets stuck the same way regardless. It boots into Ubuntu tho. 
I have a TIme Machine disk that I can restore from, and can read from the internal Leopard HD while in Ubuntu.
So, please: how do I get it to boot? I'd set the nvram bootargs="" but from where...
     

Sorry, don't know how you'd recover from the apparent limbo you're in, but this would agree with the explanation you already hit upon.
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1352
Features of Open Firmware Password Protection
Intel-based Mac computers Power PC Intel
Blocks the ability to use the "C" key to start up from an optical disc.
Blocks the ability to use the "D" key to start up from the Diagnostic volume of the Install DVD.
Blocks the ability to use the "N" key to start up from a NetBoot server.
Blocks the ability to use the "T" key to start up in Target Disk Mode (on computers that offer this feature).
Blocks the ability to start up in Verbose mode by pressing the Command-V key combination during startup.
Block the ability to start up a system in Single-user mode by pressing the Command-S key combination during startup.
Blocks a reset of Parameter RAM (PRAM) by pressing the Command-Option-P-R key combination during startup.
Requires the password to enter commands after starting up in Open Firmware, which is done by pressing the Command-Option-O-F key combination during startup.
Blocks the ability to start up in Safe Boot mode by pressing the Shift key during startup.
Requires the password to use the Startup Manager, accessed by pressing the Option key during startup (see below).

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