Hi,
I've got this problem which is driving me nuts. I startup my box and I get this error upon loading...

Freeing unused kernel memory 132k
INIT: Version 2.84 booting
/etc/rc.d/rc.sysinit: line 39: dev/tty2 : Input/Output Error
/etc/rc.d/rc.sysinit: line 39: dev/tty3 : Input/Output Error
/etc/rc.d/rc.sysinit: line 39: dev/tty4 : Input/Output Error
/etc/rc.d/rc.sysinit: line 39: dev/tty5 : Input/Output Error
/etc/rc.d/rc.sysinit: line 39: dev/tty6 : Input/Output Error
/etc/rc.d/rc.sysinit: line 43: dev/tty7 : Input/Output Error
/etc/rc.d/rc.sysinit: line 39: dev/tty8 : Input/Output Error

everything then boots up...
and when Redhat 9.0 trys to load the login screen I get...
init: Id "2" respawning too fast: disabled for 5 minutes
init: Id "3" respawning too fast: disabled for 5 minutes
init: Id "4" respawning too fast: disabled for 5 minutes
init: Id "5" respawning too fast: disabled for 5 minutes
init: Id "6" respawning too fast: disabled for 5 minutes
and then this just repeats on and on every 3 minutes...

I press the carriage return and I get the text login
localhost login:

Someone suggested to
kill -SIGHUP 1" or "telinit q" to cause init to reinitialize and
reread the /etc/inittab file.
this hasn't fixed it though

Looks like a broken filesystem... Use the installation cd ('rescue' mode) and run checks (fsck) on your all partitions.

Well, I tried the linux rescue mode and booted off the cd...

-/bin/sh-2.05# fsck.ext3 -p /dev/hda1
/boot: recovering journal
/boot: clean, 41/26104 files, 12626/104391 blocks

-/bin/sh-2.05# fsck.ext3 -p /dev/hda2
/: recovering journal
/: clean, 14546/746304 files, 650442/1492036 blocks

so then I tried it on /dev/hda3 (Which I'm not sure what's on it because I haven't really used this machine too much, it might be <swap>) and it gave me a message about the "superblock could not be read or does not describe a correct ext3 filesystem" anyway following what the message said e2fsck's "magic number" didn't work either.

anyway after I've successfully done the first two checks, I reboot and still get the same message

Has anyone got any other suggestions? I'm seriously contemplating just reinstalling Redhat because I've got nothing important on it. I really NEED my linux box!!! XP wrote over LILO on my other box and I need to get #ed at least once a week SO I'M STUCK ON XP and I can only use a shell account (nothing beats being in *nix!)

actually when I come to think of it I did install some software (to a limited degree of success as root last time I was on...oooops!) I don't suppose that has anything to do with this, eh? LOL! I see now that it's probably not Linux's fault that it ain't loading...it's mine! The timing seems highly coincidental, but could some little program < 1mb cause so much damage as root? Thanks for your help Mara I'll reinstall Redhat