hi

I'm running PClinux 2007 and it was alright.. tried to download some debian packages but it didn't work and i found out that dpkg is not installed .. so i opened synaptic and installed dpkg and it showed me that some essintial packages will be removed , didn't know what to do so i said to my self , if it's in synaptic then it's all gonna be alright and notihing will get messy..
i hit apply
after the installation complete the screen goes black and the system reboots.

when GRUB loads and i enter linux , it takes me to verbos mode and i have to enter runlevel..
i read some topics about it and i tried to enter the whole runlevels that is described here in LQ but nothing works.. the all say:
INIT: Entering runlevel: X
INIT: no more processes left in this runlevel

and the booting stuff says that no initab file found

what can i do to get to desktop and teke my files , i dont care , i can reinstall the system but the files is what matters.
thanx alot

The inittab will tell the os which runlevel to boot into when it starts up, that file not being found is not a good thing:

http://linux.die.net/man/5/inittab

However, it sounds like there are probably more problems than that file simply missing. I would suggest booting to a live cd (such as knoppix) to have a look around, at the very least, you should be able to burn/transfer the files off of the disk to an external device, assuming the filesystem is alright.

ok then , how can i get to my desktop through a live cd .. i tried but i couldn't find the files.. i assumed that the live CD doesn't see the hda files

thank you

I'm continuing in this topic so i dont make another one in the forum
how can i use a live CD to get to my original system in order to recover my files..

being a newbe kills me..

boot off it. then for example mount -t ext3 /dev/sda1 /mnt/drive (mkdir drive first).

Most (I don't know about PCLinux) live CDs will have a option in the splash screen to "Rescue installed system". Check with your CD. Also make sure you use the same version od live CD as the one installed -- else your system is as good as boched. Don't use a later CD to rescue old system.