Problem booting Redhat 9.0

[Jeff Weiss]

I am having a problem with my dual-boot linux machine and I really don't 
know where to begin to debug it.  The system has been extremely stable 
for over 1.5 years and the only change that I have made recently is the 
installation of captive (http://www.jankratochvil.net/project/captive/ - 
I have posted to their mailing list as well).

Basically, the system hangs during boot with the following error 
messages (I transcribed these from the screen so there could be some 
minor typos):

-----

Welcome to Redhat Linux
Press "I" to enter Interactive Startup

/bin/dmesg:  options requires an argument --n
/etc/rd.d/rc.sysinit:  line 81:  action:  command not found
grep /proc/mounts:  no such file or directory
/etc/rc.d/rc.sysinit:  line 93:  action:  command not found
Loading default keymap (US):  /etc/rc.d/rc.sysinit:  line 163:  success:
command not found
/etc/rd.d/rc.sysinit:  line 163:  failure:  command not found
Your system appears to have shut down uncleanly
Press Y within 1 seconds to force file system integrity check...
awk:  cmd. line:2:  fata:  cannot open file /proc/mounts for reading (no
such file or direcotry)
checking root filesystem
Couldn't open /proc/partitions:  no such file or directory
Is /proc mounted?
/etc/rc.d/rc.sysinit:  line 270:  failure:  command not found

*** An error occurred during the file system check.
*** Dropping you to a shell:  the system will reboot
*** when ou leave the shell.

Give root password for maintenance
(or type Control-D to continue):

-----

I've tried poking around but I'm really unsure as to what is going on. I 
believe I have several options - 1) hopefully someone here can give me 
some specific advice as to what to do ;) 2) boot into Linux Rescue (not 
sure what to do after that) or 3) Can I just do a complete reinstall of 
Redhat Linux using the "Upgrade" option?

Details:
Redhat 9.0 (2.4.20-6), upgraded to 2.4.20-13.9, and then to 2.4.20-20.9 
using Redhat Network.

AMD Athlon 1400+ processor

System dual boots Windows XP SP1 and Redhat Linux 9.0 using Grub version 
0.93.

Any and all help/suggestions appreciated.  Thanks,

Jeff


-- 
Jeffrey A. Weiss, Ph.D.
Department of Bioengineering, University of Utah
jeff.weiss at utah.edu   http://hodad.bioen.utah.edu/~weiss/mrl