On Sun, 28 Feb 1999, Jeffery S. Norman wrote:

Looks very similar to the error I was getting (spawning too fast ...)

Let me know if you get it corrected.

I am very close to wiping my install and starting from scratch.

So much for upgradeability (which was, after all, the only reason that I use SuSE!)

Well, a quick search of the documentation that comes with SuSE lists these files, amongst several others, that cover "respawning too fast": Text-Terminal-HOWTO: Trouble-Shooting (software) <A HREF="http://localhost/doc/howto/en/html/Text-Terminal-HOWTO-17.html"><A HREF="http://localhost/doc/howto/en/html/Text-Terminal-HOWTO-17.html</A">http://localhost/doc/howto/en/html/Text-Terminal-HOWTO-17.html</A</A>> The Linux Serial HOWTO: Troubleshooting <A HREF="http://localhost/doc/howto/en/html/Serial-HOWTO-14.html"><A HREF="http://localhost/doc/howto/en/html/Serial-HOWTO-14.html</A">http://localhost/doc/howto/en/html/Serial-HOWTO-14.html</A</A>> The Linux Modem HOWTO: Troubleshooting <A HREF="http://localhost/doc/howto/en/html/Modem-HOWTO-12.html"><A HREF="http://localhost/doc/howto/en/html/Modem-HOWTO-12.html</A">http://localhost/doc/howto/en/html/Modem-HOWTO-12.html</A</A>> The Linux Bootdisk HOWTO: Troubleshooting, or The Agony of Defeat. <A HREF="http://localhost/doc/howto/en/html/Bootdisk-HOWTO-7.html"><A HREF="http://localhost/doc/howto/en/html/Bootdisk-HOWTO-7.html</A">http://localhost/doc/howto/en/html/Bootdisk-HOWTO-7.html</A</A>> The Bootdisk HOWTO says: If init starts, but you get a message like: Id xxx respawning too fast: disabled for 5 minutes it is coming from init, usually indicating that getty or login is dying as soon as it starts up. Check the getty and login executables and the libraries they depend upon. Make sure the invocations in /etc/inittab are correct. If you get strange messages from getty, it may mean the calling form in /etc/inittab is wrong. The options of the getty programs are variable; even different versions of agetty are reported to have different incompatible calling forms. Phil -- Philip Stokes Email: phil@stokes.demon.co.uk Fax: +44 (0)870 164 1242 - To get out of this list, please send email to majordomo@suse.com with this text in its body: unsubscribe suse-linux-e Check out the SuSE-FAQ at <A HREF="http://www.suse.com/Support/Doku/FAQ/"><A HREF="http://www.suse.com/Support/Doku/FAQ/</A">http://www.suse.com/Support/Doku/FAQ/</A</A>> and the archive at <A HREF="http://www.suse.com/Mailinglists/suse-linux-e/index.html"><A HREF="http://www.suse.com/Mailinglists/suse-linux-e/index.html</A">http://www.suse.com/Mailinglists/suse-linux-e/index.html</A</A>>