Can't boot "Kernel panic: No init found" -- partially solved -- MoreQuestions (APT)

[Rich <deblists@osg.saic.com>]

After many hours of trial and error, and Googling, I finally discovered
that I had somehow deleted my /lib directory. init wouldn't run, but
didn't give any usefull error, so the kernel just reported that init was
missing.

I restored a 6 month old backup, booted with error messages, but
couldn't log in due to missing pam libs. I found a three month old
backup and restored it and can now Log in!!!

Now, how can I use Apt and Dpkg to insure I have the newest/correct
versions of everything?
How can I force re-installation of all my packages since my 3 month old
backup?
Is that the best way to do it?

I've got a log of most of the updates I've done.

Thanks again,
Rich B

Original post:
 >> I can no longer boot my Sarge laptop. Here are the last few lines of
 >> boot up:
 >>
 >> 	VFS: Mounted root (ext3 filesystem) readonly.
 >> 	Freeing unused kernel momory 208k freed
 >> 	kernel panic: No init found. Try passing init= option to kernel.
 >>
 >> I use GRUB and have tried adding the kernel parameters
 >>'init=/sbin/init'
 >> and 'init=/bin/bash'. No dice.
 >>Booting older kernels gives the same results.
 >>
 >>I've booted with my recovery CD and fsck'ed my file system. No problems
 >>found. I've confirmed that init exists and executes.
 >>
 >>I'm stumped.   HELP!!!!