ctrl-alt-f2 does not get prompt

[tim at tim-richardson.net (Tim Richardson)]

I made a binary.img and wrote it to my USB stick. The system boots into
the GDM prompt. I try to open a console via CTRL-ATL-F2 but there is no
login prompt.
ctrl-alt-f1 shows the console messages
INIT: Id "3" respawning too fast: disabled for 5 minutes
INIT: Id "5" respawning too fast: disabled for 5 minutes
INIT: Id "4" respawning too fast: disabled for 5 minutes
INIT: Id "1" respawning too fast: disabled for 5 minutes

I can not log in at the graphical login but I gather that is normal.
>From searching here and elsewhere, it seems that I must get to a console
and setup a password. 

this is how I made the image and prepared the usb stick

lh_config -b usb-hdd -p gnome-core -m http://ftp.debian.org/debian/ -d
lenny

lh_build

dd if=binary.img of=/dev/sda