Strange phenomena: "INIT respawning to fast", "segmentation fault"

[Kris Van Heghe <kris.van.heghe@nf.wgk.be>]

Hi,
While I installed Linux some time ago with a lot of 'trial and error', I 
got things working finally,
Including xdm and kdm, on an old Deskpro386, 20 Mhz, 12 Mb memory with SVGA 
card, .

Two curious things keep me bothering from the beginning, however:

- Sometimes, even during or just after starting the machine, at one of the 
virtual terminals, there is a message saying "INIT respawning to fast, 
disabled for 5 minutes". Logging in on that vt is then impossible, trying 
on another vt gives me the same strange message. Only one solution: power 
off, restarting 'dirty' and hoping for better lucks this a 
hardware-dependent problem or a configuration error ?
- Sometimes, after playing around for a while on the machine, if some 
command gives me an error, subsequent commands  (whatever it is) produce 
only one output: 'Segmentation fault'. From that moment, there is only one 
solution: restarting the machine, the 'dirty way'.

I hope some Linux-guru can give a little advice to solve these 
'destabilizing' phenomena.

TIA