Really strange problems with package handeling

[Ikarus <ikamps@quicknet.nl>]

I've got a really strange problem using dpkg apt-get and other package
handeling tools when I attempt to do anyting (like: apt-get install
apache) it gives the following error: shell-init: could not get current directory: getcwd: cannot access parent directories: No such file or directory
What does this error mean and what can I do about it
Also I've got in my syslog and message log a lot of messages like:
Oct 21 01:10:13 Mercury kernel: VM: do_try_to_free_pages failed for init...
Oct 21 01:10:13 Mercury kernel: VM: do_try_to_free_pages failed for bitchx...
And many more for every program I'm running. Its also allmost at the
exact time I'm installing/removing packages could this be related and
if so how do I fix it everything seems to be going wrong on my machine
lately

 Ikarus                          mailto:ikamps@quicknet.nl