X down, other errors after apt-get upgrade

[Paul Mackinney <paul@mackinney.net>]

I was running testing stably for over a year, but a standard apt-get 
upgrade left things fairly messed up:

1. X won't start from startx, the tail of the X log says:
  Fatal server error:
  xf86OpenConsole: Cannot open virtual console 3 (No such file \ 
	or directory)
	
	Interestingly, if I start gdm (normally disabled) then X will start,
	but weird things happen--I can only launch one instance of aterm,
	on subsequent launches the window flashes open and then closes.
	cdrtoaster froze on me (see below).

2. I constantly get these message in the console:
  INIT: Id "3" respawning too fast: disabled for 5 minutes
  INIT: Id "6" respawning too fast: disabled for 5 minutes

	This seems very weird. I run at runlevel 2, have set gdm to start at
	runlevel 3 so if I want it I can enter 'init 3', but these messages
	start after boot before I log in, and when I do log in the runlevel is
	2.
	
3. I tried to burn the Sarge net install CD with cdrtoaster while
  running X with gdm as described above. cdrtoaster froze and I had to
	kill the process, now my /dev/sg1 device file is gone.

4. On the "do something stupid if you don't know what you're doing"
  theory, I upgraded to unstable last night. No change in any of the
	above (well, I didn't really expect the device file to magically come 
	back). I was running unstable until Woody shipped, then switched to
	testing, so this didn't feel like too much of a risk.

I'm off to school to burn a new CD, I'm basically ready to start over
with a clean install of Sarge, judiciously spiced with settings
preserved from /etc. But I'm open to repairing this system if not too
difficult. Any advice?

Regards, Paul
-- 
Paul Mackinney
paul@mackinney.net