boot process hangs on init of mysqld

[debian-guy@agileitinc.com]

When my boot process starts mysqld, it hangs.  How can I get it  
unstuck?  I cannot ssh into the machine because the boot process  
hasn't progressed far enough.  So, I cannot edit the init scripts to  
remove mysqld.

Is there some key-stroke sequence I might be able to try to interrupt  
the init.d scripts?  I've tried the obvious (ctl-C, ctl-D, etc.)

FYI, the hardware is a Dell PowerEdge 1750.

Thanks for any help,

Mark