The 5 minute messages are generally caused by an improper /etc/inittab I had the same problem with a 2.4.17 kernel . You could try your backup of fstab. Also you could download Contentents-i386.gz from any debian site in /debian/dists/testing/Contents-i386.gz When you gunzip the file you can search for /etc/inittab Note that each distribution has its own Contents-i386.gz Barry
