[NTLUG:Discuss] Respawning error

[Dennis Myhand]

I am getting the following error when I try to boot my Mandrake 8.0 box.

INIT: ID "1" respawning too fast: disabled for 5 minutes
INIT: ID "2" respawning too fast: disabled for 5 minutes
INIT: ID "3" respawning too fast: disabled for 5 minutes
INIT: ID "4" respawning too fast: disabled for 5 minutes
INIT: ID "5" respawning too fast: disabled for 5 minutes
INIT: ID "6" respawning too fast: disabled for 5 minutes

I then get an error stating that autologin has opened a session by root,
the lock file could not be opened in /var/lock/console/username and that
console access will be disallowed.  This message repeats about 20 times
and then goes back to the INIT: ID message and repeats again...ad
infinitum.

Question 1.  How do I fix this?

Question 2.  What is causing this?

Thanks, Dennis in Waco