[LUG] Linux not booting

[<gemma@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

I wasn't really editing any config files I was in the KDE GUI and looking to see if there were any settings I could change to affect what each user can see on their Red Hat menu and to see if I could give my user account a "Shutdown Computer" option like the root account had instead of just log off. I don't usually make a habit of logging in as root, I always use my own user account. The data is not all that important, the only thing I would miss is my linmodem driver (it took me ages to find) which is in a tar file somewhere in /home/username. I tried using the upgrade option after booting from redhat installation CD but it had no effect. Trying to enter rescue mode from the installation CD gives me a couple of white vertical lines which shift to random positions on the screen every 2 seconds or so. 

Strangely enough I had this come up when I was installing redhat???

When I was installing redhat for the first time I just pressed enter at the first screen it came up with a totally blue screen with a black strip down the right hand side. I figured out that I could get to a point where I could actually see meaningful things by pressing tab, enter and skipping past what I later (when installing on a PC I built) discovered was the md5 checksum varification stage. After pressing tab enter I got the vertical stripes here before the cursor appeared in the UI.

MORE INFO ON PROBLEM

using "ls -ld /bin" at the shell
i get "drwx-xr-x    2 root     root         4096 Apr 24 15:19 /bin"

using "ls -ld /" at the shell
i get "drwx-xr-x   19 root     root         4096 Jul 21 10:24 /bin"

I have only been using the Red Hat GUI
I haven't used any chmod's

cannot post /etc/fstab file as permission is denied

and I only used root before now temporarally to:
allow user to activate modem
build my linmodem drivers
access grub.conf (the short timeout was annoying me)

This is the complete error message:
--------------------------------------------------------------------
/etc/rc.d/rc.sysinit: line 84: /bin/grep: Permission Denied
Configuring kernel parameters:  Error: /proc must be mounted
  To mount /proc at boot you need an /etc/fstab line like:
      /proc   /proc   proc     defaults
  In the meantime, mount /proc /proc -t proc


/etc/rc.d/rc.sysinit: line 1: /bin/awk: Permission Denied
Your system appears to have shut down uncleanly
Press Y within 3 seconds to force file system integrity check...y
/etc/rc.d/rc.sysinit: line 1: /bin/awk: Permission Denied
Checking root filesystem
Couldn't open /proc/partitions: No such file or directory
Is /proc mounted?


*** An error occurred during the file system check.
*** Dropping you to a shell; the system will reboot
*** when you leave the shell.
Give root password for maintenance
--------------------------------------------------------------------


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