> How are you partitioned? chgrp belongs in *usr*/bin. So my guess is 
> that either the binary is in root partition's /usr directory, and 
> then you're mounting the user partition over it, hiding it, or the 
> binary is in the user partition and you're not mounting that.

IIRC...
150MB  /
~2.9GB /usr
~4.8GB /home
950MB  /var
196MB  swap

If the system is just coming up and hasn't mounted partitions yet, then that would explain why it can't find chgrp and chown, yes.  But why would part of the booting or error recovery process that takes place before this mounting be looking for commands on the as-yet unmounted partition?  

And why can't it find /dev/console?  That's the very first odd thing I encounter.  I assumed the chgrp and chown were in response to that, but maybe not.  In a traditional install I know there is a step to create those devices.  I thought sysinst handled all that without user intervention.

Tim
-- 
Tim Larson     <><   <><   <><   <><   <><     OL 4-131-2
Info. Services - Int. Med. Clin. Systems, Mayo Clinic, Rochester
The rights of man come not from the generosity of the state, but from the hand of God. - John F. Kennedy
I apologize for the irregular wrapping and quoting.  I use MS Outlook.