> This maddening problem continues...on this 5000/25
>
> Attempts to boot into multi-user almost always fail.  This is what
> happens...everything proceeds normally until (most often-sometimes
> it fails during the building databases, which comes right after the
> checking quotas):
> ....
> checking quotas: done.
> Date/time maxmin init: /bin/sh on /etc/rc terminated abnormally, going
> into single user mode

Your /bin/sh file content seems trashed, or you are using incorrect
binary (mixing binary which is not compatible with the booting
kernel).  Corrupted file image symptom is often caused by incorrectly
used 'ASCII' mode FTP transfer of binary sets, or more
chaostic/delicate network/hardware fault. 

Tohru Nishimura
Nara Institute of Science and Technology