INIT: cannot execute "/etc/X11/prefdm"

Hi

I tried the following but no joy!

Inserted the linux installation cd.. ( rescue mode)...

tried chroot /mnt/sysimage but I get chroot: cannot execute /bin/sh
Checked the permission on /bin and it was set to ?r--rw-rx tried to do chmod �R 755 but got error operation not permitted ...

Already had backup of /bin so Untar�d the /bin/bin.tar and tried to over write the /bin but got this error: can not overwrite non directory /bin with directory bin ...

For some strange reason /bin is not own by root:root both the owner and group name are numeric , So i tried chown �R root but keep getting user root does not exist!
can someone advice please.

Have you tried an fsck of the corrupt filesystem using the rescue CD ?

I cant get into single user mode( i dnt get bootloader screen). is it safe to run fsck in normal mode? do I have to unmount any partitions first?

# ls -l /mnt/sysimage | grep bin
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 12288 Sep 29 11:23 sbin
?r--rw-x 41112 16694 1305152 0 Feb 10 2055 bin

Boot from a rescue medium like a USB drive or a CD/DVD. There, you can still fsck the underlying disk.