Miss leading message during starup of Ubuntu 8.10.

During startup of Ubuntu 8.10 a message occurs that indicates that the root does not exist. However a functioning Ubutu 8.10 system can be achieved by the procedure documented in the attachment.

Note: keying "exit" is only effective after the error scrolling stops. The scrolling takes about five minutes.

I looked at the common problems without finding anything that appeared abnormal.

Is there some way to improve, i.e. speed up, the process?