Missing /sbin/init?

[abigsky]

I sent my Son-In-Law off on deployment with my Asus EEE PC 900, that I loaded with Ubuntu 9.10. He is still in transit and has an error. When he boots the system up it fails to bring up the desktop, and drops him a a selection screen to select Ubuntu Linux 2.6.31.16, Ubuntu Linux 2.6.31.16-recovery, Ubuntu Linux 2.6.31.14, Ubuntu Linux 2.6.31.14-recovery; none of these option work. There is also an option to go to a command prompt, but no commands work (not even cd or ls). Just above the list there is a statement that /sbin/init is missing.

Any ideas on how to fix this?

Please keep in mind that I will have to relay instructions to my Son-in-Law.