Comment 1 for bug 587079

I have the same error occuring. Ubuntu 10.04 LTS Server installed on over twenty identical computers. Sometimes they boot, sometimes they only come up part way. When they don't boot, I get the following in the syslog:

init: Failed to spawn rc main process: unable to open console: Input/output error

My systems are generally headless since they are servers, not sure if that makes it more likely to happen or not, but I am not running any service other than ssh from base install and it does this regularly to me. Makes it impossible to rely on it as a linux server if it can hang nondeterministically at boot. Imagine firing up a cluster of a dozen machines and having to obtain a monitor and keyboard each time one or two hang to diagnose and fix the problem. Doesn't work so well remotely :-)