dmesg -a lines' explanation? NEWBIE

[David Armour]

> Date: Sun, 27 Mar 2005 06:17:47 +0000 (UTC)
> From: Christopher Nehren <apeiron+usenet at coitusmentis.info>
> On 2005-03-27, David Armour scribbled these
> > chmod:
> > #permissions: No such file or directory
> > chmod:
> > are: No such file or directory
> > chmod:
> > set: No such file or directory
> > chmod:
> > properly: No such file or directory
> > chmod:
> > at: No such file or directory
> > chmod:
> > boot: No such file or directory
>
> Looks like you've got a runaway quote somewhere in your startup scripts. 

thanks for your reply, and suggestions for further investigation. 

> properly. I'm not familiar with your setup, but in either case I'd grep
> through /etc and /usr/local/etc (maybe even /usr/X11R6/etc) for that

i'm not sure i'm familiar with my setup, either. <g> 

FWIW: [results of uname -a] 
FreeBSD Gateway.fbsd_dfa.org 5.3-BETA6 FreeBSD 5.3-BETA6 #0: Sat Sep 25 
19:41:14 UTC 2004     root at wv1u.samsco.home:/usr/obj/usr/src/sys/GENERIC  
i386

i've also looked through man grep, as opposed to "i've read *and understood* 
man grep...," but the syntax remains largely opaque, at least to me.

 grep [options] PATTERN [FILE...]
 grep [options] [-e PATTERN | -f FILE] [FILE...]

cd'd (in root console) to /etc, but even after leaving the box to presumably 
chunk away on its lonesome all day while i was at work, 

 grep "permissions are properly set at boot" 

still wasn't finished! assorted flailings-around and willy-nilly readings 
ensue(d)... 

i'm still v., v. confused, but now, in addition to my original confusion, i'm 
also confused about grep! progress of sorts, i suppose. :c) 

any further hints or suggestions? TIA, in newbie-ness.