Very strange! Dropping to the shell at boot up.

Actually, not strange at all. I find that when I make modifications to the init file, if I don't chmod 755 the file, the player won't start and defaultly drops to shell during boot up. The other side effect is it leaves the custom icon on.

As asked before, did you install 3rd party software which might have modified your init file? Are the permissions on the init set properly? Did you load a program that launches from the playlist? (i.e. emptris, timed, etc) I would suspect you are either running a bad MP3 (Bad MP3, BAD! Go on the paper like you're supposed to) or you are launching some 3rd party software by accident.

Greg