"cannot remove /var/run/console.lock"

[Ray Lacgalvs]

Hello all,
after using ydl 2.3 happily for 6 months without problems, it crashed last
night whilst on the net.
After rebooting, I got back to the login but can get no further even as
root.
Login is correct but, just keep going back to the login boxes.
A strange message: "cannot remove /var/run/console.lock input:output error"
has mysteriously appeared at startup & must be suspect.
Am able to get to the root shell (linux 1) but am not able to open kate or
kword with message: "cannot connect to X server".
Any advice much appreciated.
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