found it; and i think this has happend to me before.
gdm was missing. I dont know how but the gdm package was not on my system.
I just ran yum install gdm then reboot, and I was back in business.

On 7/24/07, Josh Coffman <joshcoffman@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> Hi,
>
>   I'm working on this now. I'm hoping someone is online and happens to
> know a solution off the top of their head. I started an package update on my
> fedora 7 box and let it go. The machine went to screen saver mode after a
> while. When I went to check on it, it wasn't responsive expect for barely a
> flicker of the screen. (i use a blank screen saver.)
>   I switched to the console (ctrl+alt+1) and rebooted. I'm thinking the
> install might have still been running.. maybe.
>
>   The update included a kernel update.
>
>   When it booted, it stops when trying to load GDM and the message on
> screen is:
>
>       INIT: Id "x" respawning too fast: disabled for 5 minutes
>
>   I do have the nvidia driver installed with the kernel module from livna.
> I wonder if its having a problem. In the past though, I would get a screen
> notifying me that xorg crashed while trying to start and offer to update
> xorg.conf.
>
>   I tried yum update (had to remove ffmpeg to get the update to work) and
> rebooted, but still the same result. It appears packages are updated. I
> don't know what the problem is or how to fix it. Quite frankly, I'm tired of
> messing around with stuff like this and just want to watch tv with my wife.
> I would really appreciate any help.
>
> Thanks
> josh
>
>
>