Sparse backup unbootable

[Limpinghshrew]

The CD is 10.3.9, from last March or so. Under file, the only options are:

New Window
Close
Unmount volume
eject volume
disable journaling
fix os 9 permissions (os 9?)
log
page setup
print

So I'm still not sure why/how you boot from the installer CD, mount the sparse image, and restore.

Then I tried safe boot. Same result: the blue bar is almost to the end and it just freezes at 'Login Window Starting'.

Then verbose boot. At least 2 screens worth of text comes up before I'm left with a plain blue screen with just my mouse pointer. It took about 10 restarts till I caught the last line:

..stuff..
Starting Virtual Memory
..stuff..
Welcome to Macintosh
..stuff..
checking disks
/etc/rc line 286: 147 Hangup system starter -gr ${VerboseFlag}{safeboot}

what do you think?