System boots to Darwin/BSD (console) following Software Update to 10.4.6

Last night I used Software Update to download and install two updates. One for iPod software, and the other for Mac OS X 10.4.6.
I glanced at the machine and saw that it was about a third of the way finished downloading one of the updates.
A few minutes later, the system rebooted. When it came back up, it booted to the console login. The OS X graphical environment did not start up.
I am able to login, and the file system appears to be intact.
How do I fix this?
Thanx,
cool_1
12" Powerbook G4   Mac OS X (10.4.6)  

Hmmm. Still not exactly what I'm seeing.
My /var/log/system.log only has a few lines:
Apr 21 03:15:03 SilverBullet cp: error processing extended attributes: Operation not permitted
Apr 21 22:31:07 SilverBullet kernel[0]: System Sleep
Apr 21 22:31:07 SilverBullet kernel[0]: System Wake
Apr 21 22:31:07 SilverBullet kernel[0]: Wake event 0008
Apr 21 22:31:07 SilverBullet kernel[0]: ADB present:8c
Apr 21 22:31:07 SilverBullet kernel[0]: [IOAppleBluetoothHIDDriver][willTeriminate]
Apr 21 22:31:07 SilverBullet kernel[0]: [IOAppleBluetoothHIDDriver][handleStop][00-0a-95-04-46-20] Stopped.
Apr 21 22:31:07 SilverBullet kernel[0]: [IOAppleBluetoothHIDDriver][free]
What's more interesting is the contents of /Library/Logs/CrashReporter:
drwxrwxr-x 8 root admin 272 Apr 20 20:34 .
drwxrwxr-x 9 root admin 306 Feb 20 11:24 ..
-rw-rw-r-- 1 root admin 21747 Apr 20 20:34 Safari.crash.log
-rw-rw-r-- 1 root admin 76288 Apr 20 00:40 SecurityAgent.crash.log
-rw-rw-r-- 1 root admin 44422 Apr 20 20:34 Software Update.crash.log
-rw-rw-r-- 1 root admin 84847 Apr 20 20:34 System Preferences.crash.log
-rw-rw-r-- 1 root admin 0 Feb 20 11:22 WindowServer.crash.log
-rw-rw-r-- 1 root admin 12821 Apr 16 18:09 mcxd.crash.log
I'm trying to find some way to mount a USB drive so I can pull the log files and put them on my other computer, but I didn't have much luck.
Inside the Software Update.crash.log file, there are entries like:
Exception: EXCBADACCESS (0x0001)
Codes: KERNINVALIDADDRESS (0x0001) at 0xffffefa0
Thread 0 Crashed:
and later -
Thread 0 crashed with PPC Thread State 64:
srr0: 0x00000000915967f0 srr1: 0x000000000200f030 vrsave: 0x0000000000000000
cr: 0x00000000915967e0 xer: 0x0000000000000004 lr: 0x00000000915967e0 ctr: 0x000000009158e880
etc.
Anyone know:
1. How to mount and use a USB drive that has been formatted for use with a Windows machine?
2. Who to send the logs to once I've gotten them off of the machine?
Thanks,
cool_1
12" Powerbook G4 Mac OS X (10.4.6)

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    (Also, I read elsewhere about simply installing the fixed combo update fropm apple, but I suspect I need to be able to get the machine to boot to do this - can't work out ho0w to do this whilst running install disks, though maybe from a USB memory pen?)
    If I do archive and install, what becomes of:
    a) Proprietory software which had to be activated online via a code. (I use a programme called 'Final Draft' and it comes with only two logins. I'm pretty sure I used one on an old computer. My question then is if I do archive and install is it likely I will lose the old access? (I suspect so! And wonder if this also goes for Word?)
    b) itunes and purchased music (I think I am actually about up to machine number five on some of these songs...)
    As ever, thanks so much to anyone for any help you can offer.
    Simon

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