!!help with booting!!

[aquadeluxe]

hello
i have an emac with mac os x 10.4 but when i try to boot now, for some weird reason it wont it just comes up with a command line things for localhost root, or something like that. so it shows the apple in the beginning though so i started with apple-v and it said something about not finding /etc/hostconfig, i forget what it is, so i used the cd command to etc and it shows nothing like that but it shows hostconfigconfig~ yes the ~ sign, so i was wondering if there was a way to rename that in command line so i could have my computer working. i couldn't find my install dvd so i couldnt run disk utilities and run the repair thing.
thanks

[barhar]

If '/etc/hostconfig' does not exist, but '/etc/hostconfig~' does; then, consider entering this ...

cp /etc/hostconfig~ /etc/hostconfig

... <return>.

[Naturally, you assume all liabilities by performing the above and equivalent actions.]