I've had similar problems. I've tried running x-server manually and it did borked out with a message that it cannot fild dsmetool (although it was there). I have modified the x-server script and put the full pathname /usr/sbin/dsmetool instead of the shell -x check and the tablet booted ok.

Just a general question but is there a early boot filesystem check for the ext2 partition when booting from the very same partition ?