No available ptys

[bish@nde.vsnl.net.in]

Ever since upgrading from Slink to Stormix Hail, I have been having
the following problems:

a) When in "X", I am not able to open xterm as a user. As root it is
   fine. Other terms like rxvt, kterm etc are working fine as user. 
   The error message I receive is  "xterm: no available ptys".

b) I seem to lose my personal preferences in .profile while in "X" as
   an user, whereas on console mode everything is fine.

c) I cannot run the "script" program as user. As root there are no 
   problems. The error message I get is "openpty failed". This happens
   in "X" as well as in console mode.

Any clues in this regard ?

TIA

USM Bish