zterm only works under root

[Danni Coy <kayos midcoast com au>]

Hi,
    I am having a slight problem with gnome terminal or more specificaly
with the zvt libraries.
gnome terminal works when I am logged in under root but gives the
following error message when any other user launches it:

    Error: unable to fork: Success

I have traced this via the source to the function

    zvt_term_forkpty (ZvtTerm *term, int do_uwtmp_log)

in the file  zvtterm.c. as far as I can tell it must have to do with
permitions somewhere. can any body tell me which files are likely to be
the culprites.
Oh yeah I am running the latest Stampede Linux and have  hand compiled
Xwindows with the xfsft patches. and all of the files needed for Gnome
myself if this helps.

thankyou in advance
    Danni