I submitted a bug report 
(http://www.netbsd.org/cgi-bin/query-pr-single.pl?number=24722) earlier this 
week on something very similar; it might be related to what you are seeing.

My work around is to set the default shell back to /bin/csh using the 
"chpass" command.

Hope this helps,
Chris.


>From: oha@simnet.is
>To: netbsd-help@netbsd.org
>Subject: xdm problem
>Date: Wed, 10 Mar 2004 21:21:01 +0000
>
>Hello.
>
>I installed NetBSD 1.6.2 and was going to use xdm at boot. However, when I 
>log in via xdm, it just restarts (xdm), even if I log in as root. I have no 
>problem logging in through console and startx works perfectly. I also tried 
>kdm and the same thing happens. It is a fresh installation (XFree86 4.3.0) 
>and only with added kde 3.2.
>
>Thanks,
>  Olafur Haukur Arnason

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