>>>>
 am running netbsd 0.9 and Xfree 2.0.  After opening 2-3 xapps I get 
the message
     
 no available ptys
     
Telnet sessions are also disabled because they cannot find a port and 
emacs shell buffers don't work for lack of a terminal.  How can I 
increase the number of available ptys?  Lots are in /dev so I my naive 
guess is that the kernel needs to be reconfigured.  Changing maxusers 
from 10 to 32 seems to make no difference.

>>>>

     I had the same problem(I am still a novice). There are two ways to do 
     it.  
     
     !. Get the source for NetBSD 0.9 kernel, increase number of pty's in 
     configuration file, and rebuild it.
     
     2. Upgrade to NetBSD-1.0Beta binaries from ftp.iastate.edu, and 
     ftp.laas.fr for XFree86 2.1.1 binaries.  The ptys in NetBSD 1.0Beta is 
     more than 4.
     
     Maybe you should also buy a book, called "X Window System 
     Administrator's Guide" by O'Reilly & Associates.  It helped me a lot, 
     including the question you asked.
     
     Kang