And the summary so far (please correct any points):
* user x has uid y with home directory /home/x
* /home is a directory on / not a mount
* /home/x has uid y with permissions 7?? and /home has permissions 755
  and neither have extended permissions (chflags(1))
* you've tried user x with /bin/sh , /bin/csh & /bin/ksh and other shells
  to make sure it isn't one of the shells startup files whinging
* from root you've tried ``su -m x /bin/sh'' (and shell variants) and they
  all fail (this is a variant of the above point)
* when the error occurs the shell fails

What else?
* you're using NetBSD 1.796 mega system with ultra speed logons?  Hmm, just
  what version was it again?

Regards,
-- 
Geoff Wing   <gcw@pobox.com>            Mobile : (Australia) 0412 162 441
Work URL: http://www.primenet.com.au/   Ego URL: http://pobox.com/~gcw/