While running xconsole from an xdm launched session, a profusion of getty restarts is showing up in the xconsole window. Each time it happens /var/log/wtmpx gets updated. If xconsole is shut off, it goes away. Is it possible that getty is viewing log messages as failed logins under these circumstances?
# last -f /var/log/wtmpx
produces what's expected, there is only one user (root) logged on. The login time is correct. I have not tried doing this as some other user. Occassionally a "getty respawning too fast" message shows up. There's only one user logged in on this box and /var/log/wtmpx is now > 2 Meg after 24 hours of no one else logging in.