unable to start xterm - jornada720

Hi,

I came across what appears to be a rather bizarre bug.

I am running the generic 9.2 kernel in a jornada720.

I am also using the generic .xinitrc configuration.

This is what happens:

startx works, as do xclock, xeyes and xcalc.

BUT

attempting to start xterm, either manually after starting X
or putting it as a command in my .xinitrc (as is default),
results in nothing. Needless to say, I have tried different
geometries and backgrounds to no avail.

xterm IS present in my system and IS executable by my regular
user, so much so that, if I attempt to start it outside X,
it will try to start and then (of course), complain that no
display was found.

I am sending this to the port mailing list since I am pretty
sure this is platform specific.

Does this sound familiar to anyone? I am out of ideas as to
what might be the underlying problem.

Any help appreciated.