xinetd like inetd before it gets various enviroment variables of the root
user. One of those variables is $HOME which when setting up a CVS pserver
causes the following problem:

smooge:{public_html}$ cvs co CVSROOT
cvs server: cannot open /root/.cvsignore: Permission denied
cvs [server aborted]: can't chdir(/root): Permission denied

A fix was the following to the /etc/init.d/xinetd file was the following:

root:{/root}# diff -u ./xinetd.orig /etc/init.d/xinetd
--- ./xinetd.orig       Sun Dec  3 17:39:55 2000
+++ /etc/init.d/xinetd  Sun Dec  3 17:34:02 2000
@@ -17,6 +17,9 @@

 PATH=/sbin:/bin:/usr/bin:/usr/sbin

+export HM_TMP=$HOME
+export HOME=""
+
 # Source function library.
 . /etc/init.d/functions

@@ -94,4 +97,5 @@
        RETVAL=1
 esac

+export HOME=$HM_TMP
 exit $RETVAL