term and xterm in kde does not include /sbin or /usr/sbin in PATH at startup. I have tried setting it in the profile and in the .bash_profile and it will not add it at start up. For your info I am logging in as root.
This was a bug in kdm. It's fixed in the current version.
In which version of KDE is this bug fixed? I have kdebase-1.1.2-48 now.