If the owner in the passwd file = 0 then console will act
like a telnet-in and not allow root to login. Can login as
generic user with anything else than 0 for owner in passwd
file and then do a "su root" OK.

I do not have /etc/shadow and /etc/nologin files and the
/etc/securetty is correct (tty1 - tty8 only).

ADDITIONAL:
I was messing with setterm colors (with usual failure)
just prior to noticing this new occurance AND my system
was installed about a week ago.

Prior to setterm commands:  Loaded wu-ftp and
MD5 packages (only for/as a stated wu-ftp dependency?)
the day before.  MD5 came from from 6.1 CD's and
wu-ftp from 5.0 CD's since wu-ftp not found in 6.1.