After restarting xinetd service, rsh shows "poll: protocol failure in circuit setup"

I have searched a lot in various forums and most indicate that the solution is to open ports in the firewall or restart the xinetd service. Although that may be the solution in some cases, I think the problem is another and is still pending solution. I have Red Hat 6, iptables service is off, and I have not modified the executables rshd/rsh. Initially, when I start the system, rsh works fine: # rsh localhost pwd /root If I simply restart the service "xinetd", I get the known message "poll: protocol failure in circuit setup": # service xinetd restart Stopping xinetd: [ OK ] Starting xinetd: [ OK ] # rsh localhost pwd poll: protocol failure in circuit setup I have only been able to fix the problem in two ways: rebooting the system or going through level 2. # init 2; sleep 1; init 3 # rsh localhost pwd /root I'd like to reach the root cause. It is not a firewall problem. **This is the strace output when it fails:** (see highlighted passage)

socket(PF_INET, SOCK_STREAM, IPPROTO_IP) = 3
bind(3, {sa_family=AF_INET, sin_port=htons(1023), in_addr=inet_addr("0.0.0.0")}, 16) = 0
fcntl(3, F_SETOWN, 23277)               = 0
connect(3, {sa_family=AF_INET, sin_port=htons(514), sin_addr=inet_addr("127.0.0.1")}, 16) = 0
socket(PF_INET, SOCK_STREAM, IPPROTO_IP) = 4
bind(4, {sa_family=AF_INET, sin_port=htons(1022), sin_addr=inet_addr("0.0.0.0")}, 16) = 0
listen(4, 1)                            = 0
write(3, "1022\0", 5)                   = 5
poll([{fd=3, events=POLLIN}, {fd=4, events=POLLIN}], 2, -1) = 1 ([{fd=3, revents=POLLIN|POLLERR|POLLHUP}])
write(2, "poll: protocol failure in circui"..., 40) = 40
close(4)                                = 0
close(3)                                = 0
rt_sigprocmask(SIG_SETMASK, [], [URG], 8) = 0
exit_group(1)

**This is the strace output when it works fine:** (see highlighted passage)

socket(PF_INET, SOCK_STREAM, IPPROTO_IP) = 3
bind(3, {sa_family=AF_INET, sin_port=htons(1023), in_addr=inet_addr("0.0.0.0")}, 16) = 0
fcntl(3, F_SETOWN, 24718)               = 0
connect(3, {sa_family=AF_INET, sin_port=htons(514), sin_addr=inet_addr("127.0.0.1")}, 16) = 0
socket(PF_INET, SOCK_STREAM, IPPROTO_IP) = 4
bind(4, {sa_family=AF_INET, sin_port=htons(1022), sin_addr=inet_addr("0.0.0.0")}, 16) = 0
listen(4, 1)                            = 0
write(3, "1022\0", 5)                   = 5
poll([{fd=3, events=POLLIN}, {fd=4, events=POLLIN}], 2, -1) = 1 ([{fd=4, revents=POLLIN}])
accept(4, {sa_family=AF_INET, sin_port=htons(1020), in_addr=inet_addr("127.0.0.1")}, ) = 5
close(4)                                = 0
writev(3, [{"root\0", 5}, {"root\0", 5}, {"pwd\0", 4}], 3) = 14
read(3, "\0", 1)                        = 1
rt_sigprocmask(SIG_SETMASK, [], [URG], 8) = 0
setuid(0)                               = 0
rt_sigprocmask(SIG_BLOCK, [INT QUIT TERM], [], 8) = 0
rt_sigaction(SIGINT, {SIG_IGN, [INT], SA_RESTORER|SA_RESTART, 0x2abd2e3c1920}, {SIG_DFL, [], 0}, 8) = 0
rt_sigaction(SIGINT, {0x2abd2db30080, [INT], SA_RESTORER|SA_RESTART, 0x2abd2e3c1920}, {SIG_IGN, [INT], SA_RESTORER|SA_RESTART, 0x2abd2e3c1920}, 8) = 0
rt_sigaction(SIGQUIT, {SIG_IGN, [QUIT], SA_RESTORER|SA_RESTART, 0x2abd2e3c1920}, {SIG_DFL, [], 0}, 8) = 0
rt_sigaction(SIGQUIT, {0x2abd2db30080, [QUIT], SA_RESTORER|SA_RESTART, 0x2abd2e3c1920}, {SIG_IGN, [QUIT], SA_RESTORER|SA_RESTART, 0x2abd2e3c1920}, 8) = 0
rt_sigaction(SIGTERM, {SIG_IGN, [TERM], SA_RESTORER|SA_RESTART, 0x2abd2e3c1920}, {SIG_DFL, [], 0}, 8) = 0
rt_sigaction(SIGTERM, {0x2abd2db30080, [TERM], SA_RESTORER|SA_RESTART, 0x2abd2e3c1920}, {SIG_IGN, [TERM], SA_RESTORER|SA_RESTART, 0x2abd2e3c1920}, 8) = 0
clone(child_stack=0, flags=CLONE_CHILD_CLEARTID|CLONE_CHILD_SETTID|SIGCHLD, child_tidptr=0x2abd2eb893b0) = 24721
ioctl(5, FIONBIO, )                  = 0
ioctl(3, FIONBIO, )                  = 0
rt_sigprocmask(SIG_SETMASK, [], [INT QUIT TERM], 8) = 0
select(6, [3 5], NULL, NULL, NULL)      = 1 (in )
read(3, "/root\n", 8192)                = 6
write(1, "/root\n", 6)                  = 6
select(6, [3 5], NULL, NULL, NULL)      = 1 (in )
read(3, "", 8192)                       = 0
select(6, , NULL, NULL, NULL)        = 1 (in )
read(5, "", 8192)                       = 0
kill(24721, SIGKILL)                    = 0
exit_group(0)                           = ?

Thank you in advance for your help. Best regards, Octavio