Illegal Shell - Terminal Won't Open

Question

I apologize if this is covered under another thread, I couldn't find one.
OS10.6.3 - when I attempt to open Terminal I get an error message saying that access is prevent as administrator has set shell to illegal value. After sessions with Tech Support, am left with option of reinstalling beginning with Leopard. Would like to see if there's an easier or quicker way.
I have done everything I can think of:
1) Repaired drive and repaired disk permissions multiple times
2) Reinstalled OS10.6 and 10.6.3 upgrade multiple times
3) Tried 10.5 version of terminal with same results, also tried Terminal that came on 10.6 upgrade dvd
4) Trashed Terminal.plist
5) Reset Shell in System Preferences/Accounts to all different shells with same results
6) Ensured that /bin/bash existed and also the shell origins something or other file
7) Ran bash from command line at bootup and under x11 (which functions fine)f
8) Started up in Safe Mode
9) Made new admin account
10) reset and verified root user and pwd
Is there something else I can try or a suspect file I can directly install?

Answer 1

tnitz wrote:
2) Reinstalled OS10.6 and 10.6.3 upgrade multiple times
How much did you reinstall? The best thing to do is repartition. Then you are guaranteed a clean install. It sounds like you have some funky file system or are ignoring permissions on your startup volume, or something similarly system-wide like that.
7) Ran bash from command line at bootup and under x11 (which functions fine)
That's interesting.
10) reset and verified root user and
You don't need a root user. You haven't done anything with it have you? Not much good can come from that.
Is there something else I can try or a suspect file I can directly install?
I would be interested in what you consider "unusual" software to be. If you have reinstalled, you should have gotten to the point if no 3rd party software installed.
I suspect that either you have done something funky on the filesystem front, you haven't fully reinstalled, and/or you have some strange software running. Parental controls, perhaps?