First of all thanks to :
 Matt J. L. Goebel
 Saul Tannenbaum 
 Tom Webster
 for their suggestions and help.
 Once I was able to trap the error message, the solution was obvious.  (I
had a hidden control char in my syslog.conf file - and I should have found
it sooner)  It turns out that the history dbz file was corrupt (causes
innd to exit) a normal rebuild of the history file was not enough to clean
it up, but using the -o flag to makehistory fixed it.  
So far this beta version seems to be ok but I have now also built
1.5.1sec2 and am ready to move back if needed.  (I also think my 1.5.1
problems were related the the history file as well)
Thanks again
Tom
 *****************************************
Tom Ozanich             Cegelec ESCA    *
11120 NE 33rd. Place    206.822.6800    *
Bellevue, WA  98004                     *
                                        *
Internet:               txo_at_esca.com    *
*****************************************
Received on Tue Sep 30 1997 - 08:09:24 NZST