where did my syslog kern facility go?

[dick...@yahoo.com]

Hi folks,
We have a Solaris 6 box which is runing fine, except for it's syslog.

We noticed that the messages file was not getting as many updates as
normal.
Using logger to test the facilities I get output from the auth
facility, but not from kern or user.

I've checked that /dev/log, /etc/.syslog_door, /var/log/syslog and
/var/adm/messages all exist with the correct permissions and
attributes, and syslog.conf has not changed between when it worked and
now.
restarting syslog does not fix it, a reboot has not fixed it, now I'm
at a dead end.
Does anyone have any ideas what to look at next?
All welcome

Dickie