diff -Napur xinetd-2.3.14.old/xinetd/access.c xinetd-2.3.14.new/xinetd/access.c
--- xinetd-2.3.14.old/xinetd/access.c	2005-10-05 10:15:33.000000000 -0700
+++ xinetd-2.3.14.new/xinetd/access.c	2012-02-22 20:12:09.120973124 -0800
@@ -89,9 +89,20 @@ static void cps_service_restart(void)
                msg(LOG_ERR, func,
                "Activating service %s", SC_NAME(scp));
             } else {
-               msg(LOG_ERR, func,
-               "Error activating service %s", 
-               SC_NAME(scp)) ;
+               /* Try to restart the service */
+               SVC_ATTEMPTS(sp) += 1;
+               if ( SVC_ATTEMPTS(sp) < MAX_SVC_ATTEMPTS ) {
+                  msg(LOG_ERR, func, 
+                  "Error activating service %s, retrying %d more time(s)...",
+                  SC_NAME(scp),
+                  MAX_SVC_ATTEMPTS - SVC_ATTEMPTS(sp));
+                  xtimer_add(cps_service_restart, 1);
+               } else {
+                  /* Give up */
+                  msg(LOG_ERR, func,
+                  "Error activating service %s", 
+                  SC_NAME(scp));
+               } 
             } /* else */
          }
       }
diff -Napur xinetd-2.3.14.old/xinetd/service.c xinetd-2.3.14.new/xinetd/service.c
--- xinetd-2.3.14.old/xinetd/service.c	2012-02-22 19:16:56.288912783 -0800
+++ xinetd-2.3.14.new/xinetd/service.c	2012-02-22 19:25:03.059356909 -0800
@@ -397,6 +408,7 @@ status_e svc_activate( struct service *s
     * Initialize the service data
     */
    SVC_RUNNING_SERVERS(sp)   = SVC_RETRIES(sp) = 0 ;
+   SVC_ATTEMPTS(sp) = 0;
 
    if ( SC_MUST_LISTEN( scp ) )
       (void) listen( SVC_FD(sp), LISTEN_BACKLOG ) ;
diff -Napur xinetd-2.3.14.old/xinetd/xconfig.h xinetd-2.3.14.new/xinetd/xconfig.h
--- xinetd-2.3.14.old/xinetd/xconfig.h	2003-02-19 09:29:28.000000000 -0800
+++ xinetd-2.3.14.new/xinetd/xconfig.h	2012-02-22 19:20:20.360855514 -0800
@@ -59,6 +59,12 @@
 #define DEFAULT_LOOP_TIME			10
 
 /*
+ * The number of times to attempt re-activating a service after being
+ * deactivated due to the above.
+ */
+#define MAX_SVC_ATTEMPTS                         30
+
+/*
  * Signal-to-action mapping
  */
 #ifndef RECONFIG_HARD_SIG