The daemon was being install with nagios user/group instead of root.

Also, the comment on the xinetd file said default was on, but the
disable parameter was set to "yes". Changed the comment.

src/Makefile.in

@@ -70,8 +70,8 @@ install-plugin:
 	$(INSTALL) -m 775 $(NAGIOS_INSTALL_OPTS) check_nrpe $(PLUGINSDIR)
 
 install-daemon:
-	$(INSTALL) -m 775 $(NAGIOS_INSTALL_OPTS) -d $(SBINDIR)
-	$(INSTALL) -m 775 $(NRPE_INSTALL_OPTS) nrpe $(SBINDIR)
+	$(INSTALL) -m 775 -d $(SBINDIR)
+	$(INSTALL) -m 775 nrpe $(SBINDIR)
 
 clean:
 	rm -f core nrpe check_nrpe $(SNPRINTF_O)

startup/default-xinetd.in

@@ -1,4 +1,4 @@
-# default: on
+# default: off
 # description: NRPE (Nagios Remote Plugin Executor)
 service nrpe
 {