Hi Stefan,

thanks for your fast response, but i'm sorry, but none of your hints worked:

SGW>The server does not really respond ...
SGW>Add the line
SGW>group = <group-of-amanda-user>

yes, in my case group = disk 

SGW>Check that the server-entry points to the right binary.

it seems so:
kirk:/etc # ls -la /usr/lib/amanda/amindexd
-rwxr-xr-x    1 amanda   disk       115336 2004-04-30 13:29
/usr/lib/amanda/amindexd


SGW>Check that the user-entry contains your amanda-user you have
SGW>configured the sources with.

it's ok - (with-user was amanda)

SGW>(AFAIK, the server_args-entry is not needed).

i removed it, too. But still no response.

in /var/log/xinetd.d i find several entries like:
04/5/6@18:46:02: START: amandaidx from=192.168.1.74
04/5/6@18:46:02: EXIT: amandaidx status=1 duration=0(sec)

what else can i check??
thanks, 
kai