I am running kernel 2.4.21 and cannot confirm your finding. The key combination you describe gets me into help okay. My speakup is: Speakup v-2.00 CVS: Fri Aug 8 14:12:19 EDT 2003 Chuck -- The Moon is Waning Gibbous (64% of Full) Get my public key from website, http://www.mhonline.net/~chuckh