Thanks! I spent about 2 hours last night trying to track this down (I couldn't even log in on 1.10 as the first thing getty does after printing the login prompt is a select on the console!) -- entropy -- it's not just a good idea, it's the second law. Personal mail: entropy@gnu.ai.mit.edu MiNT library mail: entropy@terminator.rs.itd.umich.edu "what do you have against octal?" -jrb