just to throw myself in the thread. ;) /etc/issue is a pre-logon file and has nothing to do with logging out. (well, it gets displayed after you log out) but forget about it just put 'clear' in ~/.logout and tadaaa! I haven't seen anyone mentioning .logout and probably .login also works. greets Tom -- TO UNSUBSCRIBE FROM THIS MAILING LIST: e-mail the word "unsubscribe" to debian-user-request@lists.debian.org . Trouble? e-mail to templin@bucknell.edu .