Thanks for your help. By following the init path I discovered that the pcmcia process was modifying /etc/inittab. The file /etc/pcmcia/serial.opts contains a flag that tells /etc/pcmcia/serial to add a getty entry to inittab. Once I turned off that flag, everything ran smooth. Thanks again. Tom -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-user-request@lists.debian.org with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact listmaster@lists.debian.org