[quoted lines by Brian Tew on March 19, 2002, at 04:55] >if i start a job with the ampersand at the end, it is backgrounded. >but if i then fg that job, i cannot suspend it. I think I know what's going on. If I'm not mistaken, you're the same guy who's also using the VBii+, and starting bash from rc.local. If I'm remembering correctly, you're invoking bash via su with "&>/dev/ttyS0" in order to redirect all output to the VersaBraille. Therein may lie your problem. Speaking to what old software does (I believe you also said you're using RedHat 5.2) is always difficult, but here's a possibility. Bash only automatically turns on its interactive mode if both its standard input and standard output are connected to a tty. Strictly speaking, standard output, being connected to /dev/ttyS0, is connected to a tty. The fact that it's not the foreground tty, however, may be what's causing your problem. Bash may not think it should start up in interactive mode. You can tell if it's in interactive mode by looking at the content of the special environment variable "$-" (dollar minus). If it doesn't contain the ltter "i", then bash isn't in interactive mode. -- Dave Mielke | 2213 Fox Crescent | I believe that the Bible is the Phone: 1-613-726-0014 | Ottawa, Ontario | Word of God. Please contact me EMail: dave@mielke.cc | Canada K2A 1H7 | if you're concerned about Hell. http://familyradio.com