I hope I'm posting to the correct list. Anyway, I'm using a encrypted wireless network. Bringing eth0 (the wireless interface on my laptop) up or down as a normal user would always gave me an error, either: /sbin/ifup: line 48: keys-eth0: Permission denied or: /sbin/ifdown: line 48: keys-eth0: Permission denied This error message would even "pop up" if I used the "Network Device Control" GUI. This was caused by line 48 in .../network-scripts/network-functions: [ -f "keys-$DEVNAME" ] && . keys-$DEVNAME "keys-$DEVNAME" probably expands to "keys-eth0" (on my laptop) and access to .../network-scripts/keys-eth0 is set to 600 (rw-) for root, so reading that file (e.g. with cat) as a normal user will generate a "Permission denied" error. Trivial patch: add "2>/dev/null" to line 48: [ -f "keys-$DEVNAME" ] && . keys-$DEVNAME 2>/dev/null Or would this trivial patch just hide a more serious problem? Paul Bolle