My keymap problem seems to have resolved itself; the right keymap seems to be loading now with each kernel--at least the alt key is working in the no-speech kernel that I load to use emacspeak alone. My theory is that something in one of the debian updates/upgrades fixed the problem. You especially might want to try it again, Saqib, if you've been doing regular "apt-get update" and "apt-get upgrade" for your system. Cheryl