Hi Dave and all. It isn't repetition, but like Greg, I'm not sure I understand what this does--what it has to do with making my comp= ports work under dosemu. And it doesn't appear to address the question of why I can make the com ports work as root but can't make them work as me the user, even with "unrestricted" for me in the dosemu.users file and with me being a member of dialout group. the port works fine for me the user in linux as a member of dialout; it works fine for me in dOS, but in dosemu I can only make it work as root. so the question is: what is root able to do here that I can't, and why, and how do I fix it? If changing inittab, etc. addresses this problem, I need to have the connection explained to me. I am, however, very appreciative of all who are trying to help with this; I certainly am learning some interesting things in the process.