Hi Owen, Thanks for your quick responce. I am running middleware in the background (in /etc/rc2.d) after festival starts. just /bin/middleware & Although, for testing purposes I disable that and I: /bin/middleware & the output is: Festival server: localhost, on port: 1314, with mode: fundamental And as I have said before, it just seems to exit (just stops) if I hit numpad plus on the keyboard. I'm not running it in an xterm, just plain old bash (on a vertual console). When I do reboot, what exactly should speakup say when middleware loads? or do I have to do anything special on the keyboard? Thanks for your help. Mick -- Michael D. Curran www: http://redgum.bendigo.latrobe.edu.au/~mdcurran/ msn: mick at jantrid.net
