I'm using kernel-package to do some of the work for me on this, but I ran the checkout script after the downloading of the kernel-source package and untarring and so forth, did a make config using my working kernel configuration file, built the kernel image and installed the kernel image successfuly. Problem is the kernel has some kind of panic at boot up and my braille-lite gets interupted when it tries to speak. The kernel does not boot. To make sure it is not my synth in this instance, I booted up with my old kernel and speach was normal. What did I forget in the new kernel compilation. How do I answer the questions reguarding serial support? I compiled in the bns driver and said y to make it the default, or rather typed in bns as the default string. How can I review the message produced from a failing kernel if I have to turn the machine off then re-boot under another kernel? Can I some how boot under a different kernel if one gives me a panic? If any of you need to see further information, I can post the kernel config file to my website and post the url here for further investigation. Please let me know if that will help. thanks Sean