I was under the impression that the Dectalk Express problems with 2.6.20 and newer kernels had been fixed. However, I just noticed this near the top of the Slackware change log for Slackware current. kernels/speakup.s/: Backed up speakup to CVS 2007-03-03 and recompiled. I'm hoping this fixes a DecTalk Express problem. Thanks to Stephen C. Greeley for all the help debugging this.