I heard from James at Axsol Solutions-and-no he has not forgotten about offering a Linux driver. However, what he would like me to do is somehow monitor the cereal port of the DecTalk and run a text file of exactly what commands are going to the unit from Speakup. Once my rate, pitch, and volume drop, I would close the file, so the trouble would be right at the end. In looking around, seems netstat may do this? So can 1 of you nice folks please inform on exactly what command to run to begin his log? James seems to think he will know rather fast what's happening. Another nice thing will be eventually when I can access the DecTalk directly, on an installation disk, there is a pronunciation dictionary which you modify by how you want a word spoken, without knowing phonetics. Thanks so much in advance Hart