Answering my own question about speakup & a USB headset. As it turns out, the problem was that my inittab was missing entries for tty1 - tty6. I have no idea how that happened. Obviously, I didn't do it and nobody else ueses this computer besides me. The original inittab file would have been generated during installation. But something must have messed it up because it I used to be able to log in at the console. I suspect it's something related to the fact that this machine does not have a video card. It's a mystery. Anyway, for the archives in case anyone ever googles for these symptoms, the behaviour you see if no tty is configured in inittab is that speakup still echos keys like scroll lock, caps lock, and num lock. It will say "scroll lock on" and "scroll lock off" but little else. If you're getting those symptoms, check your inittab. --- John G. Heim, 608-263-4189, jheim at math.wisc.edu
