According to Janina Sajka: # Pulseaudio is not active on my system. So, getting GDM to speak does not # require pulseaudio. It may work with pulse, I wouldn't know. But, it # definitely isn't a prerequisite. This is indeed good to know. I leave Pulseaudio enabled here, and I don't have any problems. In fact, it helped me out with a project I needed to do involving streaming and piping audio from multiple applications into a single application's input. But it's good to know that if it's disabled or otherwise inactive, most everything, especially the talking GDM login, works as expected. Too bad about the earcons in GNOME though. Do you at least still get a terminal bell? ~Kyle http://kyle.tk/ -- "Kyle? ... She calls her cake, Kyle?" Out of This World, season 2 episode 21 - "The Amazing Evie"