I had to modify grub.conf so that "default=0" (one of the most irritating affectations of the computer age is the promotion of zero to an ordinal number) was set instead of default=1 and then the new kernel came up and ttyS0 is available for use. Thank you for the pointer. Sincerely, -- *** E-Mail is NOT a SECURE channel *** James B. Byrne mailto:ByrneJB at Harte-Lyne.ca Harte & Lyne Limited http://www.harte-lyne.ca 9 Brockley Drive vox: +1 905 561 1241 Hamilton, Ontario fax: +1 905 561 0757 Canada L8E 3C3