After some internal debate, I d/l the kernel-source-2.4.21-238 (SuSE 9 Pro) and, after... (1)make distclean (2)make cloneconfig (3)make dep ...I compiled/installed the kernel & modules. The result was a good boot-up, but when the modem connected I could get no throughput, whatever. Everything else seemed to work very well. Just pppd seemed to be broken. I have had this exact same trouble with every last kernel update beyond the kernel-2.4.21-99-default that ships w/SuSE 9, and I first tried both the -144 & -238 kernels via YOU & had to finally do an unconditional update to take the box back to the -99 kernel. I would be most interested if anyone else has experienced anything resembling this behaviour ...and what might possibly be checked and/or done to 'unbreak' pppd. I am also wondering if updating a kernel should change any relevent permissions...? Seems to me the permissions should remain stable. Am I mistaken? Thanks! -- ..."Yogi" CH Namasté Yoga Studio