Hi Paul, Thank you for your comments, and those of Kent. I retried the install without capitals, since I had used them. Same result. I gave up, and used a Debian testing install, using the new experimental GUI installer for a laugh. I now, I think, have a working EMC box, but haven't yet built any of the electronics to run stepper motors with. Having done this install, I think I've realised what the problem may be since a similar thing happened with that install, but less severe, a few minutes with Knoppix and it was bootable. I feel a bit silly now, but would have expected the install script to check this if it is what I think. I called the normal user account "operator", and Debian already creates this user and group, so it fails! I wonder if my foolish error could be documented to help anyone else who might have that problem in future? A few other comments, if I may? I like the fact that you're using Debian-provided easy updates, and supports many architectures. I'm now using 256MB RAM, I just hadn't tested the second 128MB, so was installing without it. LVM works now. I'm also using xfs-a journeling file system, little bit faster than ext3, no efsck time, well-developed, and not subject to as many changes as reiser. I'm just tinkering, so I'm happy to try newer things-it doesn't have to work flawlessly like a server! Could you tell me which of your packages modifies /etc/apt/sources.list please? I'm using testing and a few other unofficial repositories too, so want to look out for it being changed by a new version of a package. This happened to me-I'd set up sources.list, then installed your packages, and lost it all! One of your bdi-branding packages (I forget which, but can tell you another day if you want) failed to install-it does 5 patches which didn't apply cleanly, so I've removed it. Do you use initrd kernels? When I installed your kernel I didn't get an initrd, so have created it myself. Could just be an issue with the experimental nature of the GUI installer I used-gave a lilo error during the install. Thanks again, Happy New Year, Arthur