Well, this was the error:--- I was using the laptop and suddenly I noticed that some keys were putting numbers on the monitor.
I rebooted: all was well with the password, no numbers. However, the problem promptly re-appeared. I posted a request for help. I was told that this problem had been seen before and had been attributed to (a) a dud section of the hard drive, or (b) *somehow* changing to one of the more exotic keyboards. I re-installed the distro. Problem not present, at least for a couple of weeks. Then it re-appeared. It was when I sat back in disgust that I noticed the solution: tichy little numbers on the bevelled edge of some keys. I had inadvertently hit the Num Lock key whilst typing. There is no separate number keyboard on the laptop and some alphabet keys in the North East area are assigned on hitting Num Lock. So I thought I'd post it somewhere; I don't mind being considered a prune: the problem flumoxxed more experienced people than me. So where to post it? It's more a laptop/small keyboard problem than anything else. Regards, Bill. -- SLUG - Sydney Linux User's Group Mailing List - http://slug.org.au/ Subscription info and FAQs: http://slug.org.au/faq/mailinglists.html
