All done and working, as i'm not a native unix/linux programmer, its just clicked. Thanks for the pointers. I left the setvol out of the script as ran it just before it. One thing that did catch me out is that when you re-write the script, and re-upload, over the top, it re-sets the permissions. The hyperterm i should have done, but thought i'd run it without testing it, stupid mistake. Thanks for the pointers , and the script, hehe. I might try and have a play with the ttsclock script and try to modify it for something a bit funky.