Andy> Do you set a bunch of stuff in Xdefaults? Does this show up Andy> even with vanilla? andy Ah. Damn. Cleared xrdb with "xrdb -remove". Ran xemacs -vanilla (with gdb mixed in there). Opened the C file. And the M-x font-lock-mode and same crash. Maybe this is an X issue. 4.0.3 ldd of the binary shows: libXaw.so.6 => /usr/X11R6/lib/libXaw.so.6 (0x40032000) libtiff.so.3 => /usr/lib/libtiff.so.3 (0x4006c000) libpng.so.2 => /usr/lib/libpng.so.2 (0x400ae000) libjpeg.so.62 => /usr/lib/libjpeg.so.62 (0x400da000) libz.so.1 => /usr/lib/libz.so.1 (0x400f9000) libcompface.so.1 => /usr/lib/libcompface.so.1 (0x40109000) libXpm.so.4 => /usr/X11R6/lib/libXpm.so.4 (0x40114000) libXmu.so.6 => /usr/X11R6/lib/libXmu.so.6 (0x40122000) libXt.so.6 => /usr/X11R6/lib/libXt.so.6 (0x40137000) libXext.so.6 => /usr/X11R6/lib/libXext.so.6 (0x40181000) libX11.so.6 => /usr/X11R6/lib/libX11.so.6 (0x4018f000) libSM.so.6 => /usr/X11R6/lib/libSM.so.6 (0x4026a000) libICE.so.6 => /usr/X11R6/lib/libICE.so.6 (0x40273000) libdb3.so.3 => /usr/lib/libdb3.so.3 (0x4028a000) libncurses.so.5 => /lib/libncurses.so.5 (0x40336000) libpq.so.2 => /usr/lib/libpq.so.2 (0x40376000) libldap.so.2 => /usr/lib/libldap.so.2 (0x40386000) libm.so.6 => /lib/libm.so.6 (0x403ac000) libutil.so.1 => /lib/libutil.so.1 (0x403ce000) libc.so.6 => /lib/libc.so.6 (0x403d1000) libdl.so.2 => /lib/libdl.so.2 (0x404e4000) libssl.so.0.9.6 => /usr/lib/libssl.so.0.9.6 (0x404e9000) libcrypto.so.0.9.6 => /usr/lib/libcrypto.so.0.9.6 (0x40516000) libcrypt.so.1 => /lib/libcrypt.so.1 (0x405e0000) libresolv.so.2 => /lib/libresolv.so.2 (0x4060e000) libnsl.so.1 => /lib/libnsl.so.1 (0x4061f000) liblber.so.2 => /usr/lib/liblber.so.2 (0x40634000) libsasl.so.7 => /usr/lib/libsasl.so.7 (0x4063e000) /lib/ld-linux.so.2 => /lib/ld-linux.so.2 (0x40000000) libdb2.so.2 => /lib/libdb2.so.2 (0x4064a000) libpam.so.0 => /lib/libpam.so.0 (0x4068b000) Jim -- ＠James LewisMoss <dres(a)debian.org&gt; | Blessed Be! ＠ http://jimdres.home.mindspring.com | Linux is kewl! ＠"Argue for your limitations and sure enough, they're yours." Bach