ran, but I'm not certain: viddev=/dev/ttyv0 moused_start() { echo -n 'Starting moused:' /usr/sbin/moused ${moused_flags} -p ${moused_port} -t ${moused_type} _mousechar_arg= case ${mousechar_start} in [Nn][Oo] | '') ;; *) echo -n ' mousechar_start' _mousechar_arg="-M ${mousechar_start}" ;; esac vidcontrol < ${viddev} ${_mousechar_arg} -m on echo '.' }