Ok, I found some more info. First of all, it happens in some particular cases, so it should probably be demoted from important to normal.
Second, it could be that the problem existed even in previous versions, because I changed my ~/.octaverc about at the same time I upgraded to the current Debian version. The problem is that if and only if I put this line: PS1="[EMAIL PROTECTED]> "; in ~/.octaverc and do M-x run-octave, Emacs hangs. I hit C-g, switch to the *Inferior-Octave* buffer and see nothing. But apparently Octave is receiving input, because it exits when I type "quit". So for some reason it does not emit any output. That's maybe why Emacs hangs: comint is waiting for the prompt. -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]