I've just found that the preferences menu has the option to make the Courier font bold and it's much better. The error messages go by pretty fast (it's the last thing I see before it shuts down completely) but it starts off by announcing that it's starting various processes. If I can write down what it says I'll post it. Bev.

----- Original Message ----- From: "Steven Rose"

What is the actual error message(s) regarding the network manager?

In response to your other query, not being an Opera user myself, I imagine somewhere in appearance preferences, much like in Firefox you can alter the default font types, an issue I came across in 8.04 was some fonts being set to "light" versions rather than the regular weight, making them look faded.