In the version of ido shipped with 23.2, the behaviour of the ido-make-buffer-list function no longer permits a default value to be used by ido-read-buffer unless that value is the name of a preexisting buffer. This can be reproduced by evaluating: (ido-read-buffer "Buffer: " "nonexistent-buffer") In 23.2, you will see only a list of your current buffers. In 23.1, nonexistent-buffer is the default value. This prevents ido-everywhere from being useful in situations like C-u M-x shell; it should, and in 23.1 did, offer a default name for your new shell (eg, "*shell*<2>"). ido no longer displays that option, as it is filtered out by ido-make-buffer-list. I believe the related commit may be: http://github.com/emacsmirror/emacs/commit/e2300713fd5a941bfe1dad338b88f4caf77cc945 HTH In GNU Emacs 23.2.1 (x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu, GTK+ Version 2.20.0) of 2010-05-08 on min Windowing system distributor `The X.Org Foundation', version 11.0.10706000 configured using `configure '--prefix=/usr' '--sysconfdir=/etc' '--libexecdir=/usr/lib' '--localstatedir=/var' '--mandir=/usr/share/man' '--without-sound' '-with-x-toolkit=gtk' 'CFLAGS=-march=x86-64 -mtune=generic -O2 -pipe -fno-optimize-sibling-calls' 'LDFLAGS=-Wl,--hash-style=gnu -Wl,--as-needed'' Important settings: value of $LC_ALL: nil value of $LC_COLLATE: nil value of $LC_CTYPE: en_US.UTF-8 value of $LC_MESSAGES: nil value of $LC_MONETARY: nil value of $LC_NUMERIC: nil value of $LC_TIME: nil value of $LANG: en_US.UTF-8 value of $XMODIFIERS: nil locale-coding-system: utf-8-unix default enable-multibyte-characters: t Major mode: Emacs-Lisp Minor modes in effect: erc-list-mode: t erc-menu-mode: t erc-autojoin-mode: t erc-ring-mode: t erc-networks-mode: t erc-pcomplete-mode: t erc-track-mode: t erc-track-minor-mode: t erc-match-mode: t erc-button-mode: t erc-fill-mode: t erc-stamp-mode: t erc-netsplit-mode: t erc-irccontrols-mode: t erc-noncommands-mode: t erc-move-to-prompt-mode: t erc-readonly-mode: t diff-auto-refine-mode: t hl-line-mode: t paredit-mode: t show-paren-mode: t yas/global-mode: t yas/minor-mode: t shell-dirtrack-mode: t recentf-mode: t ido-everywhere: t tooltip-mode: t mouse-wheel-mode: t file-name-shadow-mode: t global-font-lock-mode: t font-lock-mode: t auto-encryption-mode: t auto-compression-mode: t column-number-mode: t line-number-mode: t transient-mark-mode: t Recent input: t SPC e s s e n t i a l l y SPC b r e a k s s SPC SPC i d o e - v e - e v e r y w h e r e , SPC a s SPC y o u SPC a r e SPC u n a b l e SPC t o SPC o f f e r SPC d e f a u l t s SPC f o r SPC a n y SPC n e SPC w SPC b u f f e r SPC c r e a t i o n C - u SPC M - x SPC s h e l l SPC s h o u l d SPC o f f e r SPC * s h e l l * < 2 > S-SPC SPC o r SPC s u c h SPC w h e n SPC y o u SPC s t a r t SPC a SPC n e w SPC s h e l l , SPC b u t SPC n o SPC l o n g e r SPC c a n C-u C-c s C-g C-u C-c s C-g M-> ( i d o - e v e r y w h e r e SPC t ) C-x C-e C-a C-k C-x C-s C-u C-c s C-g C-x b C-x k y C-x b a r c h C-x b M-v C-v C-v M-p M-n M-p M-n C-l C-x 0 M-x r e Recent messages: Using try-complete-lisp-symbol ("*Help*" "#archlinux" "#clojure" "##javascript" "irc.freenode.net:6667" "*Backtrace*" "#compojure" "hairband.css" "*shell*" "hairband.html" "*magit-process*" "hairband" ...) Mark saved where search started Quit [2 times] Mark set t Saving file /home/pd/sauce/hairband/src/css/hairband.css... Wrote /home/pd/sauce/hairband/src/css/hairband.css Quit Buffer has a running process; kill it? (y or n) windmove-do-window-select: Minibuffer is inactive Load-path shadows: /home/pd/.emacs.d/elpa/json-1.2/json hides /usr/share/emacs/23.2/lisp/json /home/pd/.emacs.d/elpa/ruby-mode-1.1/ruby-mode hides /usr/share/emacs/23.2/lisp/progmodes/ruby-mode Features: (shadow sort mail-extr message idna ecomplete rfc822 mml mml-sec mm-decode mm-bodies mm-encode mailcap mail-parse rfc2231 rfc2047 rfc2045 qp ietf-drums mailabbrev nnheader mm-util mail-prsvr gmm-utils mailheader canlock sha1 hex-util hashcash mail-utils emacsbug jka-compr find-func cus-start cus-load debug help-mode browse-url erc-log erc-menu erc-join erc-ring erc-networks erc-pcomplete pcomplete erc-track erc-match erc-button erc-fill erc-stamp erc-netsplit erc-goodies erc erc-backend erc-compat pp multi-isearch css-mode dired-aux dired js byte-opt bytecomp byte-compile json thingatpt etags imenu newcomment cc-mode cc-fonts cc-menus cc-cmds cc-styles cc-align cc-engine cc-vars cc-defs view magit diff-mode log-edit pcvs-util add-log parse-time hippie-exp vc-git sgml-mode server hl-line paredit paren pd/misc pd/smex smex pd/irc pd/haskell pd/js pd/ruby pd/lisps pd/chrome edit-server pd/magit pd/tramp pd/shell ansi-color pd/coding pd/theme color-theme sendmail pd/ido pd/bindings windmove pd/defuns pd/packages clojure-test-mode-autoloads full-ack-autoloads inf-ruby-autoloads json-autoloads paredit-autoloads ruby-mode-autoloads sass-mode-autoloads haml-mode-autoloads swank-clojure-autoloads clojure-mode-autoloads slime-repl-autoloads slime-autoloads yasnippet-bundle-autoloads yasnippet-bundle dropdown-list yasnippet derived easy-mmode edmacro kmacro package reporter pd/core ibuffer tramp-imap assoc tramp-gw tramp-fish tramp-smb tramp-cache tramp-ftp tramp-cmds tramp regexp-opt auth-source gnus-util netrc time-date shell comint ring password-cache format-spec tramp-compat trampver recentf tree-widget wid-edit easymenu uniquify advice help-fns advice-preload ido cl cl-19 tooltip ediff-hook vc-hooks lisp-float-type mwheel x-win x-dnd font-setting tool-bar dnd fontset image fringe lisp-mode register page menu-bar rfn-eshadow timer select scroll-bar mldrag mouse jit-lock font-lock syntax facemenu font-core frame cham georgian utf-8-lang misc-lang vietnamese tibetan thai tai-viet lao korean japanese hebrew greek romanian slovak czech european ethiopic indian cyrillic chinese case-table epa-hook jka-cmpr-hook help simple abbrev loaddefs button minibuffer faces cus-face files text-properties overlay md5 base64 format env code-pages mule custom widget hashtable-print-readable backquote make-network-process dbusbind system-font-setting font-render-setting gtk x-toolkit x multi-tty emacs)