> Maxima is unable to solve the system, e.g. for X^^2-ident(2): Ugh--this is pretty terrible, but I think it's correct. (%i25) algsys(flatten(args(matrix([a,b],[c,d])^^2 - ident(2))),[a,b,c]); (%o25) [[a=-d,b=-(d^2-1)/%r2,c=%r2]] --Barton