Thanks Reyalp. I got the first part fixed. I understand that I can set it to show the user menu as start up when going to <Alt> or not.
I am still having problems with the second part of my question. I am having difficulty understanding your explanations of the autofocus. I did not find any way to enable/disable autofocus.
Here is what I have noticed about this problem: When camera is turned on, it starts in the playback mode. In that mode, pressing the play button turns <Alt> on and CHDK menu can be turned on. Then there is no flickering. If I put the camera in shooting mode by pressing halfway on the shutter, then the autofocus is continuously seeking , I can see the center box change in size continuously. Now if I press the play button to turn <Alt> on, then there is flickering and I can see the box changing. Now if I need to make any changes in CHDK settings, I cannot do that because of the severe flickering. I must turn the camera off/on or change it back to the play mode before I can make changes. This is not normal (because this is not so in my SX400IS). I used the SX400 for shooting last year's eclipse. Being able to change CHDK settings while camera was in shooting mode was very useful. Is my understanding of problem correct or is there some other solution? Thanks again.