Directory called "a:"

[_Cri_ <bigamons freemail it>]

Hi, I'm using mc from the Debian Woody package...

  mc --version
  GNU Midnight Commander 4.5.55
  Edition: text mode
  Virtual File System: tarfs, extfs, ftpfs, mcfs, undelfs
  With builtin Editor
  Using S-Lang library with terminfo database
  With subshell support as default
  With support for background operations
  With mouse support on xterm and Linux console
  Using locale "C" (from environment variable LANG)

and I have trouble accessing a subdirectory called "a:" (I need this
weird name for compatibility reasons), because mc seems to treat it as a
mtools "special directory" or something. When I try to access
"/home/cri/a:", mc complains about not finding /dev/fd0

I tried all the following, but with no results:

- uninstalling mtools
  I get no more /dev/fd0 related errors, but when I try to access "a:" I
  get bogus data on screen

- commenting out the following lines in /etc/mc/mc.global
  #[Special dirs]
  #list=/afs,/coda,/:,/...,/net,/#smb

  ... doesn't seem to matter at all :-(

- commenting out "a:" in /usr/lib/mc/extfs/extfs.ini
  avoids the bogus screen data, but "a:" remains unusable 
 
- renaming /usr/lib/mc/extfs/a
  I get the error message "sh: /usr/lib/mc/extfs/a: No such file or
  directory" when I try to access a:

I guess I have to disable the extfs "special directory" "a:" but I have
no clue about how to do it (hope I don't have to recompile mc...).
I digged the documentation and the mailing list archives, but I couldn't
find any useful information. Any suggestions?

Thank you all in advance for reading this.

Cri