I can connect a standard shader to the layer node, but not to the layer RGBA node. What am I missing!?

[lee_griggs]

Here is an example. How are you connecting it (images please)?

[peter.horvath6V6K3]

The layer RGBA shader is for texture type shaders only (e.g. image, noise, etc.), so you can not connect a standard shader to it, which is a surface type shader. You can not mix texture and surface type shaders, this is a technical limitation at the moment.