Another newbie

Thomas Ward tward at bright.net
Sat Nov 24 20:43:12 EST 2001


i'm sorry to hear that you won't be able to add a cdrom, but fortunately
there are many other options here.
Option 1: you may considder some external drive system. I don't know if you
have a usb port or not, but external hard drives are a great way to backup
and install files to your Linux box.
If built into the kernel a external USB or Parallel Zip drive is another
great tool.
Lastly, you could buy a small network kit from someone like Linksys, and set
up your computer to share files and drives.
I baught such a kit myself, and am happy with it. For $60 I got a Linksys
hub, two cables, and two Linksys PCI nics.
However, this may or may not be an option for you depending on how skilled
you are with networking computers. Although, I found this to be a great
option, and great way to share files.



----- Original Message -----
From: "Jack Daniels" <Labitup at home.com>
To: <speakup at braille.uwo.ca>
Sent: Saturday, November 24, 2001 10:39 AM
Subject: Re: Another newbie


> Thanks Tom. Unfortunately, no way to add a CDROM to this machine.  It's a
> very small computer, (2.5X11.5X8.5) it has built-in everything, and room
> for only a hard disk and a floppy.  I picked it up for $25 a while ago,
and
> thought it would make a neat Linux box.  Perhaps a parallel CD drive will
> become a possibility for me down the road.
>
> I already have the Speakup files on the system and will just go ahead and
> begin reading the kernal info and start that learning curve now. If I run
> into problems, I know where to come for help.
>
> Jack
> At 11:32 PM 11/22/01 -0500, you wrote:
> >Hi, my comments are below inside your message.I have tried to answer all
> >your questions as clearly as I can. I hope this helps.
> >See below.
> >
> >
> >----- Original Message -----
> >From: "Jack Daniels" <Labitup at home.com>
> >To: <speakup at braille.uwo.ca>
> >Sent: Thursday, November 22, 2001 11:30 AM
> >Subject: Another newbie
> >
> >
> >> Hi, I am new to Speakup, and I have been following the list for just a
> >> short while now.  I want to learn whether the following is possible,
and
> >> how to best accomplish it.
> >
> >That's great. I'll see what we can do for you.
> >>
> >
> >> First, some info about my Linux box.  I have a very small PC installed
> >with
> >> Redhat 7.1, kernal 2.4.2-12 running on a P133 with no CDROM.
> >> A friend set it up for me and I am currently using a serial connection
> >from
> >> My Win98 PC.
> >>
> >> What I want to be able to do is to insert a floppy with Speakup and any
> >> necessary boot files and have Linux  come up talking.  Is this
possible?
> >> If so, what do I need to get/do?
> >
> >Yes, it is possible, but someone would have to compile you a talking boot
> >disk image  of Speakup, for your kernel and send it too you.
> >Another suggestion is to get Emacspeak rpm, put it on a floppy, and
install
> >it to your box. At least you would  have speech natively on your Linux
box
> >until you were able to build a Speakup kernel for your machine.
> >
> >> I want to use a DEC Express on COM2, keeping the serial connection on
> >COM1.
> >>
> >
> >This is totally possible. Speakup [probes for your synths ports, and
almost
> >always finds the synth on ttys0 and ttys1. which are com1 and com2 under
> >dos.
> >
> >
> >
> >> If this is possible, and I thought it was from reading the list for
just a
> >> short time, what files do I need?
> >> How do I use them?
> >> Any info out there detailing this process?
> >>
> >
> >Unfortunately, I don't know of any specific documents that exactly gives
you
> >a step by step howto on what to do, but most of us are old hands, or at
> >least know something about what we are doing.
> >Read the kernel howto, and the readme documentation in your kernel source
> >directory.
> >You basically, will need a clean kernel source tree, and the speakup
source.
> >Also make sure you have kernel headers installed, compilers installed,
and
> >are able to build kernels.
> >
> >> I am sure there is info I have left out, so please ask any questions,
and
> >I
> >> will answer them to the best of my ability.  Rememberr, I am new, never
> >> built a kernal, the more detailed your response, the better.
> >
> >Ok, is it possible that you can get a cd rom drive for your computer?
Bill
> >has Red Hat 7.2 cd's that come with Speakup built in. All you do is
install
> >the cd's, restart, and wam you have speech.
> >I've been where you are now. Looking at a stock distribution, and
wondering
> >how to get it to talk. Here is how I learned to do it if it is a stock
> >distribution and not a Speakup modified distribution.
> >
> >I downloaded Emacspeak current version, and loaded my Dectalk Express.
Then,
> >I accessed the shell by doing alt+x, and typed shell.
> >Once I had a talking shell, I then installed the Speakup source from
floppy,
> >and put in the Linux cd, and installed the kernel source. Then, built a
> >talking kernel.
> >Since you don't have a cd rom drive you may have to substitute by first
> >configuring wvdial, and then while in Emacs with Emacspeak do an alt+x
and
> >type term.
> >This puts Emacs in a terminal  mode, and you can run wvdial & to get your
> >internet connection.
> >Then, you can run the Linux ftp program to ftp files from the
ftp.kernel.org
> >site to your box.
> >
> >So here is the summary. While it is possible to do what you want it does
> >require some compiling, configuring,  and large learning curves. However,
> >once you do it a couple of times it won't seam so huge.
> >However, if you want a quick and simple solution see if you can get
Bill's
> >modified Red Hat 7.2 disks from the Speakup ftp site, and install that.
That
> >way you get speech out of the box, and can consentrate on learning the os
> >without plunging head-long into advanced compiling, configuring, and all
> >that.
> >
> >
> >
> >>
> >> Thank you in advance for helping another newbie get up and talking with
> >> Speakup!
> >>
> >> Jack
> >>
> >>
> >> _______________________________________________
> >> Speakup mailing list
> >> Speakup at braille.uwo.ca
> >> http://speech.braille.uwo.ca/mailman/listinfo/speakup
> >>
> >
> >
> >_______________________________________________
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> >Speakup at braille.uwo.ca
> >http://speech.braille.uwo.ca/mailman/listinfo/speakup
> >
>
>
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