FreeBSD, SUSE, keyboard shortcuts, e-zine

[Tony Baechler]

Hello all.  I have many different questions to cover in this message, thus
the unusual subject line.  I hope some of  this will be useful, and thanks
in advance for any answers or corrections.

1. Would it be possible to get Speakup to work with FreeBSD?  I looked at
it and it is obviously not Linux, but it seems to be very similar.  I
suppose it would not be practical to try to patch that kernel since it
seems to be different, but I am wondering if it could be done.  I would
like to try FreeBSD on another computer but I need speech.

2. Has anyone made plans or attempted to make talking SUSE Linux boot
disks?  How were the Debian and Slackware disks modified?  I suppose the
kernels (the main kernel and the install kernel) would need to be hacked
to include it and recompiled, but I know nothing about other logistics
involved.  I would consider doing such a project if there are enough
interested people and if I can figure out how.  I will admit that I have
absolutely no knowledge of SUSE at all except by looking at the ftp site,
but it looks interesting and seems to have potential.

3. There was some discussion before about using the Windows keys for
Speakup.  I am not sure how the Speakup keys themselves can be modified,
but I have found a way to make the three Windows keys useful just the
same.  I use the left key to go to the last console and the two right keys
like the Alt with left and right arrows.  This is simple to do, all it
needs is three lines.  I created /etc/keymap for the purpose and have it
called at boot.  You must have loadkeys for this to work, but it should be
in any standard distribution since keymaps and other important things
would not work without the kbd package.  All usual disclaimers apply.  It
works great on my system, but who knows about yours.  Also, the keycodes I
give here work with my Windows-enabled keyboard but yours might be
different.  I recommend running "showkey" and pressing the three keys to
get their correct keycodes.  In Slackware 8.0, loadkeys and showkey are in
/usr/bin but may be different for you.  You can just pipe them or use
something like this in your rc.M or rc.local scripts:

. /usr/bin/loadkeys /etc/keymap

Anyway, here are the important lines.  Watch the capitalization and
underlines or it will not work.

#set left Windows key to return to last console
KeyCode 125 = Last_Console
#Set the right Windows keys to move between consoles
Keycode 126 = Decr_Console
KeyCode 127 = Incr_Console

Anyway, let me know how this works.  For DJC and others without Windows
keys, a little tinkering can be used.  You could use Alt+Tab I am sure, or
Alt+Space.  I do not know about Control and Space though.

I recently found an excellent online magazine all about Linux.  It was
from this that I learned the above.  If it has been mentioned here, I did
not read it.  It is the Linux Gazette.  It does have some sponsors but no
ads to speak of.  You can read it on the web or get html files with ftp.
They also have plain ASCII text versions but I found that the html reads
better.  It works very well with Lynx.  To read online, go to:

http://www.linuxgazette.com/

To read the current issue, go to:

http://www.linuxgazette.com/current/

To get it with ftp, go to:

ftp://ftp.ssc.com/pub/lg/

Note that there are lots of mirrors so if you are not in the US I am sure
there is a mirror close to you.  It is also part of the LDP so mirrors of
linuxdoc.org should carry it.  Be aware that the ftp files are in tar.gz
format and can be large because they have graphics.  Most images are
contained in their own subdirectory so it is easy to remove them.  Even
the very early issues are packed with useful tips.  There is a long
article about keyboards and consoles in issue 8.  Enjoy.  Sorry for
rambling.