Linux distros (was Re: RH9 disks on the net.)

[Luke Davis]

The original discussion was Slackware's use of unmodified kernel sources
in their distribution.  It then went to the issue of Speakup not being in
the regular kernel source, and thus Slackware's need to provide patched
speakup kernels, for its distribution's install kernels.
Yes, if you are compiling a new kernel, you can add anything you want.
However, if you are installing a new distribution, you get what they give
you, or you go through the hassles of obtaining specialized bootdisks.
It would simplify things greatly, if Speakup was included in the master
kernel.org source tree, as just another driver.

I said that I thought, in order for this to happen, speakup needed the
ability to start in a dormant, or unloaded state by default, and therefore
be activatable by a boot paramater of "speakup=on,speakup_synth=dectlk".
I then posited, that if such a parameter existed, it should be made
possible, during a kernel compile, to change that defaulting to off
behavior, such that a "speakup=on" would not be necessary, if the person
compiling the kernel *wanted* speakup to be on all of the time, unless
they did the converse of the above, and specified a "speakup=off" boot
parameter (such as might be necessary, if another family member was
booting the system, and didn't want speech).

Yes, this latter is a separate issue, but it entered the discussion as
explained, and is thus a part of it, so long as anyone cares to talk to me
about it.:)

Luke


On Thu, 10 Apr 2003, Doug Sutherland wrote:

> Luke,
>
>  > We're talking about the official distribution, not your own
>  > patched copy of the official distribution of the kernel.
>
> What's the difference? Presumably if speakup was added to the
> official, it would do what I am looking at: it adds a new
> option in console drivers for speakup, and allows you to
> select synthesizers. Why should it be any different if it was
> in the official source?
>
> Are you talking about a kernel parameter to tell it to use
> speakup or not? If so, I think that is a separate issue.
> This is the build of the kernel.
>
>    -- Doug
>
>
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> Speakup at braille.uwo.ca
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>