help with Debian

[Glenn at home]

Help needed:
I have had success with this before with RedHat in the past, but not on this 
computer.
But I cannot get any sound out of the synthesizer on this Debian boot up for 
the installation...
I did have winblows on this system with an Artic Braille pad for the synth, 
so I know that the connection is right, and it is "com 1" (ser=0).
But I have tried both of the following lines with the disk I made from the 
boot.img disk:
linux speakup_synth=txprt
and I have also tried:
linux speakup_synth=txprt speakup_ser=0
I get no sound
but it runs after I press enter after the above command
but stops, and as soon as I make a keystroke, it runs again, but still 
nothing happens.
Any help appreciated.
Glenn