Debian question

[Steve Holmes]

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Hey, Any chance this method could enable you to configure the BIOS? That
would be really trippy if one could.  That would surely solve a big
accessibility problem for a bunch of us.

On Wed, Oct 19, 2005 at 09:18:22AM -0500, John G. Heim wrote:
> This probably won't really help you much because it's expensive and it's 
> not really a solution but I just thought I'd mention that there is a tool 
> that is really helpful in debugging boot problems. It's a PC Weasel.
> 
> You put this card in your machine replacing the video card. The operating 
> system recognizes it as a video card except that instead of video output it 
> has a serial port. So you can connect a null-modem cable to it and another 
> machine running a terminal emulator and get the boot messages.  I use it a 
> lot when I have a machine that won't boot or when I'm trying to make a 
> bootable CD. It costs like $300 though.
> 
> It really works well with speakup because it doesn't interfere with speakup 
> in any way. The operating system isn't aware that there is anything 
> different about the VGA card other than that it is an unrecognized type of 
> card. So it treats it like a generic VGA card.  If you have some kind of 
> problem, you can plug in the null-modem cable and get whatever is on the 
> screen, whether it be boot messages or a login prompt or whatever.
> 
> 
> PS: I think I have a problem  similar to yours. I  installed the speakup 
> modified 2.6.12 kernel on a machine that had a unmodified 2.6.8 kernel. It 
> won't boot unless my external doubletalk  LE is connected and turned on. 
> And when it does boot, I get no speech. There is nothing wrong with my 
> synth. And speakup appears to know it's there since if it's turned off, it 
> won't boot at all. It's exam week so I haven't had time to check out what's 
> really happening yet.  I was running debian sarge so I am not sure that 
> you'll have any luck if you go back to sarge.
> 
> Oh, one thing I'd suggest... Make sure your disk partitions aren't full. 
> Check especially / and /boot.
> 
> 
> 
> At 05:08 PM 10/18/2005, Scott wrote:
> >Folks, I have a question regarding a Debian install.
> >First seeing as I have little hope of correcting the problems with my
> >current Sid install as I can't get speech from Speakup, I am
> >considering reinstalling Sarge.
> >What I was wondering is how possible would it be to simply install
> >over the current Sid installation. My thinking is that I can keep a
> >number of apps that were previously working with Sarge before
> >upgrading to Sid and most if not everything would be replaced when I
> >install Sarge. I know this is probably an insane approach, but I of
> >course would rather figure out why Speakup hangs while probing for
> >the DoubleTalk external. I do not have another synth to connect so I
> >have to use this one. It was working fine before I upgraded to the
> >latest version of Sid and even replacing Lilo with Grub did not
> >correct the problem. It also seems to matter little what kernel I'm
> >running as I even grabbed a 2.6.13 and brewed a new kernel.
> >Sure am lost on this one, but before I do get into this install, I
> >thought I'd ask a few questions and maybe avoid loads of setting up
> >again.
> >I know wishfull thinking.
> >
> >Scott
> >
> >
> >_______________________________________________
> >Speakup mailing list
> >Speakup at braille.uwo.ca
> >http://speech.braille.uwo.ca/mailman/listinfo/speakup
> >
> 
> --
> John G. Heim
> jheim at math.wisc.edu
> 3-4189
> 
> 
> _______________________________________________
> Speakup mailing list
> Speakup at braille.uwo.ca
> http://speech.braille.uwo.ca/mailman/listinfo/speakup
> 
> 

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