speakup from git question

[Kirk Reiser]

You do like to ask good questions.  I just wish I had good answers.

Gregory Nowak <greg at romuald.net.eu.org> writes:

> What I'd like to know is simply if I understand the following
> correctly, or not. If you build speakup as modules, you can switch
> from synth to synth, but you lose the ability to have speakup come up
> as soon as possible, before the file systems get mounted, (this
> assumes you aren't using an initrd). If you build
> spkglue, and speakup into the kernel, you'll get speech as soon as
> possible, and you can still switch to another synth by loading its
> module later on, but the only way to switch back to a built-in synth
> as of now is to reboot the machine. Do I have this right, and if so,
> am I correct also in assuming that this gives more weight to the
> argument for using an initrd, as opposed to not using one?

You've evaluated the loading correctly.  I don't think using initrd
really has anything to do with it other than determining how early a
root file system gets loaded.  We probably should consider having
speakup fall back to a built-in synth in the case of a module being
removed but there is so much other work needing done I doubt it'll
happen.
 
> Also, since /proc/speakup/synth_name, or an equivalent doesn't exist
> as of now, is the best way to check if a synth is already loaded or
> not in a script by doing a grep against lsmod, or is there a better
> way?

That works. checking /proc/speakup/version should work also.
 
> Finally, does the version of speakup currently in git support usb to
> serial converters, and other nonstandard ports, or is that still to
> come? I'm pretty sure the answer is no, but I thought I'd ask

Keep dreaming! 'rin'

I doubt speakup will work with 2.6.23 currently either as it stands.

-- 
Kirk Reiser				The Computer Braille Facility
e-mail: kirk at braille.uwo.ca		University of Western Ontario
phone: (519) 661-3061