speakup is nice

Wed Jan 28 18:40:40 EST 2009

Something here doesn't quite seem to join up for me, may be I haven't
explained myself well and you misunderstood or may be I don't quite know
what you meant in your reply. I will explain further about what I meant
that gentoo may be possible to install using GRML.

As I understand the gentoo installation process, you initially boot a
liveCD, then you mount the drive you want to install on and untar a file
onto the disc you are installing on to. Once this stage file is untarred
you can then chroot on to the installation disc. At this point you are
running the kernel from the liveCD (you should still have software
speakup available if you use GRML) At this point you start building your
gentoo system. Exactly what you do to build the system depends on which
stage file you are using. At some point you will build and install a
kernel. As I remember gentoo does have a system to help in compiling the
kernel but you are able to customise the kernel, so you could build your
kernel with support for the speakup softsynth device (either by
compiling into the kernel or as a module). To be able to successfully
use software speakup when you have installed you will also need to
install a speakup software synth connector (eg. espeakup) and a software
synth (eg. espeak). Adding these two packages in the install process
shouldn't cause a problem, I think the docs tell you when you can add
extra packages (if they don't then you can do it just before you exit
the chrooted environment).

I know these aren't highly detailed instructions, this is partly due to
the fact that I haven't used gentoo for quite some time, but I hope they
do give you some ideas how you might be able to install gentoo with
GRML.

Michael Whapples
On Wed, 2009-01-28 at 17:53 -0500, James Homuth wrote:
> To my knowledge, it does not. Speakup is compiled into the kernal, and going
> on what little information Gentoo has on its website, only works with a
> hardware synth. Otherwise I'd definitely take that route. 
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: speakup-bounces at braille.uwo.ca [mailto:speakup-bounces at braille.uwo.ca]
> On Behalf Of Michael Whapples
> Sent: January 28, 2009 5:50 PM
> To: Speakup is a screen review system for Linux.
> Subject: Re: speakup is nice
> 
> Except I thought that gentoo disc didn't include a software synth for
> speakup, or am I wrong?
> 
> As for whether you could install gentoo using GRML, I don't know for sure,
> but when I looked at gentoo the installation process had no real gentoo
> specific requirement for the liveCD used (except for the packages, docs and
> stage file which could be got from the internet). So I guess that whilst it
> may not be officially supported you might be able to do an install of gentoo
> using GRML if you can get an internet connection whilst using GRML.
> 
> If anyone knows more about this, may be you could give more detail.
> 
> Michael Whapples
> On Wed, 2009-01-28 at 15:31 -0600, Garrett Klein wrote:
> > Jamews,
> > 
> > You can install Gentoo using the 2007.0 live CD. It's using the old 
> > speakup so just type speakup_synth=xxxx or gentoo speakup_synth=xxxx 
> > at the boot prompt.
> > 
> > Hth,
> > Garrett
> > 
> > James Homuth wrote:
> > > I stand corrected, then. Question, though, regarding GRML. Do you 
> > > have the option of installing any variation of Linux, or is it 
> > > limitted to Debian or grml? I have a particular interest in a 
> > > slightly less mainstream version of Linux, specificly Gentoo, which 
> > > is my primary reason for asking. Though admittedly, a secondary reason
> to it is curiosity.
> > > 
> > > -----Original Message-----
> > > From: speakup-bounces at braille.uwo.ca 
> > > [mailto:speakup-bounces at braille.uwo.ca]
> > > On Behalf Of Michael Whapples
> > > Sent: January 28, 2009 12:26 PM
> > > To: Speakup is a screen review system for Linux.
> > > Subject: RE: speakup is nice
> > > 
> > > You are wrong in believing that speakup requires a software synth to 
> > > install linux, have a look at the GRML distro (www.grml.org). GRML 
> > > (I am always referring to the full version of GRML when I say GRML, 
> > > not GRML medium or small which I will always specify if I am 
> > > referring to these cut down
> > > versions) I find is wonderful for those of us who want to use 
> > > speakup on a LiveCD without any hardware synth. To use GRML with 
> > > software speech just
> > > enter:
> > > grml swspeak
> > > at the boot prompt and then when you get the voice message saying 
> > > booting finished (I find it can say this a couple of seconds before 
> > > booting really has finished, so you may wish to just wait a few 
> > > seconds) you just need to enter the command:
> > > swspeak
> > > and you will have speakup with software speech output (providing 
> > > your sound card is detected correctly but this is a problem for any 
> > > software synth output, even orca can't solve that). If you want to 
> > > install to hard disk then you can use grml2hd or grml-debootstrap 
> > > (grml-debootstrap is to install debian instead of GRML).
> > > 
> > > The computer I am using here has speakup with software speech 
> > > output, it also has gnome and orca installed and I did all this 
> > > installation with software speech (speakup for the install process). 
> > > Also it is a laptop and I can take it anywhere (with no other 
> > > hardware) and use speakup or orca without problems.
> > > 
> > > I will admit distros including speakup with software speech output 
> > > during install are rare and this is why I like GRML so much, the 
> > > ability to have linux on CD which I can insert into any computer and 
> > > use speakup with a software synth.
> > > 
> > > I will just explain one comment I made earlier. I said about use 
> > > GRML full version, this is because GRML medium and small do not 
> > > include any accessibility features (IE. no speakup or brltty). Only 
> > > the full version have the accessibility software.
> > > 
> > > Hope this helps
> > > 
> > > Michael Whapples
> > > On Wed, 2009-01-28 at 10:15 -0500, James Homuth wrote:
> > >> Not my impression at all. I am aware it can. However, not to 
> > >> install the software. And not to install Linux speakup-enabled. 
> > >> That requires a hardware synth for at least that process. Again, 
> > >> this is so far as I'm aware. Which is as said, the drawback to my 
> > >> already not having installed it at least until I can install a desktop
> interface.
> > >>
> > > 
> > > 
> > > _______________________________________________
> > > Speakup mailing list
> > > Speakup at braille.uwo.ca
> > > http://speech.braille.uwo.ca/mailman/listinfo/speakup
> > > 
> > > _______________________________________________
> > > Speakup mailing list
> > > Speakup at braille.uwo.ca
> > > http://speech.braille.uwo.ca/mailman/listinfo/speakup
> > > 
> > 
> 
> 
> 
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