Debian installer, hardware speech synthesis

[Gregory Nowak]

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On Tue, Apr 20, 2010 at 04:32:19PM -0500, John G. Heim wrote:
> That was it though. They should put that in the documentation.  I suppose 
> the doc writer didn't know what to say. But he could say more or less 
> what you said.

All the info you need to start the installer with speakup is already
in the documentation. From the debian installation guide:

section 5.2.3
<http://www.debian.org/./releases/stable/i386/ch05s02.html.en#id2762315>:
"Support for hardware speech synthesis devices is available only
alongside support for graphical installer. You thus need to select the
"Graphical
   install" entry in the boot menu. Hardware speech synthesis devices
   cannot be automatically detected. You thus need to append the
   speakup.synth=driver
   boot parameter to tell speakup which driver it should use. driver
   should be replaced by the driver code for your device (see
   driver code list). The
   textual version of the installer will then be automatically
   selected, and support for the speech synthesis device will be
   automatically installed on
   the target system."

section 5.1.6
<http://www.debian.org/./releases/stable/i386/ch05s01.html.en#boot-screen>:
"Installer boot menu

Install
Graphical install
Advanced options       >
Help

Press ENTER to boot or TAB to edit a menu entry

Depending on the installation method you are using, the "Graphical
install" option may not be available.

   For a normal installation, select either the "Install" or the
   "Graphical install" entry -- using either the arrow keys on your
   keyboard or by typing
   the first (highlighted) letter -- and press Enter to boot the
   installer."

So, using the information in both of these, you'd either press tab,
type speakup.synth=..., and press enter, or you'd press down-arrow
once, press tab, type speakup.synth=..., and press enter.

I'll agree that this probably isn't as obvious as it could be, but the
information you need is there. An alternative might be to either refer
folks to section 5.1.6 in section 5.2 for booting instructions, or to
explicitly explain how to start the installer in section 5.2. The
latter option would be repetitive, but would be useful for people who
don't notice the boot screen section in the table of contents, or who
don't read that section for whatever reason.

Greg


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