Speakup with Fedora or Redhat

Fri Jan 8 06:49:50 EST 2010

Thanks Darragh,

Probably a bit off topic here, but does Orka come with a default synth?  i.e
once I start Orka  will it speak out of the box so to speak?

Will Orka work with TTSynth or another synth which is close to eloquence on
Windows?

Tim

-----Original Message-----
From: speakup-bounces at braille.uwo.ca [mailto:speakup-bounces at braille.uwo.ca]
On Behalf Of Darragh O Heiligh
Sent: 08 January 2010 11:45
To: Speakup is a screen review system for Linux.
Subject: Re: Speakup with Fedora or Redhat

Espeak would probably be your best bet to get started.

In terms of modules for Speakup, you'd use the SoftSynth module and it would
connect to speech-dispatcher and speechd_up which in turn connects to the
synthesizer.  This is probably less complicated now. It has been a few years
since I've done anything with that.

You should look at the build instructions for Vinux on the vinux project
blog.  It gives some great ideas for creating an accessible linux
environment.

One thing to keep in mind and it was the most important line of the
installation howto.  Installing Linux and getting it to your liking is the
hardest part about Linux.

Don't expect it to work the way you want it to over night if your going to
heavily use software speech in the CLI.

In saying that, if your good with using Orca in Gnome, you can get Fedora up
and running in about an hour and everything will be fine within reason.

On 08/01/2010, Tim Culhane <tim.culhane at criticalpath.net> wrote:
> Hi,
>
> Ok,  looks like I will be going with Fedora for now.
>
> So,  looks like what I need to do is:
>
> Get fedora installed
> Download and compile Speakup into the Fedora kernel
>
> Where exactly do I get the synthesizer modules for Speakup?  Are there 
> any free modules to get me started, or do you need to pay for them 
> all?
>
> Which  software synthesizer is considered to be the best, or most 
> widely used?
>
> Regards,
>
> Tim
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: speakup-bounces at braille.uwo.ca 
> [mailto:speakup-bounces at braille.uwo.ca]
> On Behalf Of Darragh O Heiligh
> Sent: 06 January 2010 13:40
> To: Speakup is a screen review system for Linux.
> Subject: Re: Speakup with Fedora or Redhat
>
>
> Tim,
>
> Answers to your questions are below:
>
> 1.  If I go with Redhat as opposed to Fedora, which version of Redhat 
> should I use.  Will speakup be compiled into this kernel or does it 
> need to be done manually.  If it needs to be done manually is 
> documentation available for this process?
>
> As far as I am aware, Speakup was only supplied with only one Red hat 
> kernel.  It is no longer part of the stock kernel for Red hat. 
> Installation instructions should be available somewhere. If you have 
> problems finding instructions or you'd like some suggestions / help 
> with the process, give me a shout.
>
>
> 2.  If there really isn't much difference between Fedora and Redhat, 
> which version of Fedora should I use?  Is there a modified speakup 
> distribution for Fedora 12?  If not,  can speakup be compiled into the 
> Fedora 12 kernel?
>
> What version and flavour of Linux that you choose depends on what you 
> want to do with it.  Of course, it also depends on how much support 
> you can get from the community. Especially when you are just starting 
> out with it. For that reason alone, I would suggest that you go with 
> Fedora.
>
> Fedora 12 does not yet have a speakup modified version available via 
> speakup-modified.org for some reason.  However, there are no reasons 
> that I am aware of why you shouldn't be able to compile speakup into 
> the kernel.  I have Fedora 12 on a box at home.  I might try to get 
> some time to do this shortly and report back.  If I'm successful, I'll 
> place the audio recording of the process to www.lalrecordings.com so 
> that others can follow.
>
> The installation process for installing speakup into the kernel is 
> reasonably similar for most versions and distributions.  1... download 
> and install dependencies, 2.  download the speakup source, 3. install 
> any dependencies for your software synthesizer, 4.  use make 
> cloneconfig if your distribution supports it.  If not, copy the config 
> file from ....... aah! I cant remember where that is stored.  5.  use 
> make menuconfig to add speakup and the synthesizer module as a module 
> as part of the kernel or a loadable module that can be loaded in the 
> application space. finally, use the commands for preparing and 
> compiling the new kernel. That's a really summarised process but it 
> will give you an idea what is involved.
>
>
> 3.  I will need to use a software based synthesizer.  I believe TTSync 
> is the one closest to Eloquence, which I use on windows.  Will TTSync 
> work with the latest versions of speakup on Fedora and Redhat?  Since 
> it is software based, I'm assuming that TTSync won't speak from boot 
> up?  If not, can I use an alternative during boot up and then switch 
> to TTSync?
>
> There's a bit to answer there...
> Yes.  you can have two synthes available to you. just compile them as 
> loadable modules. TTSynth will almost definitly work for you, you'll 
> just need to spend time finding and installing the dependencies... and 
> in some cases, the dependencies of the dependencies.  It can be messy 
> but worth it if your set on using that synthesizer. You are right that 
> hardware synthesizers are your only option for reading boot messages 
> in realtime. There is a list of synthesizers in the Linux install 
> howto on www.speakupmodified.org I personally use an apollo but I hate 
> it.
>
> Hope this answers your questions.
>
> Oh, sorry for not answering your mail a few weeks ago that you sent 
> directly. To answer your question, the only talking boot loader that I 
> am currently aware of is the one available during the installation of 
> OpenSuSE. I know there were a lot of plans in that community to extend 
> the functionality but due to various priorities getting in the way, I 
> haven't followed the work on this.  I'd suggest talking to Brian, one 
> of the main men in the OpenSuSE accessibility movement.
>
>
>
> If this is concerning you though, there are ways of making the 
> navigation of the boot screen a bit easier by making modifications to 
> the menu.list
>
>
> On 06/01/2010, Tim Culhane <tim.culhane at criticalpath.net> wrote:
>> Hi,
>>
>> I'm in the process of getting a new PC in work.  I'm going to be 
>> installing a partitioned drive with linux on one of the partitions.
>>
>> I work as a software engineer and many of the products I work with 
>> run on Linux,  and the preferred  flavour is Redhat Enterprise 
>> Server.
>>
>> AsI'm blind I want to use a flavour of linux which works with speakup 
>> on my desk top.
>>
>> I know that speakup works with Fedora  and that Fedora is based on 
>> Redhat. There appears to be a modified speakup distribution of Fedora 
>> 9 available.
>>
>> So,  I've the following questions:
>>
>> 1.  If I go with Redhat as opposed to Fedora, which version of Redhat 
>> should I use.  Will speakup be compiled into this kernel or does it 
>> need to be done manually.  If it needs to be done manually is 
>> documentation available for this process?
>>
>> 2.  If there really isn't much difference between Fedora and Redhat, 
>> which version of Fedora should I use?  Is there a modified speakup 
>> distribution for Fedora 12?  If not,  can speakup be compiled into 
>> the Fedora 12 kernel? Is there documentation?
>>
>> 3.  I will need to use a software based synthesizer.  I believe 
>> TTSync is the one closest to Eloquence, which I use on windows.  Will 
>> TTSync work with the latest versions of speakup on Fedora and Redhat?  
>> Since it is software based, I'm assuming that TTSync won't speak from 
>> boot up?  If not, can I use an alternative during boot up and then 
>> switch to TTSync?
>>
>> Many thanks for any assistance you can give,
>>
>> Regards,
>>
>> Tim
>>
>> -------------------------
>> Tim Culhane,
>> Critical Path Ireland,
>> 42-47 Lower Mount Street,
>> Dublin 2.
>> Direct line: 353-1-2415107
>> phone: 353-1-2415000
>>
>> Tim.culhane at criticalpath.net
>> http://www.criticalpath.net
>>
>> Critical Path
>> a global leader in digital communications
>> ------------------------
>>
>>
>>
>> _______________________________________________
>> Speakup mailing list
>> Speakup at braille.uwo.ca 
>> http://speech.braille.uwo.ca/mailman/listinfo/speakup
>>
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