Speakup with Fedora or Redhat

[Darragh Ó Héiligh]

Yes.  Orca will come up talking for you automatically.  see the noes
on speakupmodified.org for more information.  You might also want to
look at http://live.gnome.org/Orca

TTSynth will work with Orca also.


Darragh

On 08/01/2010, Tim Culhane <tim.culhane at criticalpath.net> wrote:
> 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
>>> ------------------------
>>>
>>>
>>>
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>>> Speakup at braille.uwo.ca
>>> http://speech.braille.uwo.ca/mailman/listinfo/speakup
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