speakup and the backtrack 5 linux distro

[Don Raikes]

Lexi,

First of all, I was working with the folks who created backtrack to make an accessible version of backtrack.   With their help, I got a bootable liveDVD with brltty support included.

Once I had booted into the liveDVD, I added the vinux 3.2.1 repositories to apt by copying a file containing the vinux apt ppa repositories in it to /etc/apt/sources.list.d and ran:

Apt-get update



I installed gnome-orca, espeak, espeak-data and speech-dispatcher using:

$ apt-get install gnome-orca espeak espeak-data speech-dispatcher

I then ran startx to start the gnome desktop. I gave it about a minute to load up then pressed alt+f2 to open the run window and typed "orca" and hit enter.

The orca settings wizard started.  I was able to walk through the setup of orca without a problem then orca told me I had to log out of gnome and log back in.  When I do this, unfortunately, orca no longer speaks.  I think there is something wrong with speech-dispatcher but I haven't been able to figure it out.

As for speakup, I simply installed speakup from the repository as follows:

$ apt-get install speakup-tools ospeakup

To be honest, I would recommend that you start with the vinux 3.2.1 distro from 

http://vinux-project.org.  While it is a "development version of vinux, it seems to be quite stable and is based on almost the latest version of ubuntu.

Installing it onto a system either as the only os or in a dual-boot setup is fairly simple and doesn't require sighted assistance.

The backtrack liveDVD is designed specifically for people interested in performing penetration testing and network security tasks while vinux is more of a general-purpose ubuntu distro.

BTW: the vinux liveDVD contains speakup as well and you can boot to the console and have speakup working  or you can boot into gnome and have orca working.

-----Original Message-----
From: Lexi A [mailto:donna.m.aitkens at btinternet.com] 
Sent: Monday, March 19, 2012 10:45 AM
To: Speakup is a screen review system for Linux.
Subject: RE: speakup and the backtrack 5 linux distro

Hi Don
Could you explain how you managed to get Speakup working with the backtrack distro and does it work well?  Also gnome orca, how well does that run on backtrack for you?  I'm sorry but I am quite new to linux and I am not sure how to go about learning and which distros to start with as backtrack, ubuntu are the 2 main linux OS that are going to be used at  the university I am hoping to attend.  Is there a talking install to install linux backtrack or would I need sighted assistance to set it up?
Sorry for all the questions,
Lexi
-----Original Message-----
From: speakup-bounces at braille.uwo.ca [mailto:speakup-bounces at braille.uwo.ca]
On Behalf Of Don Raikes
Sent: 13 March 2012 23:36
To: speakup at braille.uwo.ca
Subject: speakup and the backtrack 5 linux distro

Hello,

 

I am working with the folks from offensivesecurity to get their backtrack5 penetration and network security linux distro to be accessible.

 

So far I have incorporated brltty 4.2 and as of this afternoon I got speakup working with it as well.

 

The backtrack5 distro is based on ubuntu 10.4 (lucid), but boots to the console.

 

I have installed gnome-orca onto my virtual machine as well, but I need to know how do I get speakup to release pulseaudio and speech-dispatcher to orca and vice versa?

Also are there any plans on making speakup work with other software tts engines like the svox pico synthesizer?
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