Why I can't recommend Arch or Gentoo

[Jude DaShiell]

ArchLinux wasn't responsible for preventing your dectalk express from 
talking.  That was the folks that do Linux kernel development since the 
serial interface got broken by someone trying to fix something they 
didn't know about in terms of the source code and the use of that source 
code.  I don't know if you tried ArchLinux directed at a sound card or 
not.  The braille tty probably used serial ports so the Linux kernel 
developers took that down too with that single incorrect patch.

On Sat, 26 Sep 2015, Tony Baechler wrote:

> Date: Sat, 26 Sep 2015 07:20:26
> From: Tony Baechler <tony at baechler.net>
> Reply-To: Speakup is a screen review system for Linux.
>     <speakup at linux-speakup.org>
> To: Glenn <GlennErvin at cableone.net>,
>     Speakup is a screen review system for Linux. <speakup at linux-speakup.org>
> Subject: Re: Why I can't recommend Arch or Gentoo
> 
> I never got as far as looking at the Arch installation because of the two 
> major problems, one being the lack of sound and the other being with brltty 
> locking up my DECtalk Express.  However, the more I think about it, the more 
> I think the problems are not with Talking Arch specifically, but with Arch 
> upstream.  Not being an Arch user and no longer being interested, I'm not 
> going to do anything about it, but someone should probably file bugs on 
> this.  Whether we like it or not, sometimes we need to make mods to talking 
> media in order to get around strange accessibility issues.  I think this is 
> one of those cases, at least with brltty in particular, but that's not my 
> decision to make.
>
> With my own live CD, it's entirely Debian packages with a few very minor 
> scripts and a startup sound.  While it can be installed to the hard drive 
> with a single command (bootcd2disk), that isn't its intended purpose, 
> although it is an option for people who want a working Debian system which 
> comes up talking with no hassle.
>
> Out of curiosity, what is your sound card?  It might be a matter of the 
> firmware being non-free, in which case most distros aren't going to work 
> unless they provide non-free firmware.  If it works on another distro, it's 
> probably an Arch problem.  Also, it might be muted by default, in which case 
> Talking Arch (and all distros) should include unmute scripts.
>
> On 9/22/2015 4:11 PM, Glenn wrote:
>> I too wanted the talking Arch, and when it did not come up talking, I
>> considered that it did not like my sound card.
>> I'm using an Acer laptop.
>> I also considered trying it on another computer, but when I read all there
>> was to installing it, I lost interest.
>> I have installed Linux with the GUI interface many times, sometimes with
>> accessibility problems, but that aside, it went well and was easy.
>> I think a GUI interface on the disk would be nice for even installing the
>> CLI interface.
>> Glenn
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