problem LOADING LITETALK DRIVER

[John G Heim]

Okay, so now it depends on which kernel version you are using. I've seen 
messages on this list that seem to indicate that the linux kernel has 
been patched so you can use a litetalk. I could not get my litetalk to 
work even with an ubuntu 4.2 kernel. I haven't tried it yet with the 
ubuntu 4.4 kernels. But it looks like you are running debian stable 
which has a 3.16 kernel. If so, you are going to have to install a 
patched kernel.

I was just about to make a patched kernel for debian jessie available on 
the web site of the International Association of Visually Impaired 
Technologiests, www.iavit.org. I've been on vacation for 2 weeks and I 
uploaded it right before I left. I can probably finish it up today or 
tomorrow if you want to give it a try. I can tell you how to download a 
file for apt that will recognize the iavit.org archive and then you can 
use apt-get to install my patched kernel.

Another thing you could do is to  try the script I wrote to compile a 
kernel from the debian kernel source package. It automatically downloads 
the debian kernel source, installs a patch I wrote to work around the 
bug.  and compiles the kernel. I wrote the script to make it easier for 
me to maintain a patched kernel for people to download. Theoretically, 
you run this script, come back a couple of hours later, depending on how 
fast your machine is, and you have a patched kernel package ready to 
install.

Finally, I can give you instructions for patching the kernel so you 
don't have to rely on me or anyone else to fix the problem. It's up to 
you. To fix the kernel code so it works, you edit the file 
drivers/staging/speakup/serialio.c. Somewhere around line 46,  find and 
remove the line that says "return null". Then recompile the kernel by 
whatever means you want. I use the debian makefile myself but that won't 
work if you get the code directly from linux-kernel.org. Those of us on 
this list can give you more detailed instructions if you decide you want 
tto learn how to fix the kernel yourself.

On 08/01/2016 12:59 PM, Tom Moore wrote:
> Hi,
> No I wasn't in the know about any drivers not working with Speakup.
> Here is the syslog output.
>
> Aug  1 13:16:53 debian kernel: [17961.873872] speakup_ltlk: module is
> from the staging directory, the quality is unknown, you have been
> warned.
> Aug  1 13:16:53 debian kernel: [17961.874361] releasing synth soft
> Aug  1 13:16:53 debian kernel: [17961.874862] unregistered /dev/softsynth
> Aug  1 13:16:53 debian kernel: [17961.874866] synth probe
> Aug  1 13:16:53 debian kernel: [17961.874869] Ports not available,
> trying to steal them
> Aug  1 13:16:53 debian kernel: [17961.874875] Unable to allocate port
> at 3f8, errno -16
> Aug  1 13:16:53 debian kernel: [17961.874877] LiteTalk: not found
> Aug  1 13:16:53 debian kernel: [17961.874880] ltlk: device probe failed
>
>
> On 8/1/16, John G Heim <jheim at math.wisc.edu> wrote:
>> Are you aware of the bug that causes the litetalk driver to fail to load
>> because of a conflict with the way the kernel keeps track of what is
>> using the serial port? I think this bug or feature has been in the
>> kernel since the 2.6 release. There are different workarounds depending
>> on your kernel version. Poke around in the syslog for an error message.
>> Or do the following and post it here:
>>
>> # tail -f /var/log/syslog &
>> # modprobe speakup_ltlk
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> On 08/01/2016 08:47 AM, Tom Moore wrote:
>>> Hi guys,
>>> What is the procedure for loading the litetalk driver in Speakup?
>>> I have installed Debian 8.5 with software speech and wish to use the
>>> Litetalk connected to the serial port.
>>> Modprobe -a speakup_ltlk
>>> Doesn't seem to get the synt talking and specifiying the speakup.ser=0 or
>>> speakup_ser=0 didn't seem to work either.
>>>
>>> Thanks for any help guys,
>>> Tom
>>>
>>>
>>> _______________________________________________
>>> Speakup mailing list
>>> Speakup at linux-speakup.org
>>> http://linux-speakup.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/speakup
>> --
>> --
>> John G. Heim; jheim at math.wisc.edu; sip://jheim@sip.linphone.org
>>
>> _______________________________________________
>> Speakup mailing list
>> Speakup at linux-speakup.org
>> http://linux-speakup.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/speakup
>>

-- 
--
John G. Heim; jheim at math.wisc.edu; sip://jheim@sip.linphone.org