Help with serial synths in 4.X kernels

[Karen Lewellen]

May i ask how one finds contingency plans for your ears, your brain, and your 
processing? smiles.
I am not following this debate closely, but it certainly supports  my 
worries about Linux as a main computing solution.  If someone is going to 
remove the door to functionality, or decide for me how I personally 
accommodate my body differences, then they are no different than say 
Microsoft.
Access is a human right in some places,  not a feature.
defining that access begins and ends with the individual, which is why the 
best access uses a foundation allowing for many ways  in so to speak.

Going back to the corner now,
Kare


On Wed, 24 Feb 2016, John G Heim wrote:

> Well, first of all, I didn't mean to say you shouldn't use a serial hardware 
> synth. However,IMO, you would be wise to consider contingency plans. If your 
> livelihood depends on that serial synth, you'd be wise to begin examining 
> your alternatives.
>
> Also, I can't promise to debug the kernel code. When I said check the syslog, 
> I meant for you to check the syslog. If I can find the time to take a look at 
> it, I certainly will but I can't promise that. I suspect that what's 
> happening is that when speakup tries to "steal" the serial port, the return 
> value is no longer just null. When I last traced back the functions that 
> speakup was calling to steal the serial port, it was bullstuff. Speakup 
> called a function that did nothing -- which isn't the fault of the speakup 
> developers. I suspect that those functions now do something -- probably not 
> what we want but something.
>
> It has probably been a year since I last posted a rant on this list about the 
> linux kernel developers. As I write this, I find myself getting all worked up 
> about it again. The one good thing about Trump running for President is that 
> now I have someone I find more arrogant and irritating than the linux kernel 
> development team.
>
>
>
> On 02/24/2016 08:29 AM, Tony Baechler wrote:
>> On 2/23/2016 6:31 AM, John G Heim wrote:
>> >  You should check the syslog. There are almost certainly messages in 
>> >  there
>> >  reporting what is happening. I'll try to compile 4.3 kernels for ubuntu 
>> >  and
>> >  debian over the next few days. I had planned to automate the process. 
>> >  Every
>> >  time my ubuntu machines download a new kernel, generate a new patched 
>> >  kernel
>> >  package. I never got around to it though. I was using a sed command to
>> >  comment out the line that caused serial synths to not work so that
>> >  automation was possible. Part of the problem here is that I have kind of
>> >  given up on serial synths myself. I have been depending more and more on 
>> >  the
>> >  combination of a braille display and software speech.  It seems to me 
>> >  that
>> >  using a hardware speech synth is going against the grain these days.
>> 
>>
>>  As Karen and others have pointed out, we all have our own personal speech
>>  preferences. In my case, I have multiple reasons for wanting serial speech
>>  to work. I find it easier to hear and understand for one thing. There are
>>  some bugs in the DECtalk Express module which might be easily fixed, but
>>  the last unpatched kernel I know of that actually worked was 2.6.32 which
>>  is no longer supported. Anyway, as requested, here is the dmesg output. I
>>  don't see anything helpful. I did the following:
>>
>>  service espeakup stop
>>  rmmod speakup_soft
>>  modprobe speakup_dectlk
>>  rmmod speakup_dectlk
>>  rmmod speakup
>>  modprobe speakup_soft
>>  espeakup
>>
>>  [   11.336314] r8169 0000:02:00.0 eth0: link up
>>  [   11.336325] IPv6: ADDRCONF(NETDEV_CHANGE): eth0: link becomes ready
>>  [   27.013903] releasing synth soft
>>  [   27.013975] unregistered /dev/softsynth
>>  [   32.824006] speakup: unregistering synth device /dev/synth
>>  [   56.630004] speakup: module is from the staging directory, the quality
>>  is unknown, you have been warned.
>>  [   56.630896] input: Speakup as /devices/virtual/input/input7
>>  [   56.631031] initialized device: /dev/synth, node (MAJOR 10, MINOR 25)
>>  [   56.631055] speakup 3.1.6: initialized
>>  [   56.631057] synth name on entry is: dectlk
>>  [   56.639855] speakup_dectlk: module is from the staging directory, the
>>  quality is unknown, you have been warned.
>>  [   56.640036] synth probe
>>  [   56.640039] Ports not available, trying to steal them
>>  [   56.640042] Unable to allocate port at 3f8, errno -16
>>  [   56.640044] Dectalk Express: not found
>>  [   56.640045] dectlk: device probe failed
>>  [   67.012005] speakup: unregistering synth device /dev/synth
>>  [   70.985966] speakup: module is from the staging directory, the quality
>>  is unknown, you have been warned.
>>  [   70.986851] input: Speakup as /devices/virtual/input/input8
>>  [   70.986983] initialized device: /dev/synth, node (MAJOR 10, MINOR 25)
>>  [   70.987006] speakup 3.1.6: initialized
>>  [   70.987008] synth name on entry is: dectlk
>>  [   70.987055] speakup_soft: module is from the staging directory, the
>>  quality is unknown, you have been warned.
>>  [   70.987193] synth probe
>>  [   70.987230] initialized device: /dev/softsynth, node (MAJOR 10, MINOR
>>  26)
>
> _______________________________________________
> Speakup mailing list
> Speakup at linux-speakup.org
> http://linux-speakup.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/speakup
>
>