8. Using the CVS Version of Speakup

CVS is a system whereby many developers can work on a project together. Since Speakup is developed by many people in the Speakup community, a CVS version of Speakup is available from the CVS server. Users can "check out" code to work on Speakup development, as well as test new code and give feedback. Some users prefer the latest CVS version of Speakup because they want to try out the latest cutting edge (but sometimes buggy) features.

Kirk Reiser has kindly provided a script called checkout that contacts the CVS server, downloads any Speakup updates, then patches the source. To run the checkout script, you will need a clean source tree in /usr/src/linux. The checkout script can be run for the first time from any directory, but after the first time it must be run from /usr/src/linux/drivers/char/speakup. The checkout script can be downloaded from the usual Speakup FTP area.

Note: If you are using Red Hat, make sure to use the Bash2 shell rather than the Bash shell when running the checkout script. To change to the Bash2 shell, type bash2 at the command prompt.

Once you have downloaded the checkout script, follow these steps to run it:

  1. Make the script executable. From the directory where the script is located, type chmod 755 checkout at the command prompt.

  2. Run the script by typing ./checkout. You should receive the following message:

    			No CVSROOT set hit Enter to select anonymous.
    			

    Press the Enter key to log in as an anonymous user.

  3. Type in please at the password prompt. (According to Kirk, you must say "please" to get what you want!)

Once you have logged in, you will see CVS updating and patching messages. Watch these messages carefully -- if any of the updates or patches fail, then Speakup will not work. If there are no errors, Speakup was successfully patched into the kernel source tree. At this point, you can compile the kernel as usual to test the new version.