I hear a click or beep when booting the iso I'll try speakup.synth=soft and see if gentoo will come up talking. Other than that, I think there's no point to doing anything more with gentoo. Since the iso is read-only to make espeakup start without the boot: prompt would involve editing the iso making file modifications repacking the iso and burning that new iso to a flash drive or dvd then try booting the iso and see if all file modifications were correct. I found an editing iso tutorial over on unixmen web page I'll look at later since this likely will be somewhat hairy to get done for any iso.
-- Jude <jdashiel at panix dot com> "There are four boxes to be used in defense of liberty: soap, ballot, jury, and ammo. Please use in that order." Ed Howdershelt 1940.
