No problem. Still might be fun to play with. For influencing what happens after you boot, I played with adding a boot parameter to the GRUB line, which I think is a suggestion I believe Dave Miner made.
When the machine booted, I could then find this parameter with prtconf and do some decision making with it. Haven't done anything with that yet except to verify the concept works, though. Will Brian Nitz wrote: > Ignore that. The only alternatives seem to be graphics and text. > Brian Nitz wrote: >> Willie, have you seen this: >> >> http://blogs.sun.com/setje/entry/happiness_through_ignorance >> >> It looks like this is how you enable alternative consoles during a >> grub boot. If this isn't the answer, maybe this blog's author would >> know the answer to your questions. >> >> Willie Walker wrote: >>> Hey Brian: >>> >>> Sorry for the delay - I was traveling and then came back to a GNOME >>> 2.21.91 deadline. I did accomplish a lot in the hotel room, and many >>> thanks to those in the #install chat room who helped me get a lot >>> farther. >>> >>> We are definitely very close to an accessible install for Indiana. >>> The thing I'm excited about is that it's not a completely insane idea >>> and it is well within our reach. I still need to write up my notes, >>> but I'm guessing the next steps are: >>> >>> 0) Work to get the needed SFE packages (below) onto the CD. I also >>> need to check in some changes to the SUNWgnome-a11y-speech.spec file >>> to build the eSpeak driver if eSpeak is available. >>> >>> 1) Figure out how to set the appropriate properties via GRUB and then >>> make them have an effect on the runtime environments of root and jack >>> for the live CD. In particular, if one selects "Screen Reader" (or >>> whatever we put on the GRUB screen), we need to dynamically make >>> these modifications to ~root and ~jack: >>> >>> ~root/.gconf/.gconf/desktop/gnome/accessibility/%gconf.xml -- new >>> file to enable a11y >>> ~root/.orbitrc -- new file to allow jack to access GUI apps (nwamd) >>> running on jack's display >>> >>> ~jack/.gconf/.gconf/desktop/gnome/accessibility/%gconf.xml -- new >>> file to enable a11y >>> ~jack/.conf/autostart/pulseaudio.desktop -- new file to start the >>> PulseAudio daemon >>> ~jack/.conf/autostart/orca.desktop -- new file to start Orca >>> >>> Related to this, I need to figure out how to set >>> GTK_MODULES=gail:atk-bridge in the environment that's running nwamd. >>> Without it, the nwamd GUI dialogs are inaccessible. Plus, I need to >>> figure out why the autologin stuff isn't setting things up jack's >>> a11y environment properly -- right now, I need to log out and log >>> back in on the live CD in order for the a11y environment to work right. >>> >>> 2) We need to write a script for Orca to provide better access to the >>> installer. We also need to do a thorough keyboard-only analysis of >>> the installer. I think it's pretty good, but there might be some room >>> for improvement (e.g., first letter navigation for very long lists in >>> the timezone/region selection combo boxes). >>> >>> 3) For gravy, we could look into autostarting brltty for people with >>> braille displays. Not sure how to do that, and I need to figure out >>> where the missing symbol lives (ld.so.1 _ex_unwind). >>> >>> I wonder - should we consider making an accessibility project page >>> for OpenSolaris/Indiana if one doesn't already exist? I'm trying to >>> find the best spot to put my notes (once I write them) and for people >>> to contribute/share. >>> >>> Will >>> >>> On Jan 30, 2008, at 6:59 AM, Brian Nitz wrote: >>> >>>> Willie, >>>> >>>> This is fantastic! I've often though about how useful an accessible >>>> livecd could be to provide accessibility on borrowed computers at >>>> libraries, coffee shops, but I had no idea we were so close with >>>> OpenSolaris. >>>> >>>> I'll have a look at the ubuntu "F5 accessibility" option and your >>>> iso if >>>> you provide a link to it. It may be a customization of the grub menu. >>>> >>>> >>>> Willie Walker wrote: >>>>> Hi All: >>>>> >>>>> This is just an FYI of some midnight work I've been doing -- literally >>>>> in the middle of the night due to insomnia. ;-) >>>>> >>>>> I lead the Orca screen reader project, and I've been doing >>>>> accessibility >>>>> work for X Windows, Java, GNOME, etc., almost 20 years. >>>>> >>>>> One of the important developments I've seen in the accessibility space >>>>> is an accessible live cd and installer for people with disabilities: I >>>>> saw a number of people with disabilities migrating to Ubuntu and away >>>>> from a number of distributions this time last year because of Ubuntu's >>>>> accessible live CD and installer. >>>>> >>>>> The Caiman work and the distro_constructor have helped enable us to >>>>> get >>>>> moving in this direction. With a number of people's help, I was >>>>> actually able to put some missing pieces together and create a live CD >>>>> which I could manage to get speaking with Orca. Not perfect, but >>>>> pretty >>>>> neat. >>>>> >>>>> Here's where things stand: >>>>> >>>>> 0) Almost everything was already in place. Yeah! >>>>> >>>>> 1) I needed to pull in some SFE packages. These were to get me eSpeak >>>>> (a very small speech synthesis engine) working. The SFEespeak.spec >>>>> file is new as of this morning since I was tired of updating my >>>>> IPS the manual way. Here's the extra packages. The *-devel's >>>>> probably are not needed. >>>>> >>>>> SFEespeak SFElibsndfile SFEpulseaudio >>>>> SFEespeak-devel SFElibsndfile-devel SFEpulseaudio-devel >>>>> SFElibsamplerate SFEogg-vorbis SFEpulseaudio-root >>>>> SFElibsamplerate-devel SFEogg-vorbis-devel >>>>> >>>>> tarred and zipped, these packages account for an extra 1459233 bytes, >>>>> still keeping the iso image small enough to fit on a CD. >>>>> >>>>> 2) I also had to hack here and there to get some other smallish >>>>> files in place (e.g., the gnome-speech driver for eSpeak). They'll >>>>> fall out with a reworked gnome-speech spec file. >>>>> >>>>> 3) There's still lots of work to do, and help is welcome: >>>>> >>>>> a) I would love to have an initial dialog similar to >>>>> Ubuntu's where the user can select accessibility options. >>>>> This is the very first screen you see when you boot from the >>>>> Ubuntu live CD, and it allows you to select the assistive >>>>> technology you'd like to use for the live session. If you >>>>> look really hard at the following image, you'll see an >>>>> "F5 Accessibility" option at the bottom of the screen: >>>>> http://www.easy-ubuntu-linux.com/images/livecd-boot-menu-zoomed.png >>>>> >>>>> No clue how to do this. But, if it can be done, it might be >>>>> a way to dynamically modify the 'jack' user with stuff to launch >>>>> Orca and the things it needs. >>>>> >>>>> For now, if I can just make a one-off CD with a modified 'jack' >>>>> user burnt on the CD, I'd be happy. Not quite sure how to do >>>>> this, though. If anyone wants to push me in the right direction, >>>>> I'm all ears. :-) >>>>> >>>>> b) I'd also like to figure out how to start brltty automatically. >>>>> Right now, some prerequisite is missing (ld.so.1 _ex_unwind: >>>>> can't find symbols), so a little more work is needed before >>>>> getting to that. >>>>> >>>>> c) We will need to script a fair amount in Orca for the installer. >>>>> These kinds of wizard dialogs wreak havoc on Orca's focus >>>>> tracking logic, and we end up needing to provide a custom >>>>> script to make sure important information is presented to >>>>> the user. Nothing we didn't already know, though, based upon >>>>> the investigation we did last year. >>>>> >>>>> d) Things like the network automagic dialog are completely >>>>> inaccessible. I don't know what's going on with that at all, >>>>> but it doesn't even seem to appear on the accessibility radar >>>>> screen. Heck, I don't even know what app is running to cause >>>>> that to pop up. If it's the nwamd process running as root, >>>>> we have some work to do to modify root's environment (e.g., >>>>> enable accessible and set up a /.orbitrc file). >>>>> >>>>> 4) I'm struggling to reproduce these things on a 79b box. Getting >>>>> there >>>>> one step at a time. >>>>> >>>>> In any case, fun stuff. In addition, I'll bet we can get a whole >>>>> community of people migrating to Indiana if we can make the accessible >>>>> install a reality. >>>>> >>>>> Thanks folks! The Indiana work and the Caiman work are really helping >>>>> in many ways. Again, help is welcome, too. :-) >>>>> >>>>> Will >>>>> _______________________________________________ >>>>> indiana-discuss mailing list >>>>> [email protected] >>>>> http://mail.opensolaris.org/mailman/listinfo/indiana-discuss >>>>> >>>> >>>> _______________________________________________ >>>> indiana-discuss mailing list >>>> [email protected] >>>> http://mail.opensolaris.org/mailman/listinfo/indiana-discuss >>> >> >> > _______________________________________________ indiana-discuss mailing list [email protected] http://mail.opensolaris.org/mailman/listinfo/indiana-discuss
