evolution
This thread was originally started by another list member in 2020, went a few comment rounds and died. The ISP we currently subscribe to provides us with email support which, when it works, is adequate but they have been known to make major changes without telling us in advance, insist they made no changes and then it is impossible to communicate with any live person who really knows anything. The employer I have been retired from since 2015 is a university and they now provide email service for free to alumni and former employees plus I would get my old work email address back if I can make it work. The catch is that it is Microsoft office365-based. I setup an account and have an address now which works but I haven't yet gotten my end of things to work as I do not want to buy Microsoft office and use outlook if I can help it. Another possibility is thunderbird with owlforexchange. owlforexchange is a payed app. It sounds like evolution would let me download mail from my inbox at the university and then I could use another email client to read it and fold it in to the unix world that I really like. There is a document on line from the University of Texas that describes how they configure evolution and it's the same as what we do here. The 2020 discussion on this list was mostly that evolution and gnome didn't play nicely together from the accessibility standpoint. The box I am running gnome on is running Debian bullseye and is a 1-year-old HP Rizen system which I finally got to stay awake all the time in gnome with the mate terminal. I actually like to use nmh but that's getting pretty old these days but each email message is a text file so one can read stuff that is over ten years old without running in to proprietary formatting issues most of the time. So, it boils down to I would like to use this locally-managed free email service run by folks who are helpful, knowledgeable and will probably be here long after I am departed if I can in case the ISP decides to kill off what I am using since new cable subscribers do not get email. I am paranoid these days every time there is a slight hiccup. As an unrelated comment, I used a thumb drive to install debian-11.3.0-amd64-DVD-1.iso and it talks more or less fine but the only sound that works after you reboot is via the hdmi port since the on-board sound chip set doesn't seem to have a driver. Martin McCormickAmateur radio WB5AGZ -- Ubuntu-accessibility mailing list Ubuntu-accessibility@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-accessibility
Re: Does Minimal ubuntu talk?
Thanks. That saved me some time. I may have gone down this rabit hole once before. Martin Luke Yelavich writes: > I am pretty sure it does not. > > -- -- Ubuntu-accessibility mailing list Ubuntu-accessibility@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-accessibility
Does Minimal ubuntu talk?
Does the current minimal ubuntu CD talk? I've got a good internet connection. The Dell PC I plan to install on has run vinux but the installation is outdated so I would like to just start over with a current version of ubuntu. It can read DVD's but I am not sure whether that drive is a burner so if the minimal install disk talks, I'll burn that image on an older system whose drives are just regular CD burners. The target system is not able to boot from usb or I certainly would have just done that and saved a lot of hassle. The image is the 32-bit iso called mini.iso and as of posting time, I downloaded it around an hour ago so it is as current as practical. Thank you. Martin McCormic WB5AGZ -- Ubuntu-accessibility mailing list Ubuntu-accessibility@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-accessibility
Re: ubuntu Sound Issues with Early 2000's Dell Desktop
Martin McCormick writes: > My deer patient wife can only stand just so much of > looking at the kind of screens that tell us useful things about > loafing sound systems, etc. My spelling sometimes leaves a lot to be desired. I didn't notice that until I had posted. she is dear and does not rob people's gardens. -- Ubuntu-accessibility mailing list Ubuntu-accessibility@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-accessibility
ubuntu Sound Issues with Early 2000's Dell Desktop
I wrote the list and corresponded with a few off list a few weeks ago about how the sound is dead on a 2004-vintage Dell tower system which otherwise is in working order and has 1.1 gigabytes of RAM and a 2.7 gigabyte Pentium 4 processor. In other words, no good reason to not work. The sound system works on older distributions such as the Vinux2.x distribution from 2009 and I even got orca to intermittently talk from ubuntu9.10, but everything current and useful is as mute as a stone. If I were to install ubuntu 11.04 via a serial console, would this give me the same operating environment for sound that I get from all those dead live CD's such as the latest Vinux3.2 and ubuntu11.04? I would then be able to poke and prod and maybe find out what is not being enabled for sound to work. The sound card shows that it is on and the volume is set to an appropriate value. One simply never hears anything either sounds from the booting process or the screen reader. There is not so much as a pop from the speakers. My deer patient wife can only stand just so much of looking at the kind of screens that tell us useful things about loafing sound systems, etc. I might have to install pulseaudio manually on such a system, but if it is true to form from the live CD, it will install and just not do anything. Except for the first audio experiments in Linux about ten years ago, this has been pure frustration. Everything works if it is obsolete but not now on the good stuff. That system will scream along if I ever get sound. Thanks for any tips. Martin McCormick WB5AGZ Stillwater, OK Systems Engineer OSU Information Technology Department Telecommunications Services Group -- Ubuntu-accessibility mailing list Ubuntu-accessibility@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-accessibility
Re: orca
I am the one who posted several messages some weeks ago
with the Dell Pentium 4 of 2004 vintage that has no sound what
so ever with ubuntu10 or 11 even though the bootup process
appears to find the sound card.
What I am curious about is what has changed in these
later versions that makes this otherwise rather normal computer
mute in the later versions of ubuntu?
I have been told that ubuntu10.10 and 11.4 have a couple
of sound effects that one may hear while booting but these two
versions do not produce so much as a faint pop when trying to
boot the live CD in to orca and gnome.
As I said several weeks ago, the desktop comes up every
time and the orca setup instructions appear on screen, but there
is not a sound.
As it stands right now, the computer stands silently. The
choices right now are the old Vinux2.x which works perfectly but
is not supported, another Vinux-like live CD that comes right up
talking but can't find the IDE hard drive if one were to install
it or ubuntu 11.4 which is what I really wanted but which I
truly have tried everything on and have put the whole thing on
hold for now as it just doesn't seem like it will ever work in
its present configuration.
There are 8 USB ports on this computer but no floppy
drive so it is more like newer systems than older ones. It's not
quite new enough, however, to allow one to boot off of a thumb
drive.
The discussion, here about having some sort of small
file or script to start speech from boot without the user having
to do anything is a great possibility. One could put some sort
of token on a thumb drive that the boot process could look for
that says, I want speech as soon as possible. No more listening
to the drive until it gets quiet and hoping for the best.
As for my particular system, something goes wrong during
the audio configuration process such that the system must think
it is set right, but it is not. There are never any error
messages printed on the screen and a look at sound card settings
via amixer shows a sound card that looks like it is ready for
use. The volume levels are up and one would think it should make
noise, but nothing at all is heard.
It seems to me that a possibility might be some sort of
sound diagnostic that tries several possible configurations and
does a sort of "Can you hear me now?" When you hear it, hit a
key and that's what we run with. The automatic setup is
obviously not working on this system.
Just some thoughts.
Martin McCormick WB5AGZ Stillwater, OK
Systems Engineer
OSU Information Technology Department Telecommunications Services Group
mattias writes:
> only my computer or are orca verry unstable on natty?
> sometimes orca completely chrashes the only solution are loging out or
> restart
> the desktop itself work
>
>
> --
> Ubuntu-accessibility mailing list
> Ubuntu-accessibility@lists.ubuntu.com
> https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-accessibility
>
>
--
Ubuntu-accessibility mailing list
Ubuntu-accessibility@lists.ubuntu.com
https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-accessibility
Installing ubuntu desktop hopefully Later
Yesterday, I downloaded ubuntu10.04 and it also comes right up but without sound. On this particular hardware, nothing has made any sound after 9.10 and I went up to 11.04. After running the alsa-info test, I can tell that the sound card is up, but those who are more expert than I am can probably tell more about the status of all the flags and registers that alsa-info.sh reports on. I thought the "simple mixer controls" all seemed set to similar values to what they are in ubuntu9.10 so I think the problem is that the software that feeds data to the sound card, the actual audio data, is broken. One of the how-to descriptions for ubuntu10.10 said to wait for the "melody" to play after selecting the language about 5 minutes after booting the CD. On this system, there has never been so much as a click out of the audio port in 10.04, 10.10 or 11.04. The system seems solid on all the later versions except for the sound so I think this will be a pleasure to experiment with if there is a fix for the sound on this hardware. I do have an output for hwinfo if anybody can use it as I suspect there are other similar systems out there as this one is not the least bit exotic. -- Ubuntu-accessibility mailing list Ubuntu-accessibility@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-accessibility
Re: [orca-list] Installing ubuntu desktop- I Give Up! (fwd)
Here is the alsa-info.sh output. I also tried ubuntu11.04 and it is also dead for sound. Probably same reason. upload=true&script=true&cardinfo= !! !!ALSA Information Script v 0.4.60 !! !!Script ran on: Tue Apr 12 02:32:06 UTC 2011 !!Linux Distribution !!-- Ubuntu 10.10 \n \l DISTRIB_ID=Ubuntu DISTRIB_DESCRIPTION="Ubuntu 10.10" !!DMI Information !!--- Manufacturer: Dell Computer Corporation Product Name: Dimension 4600i Product Version: !!Kernel Information !!-- Kernel release:2.6.35-22-generic Operating System: GNU/Linux Architecture: i686 Processor: unknown SMP Enabled: Yes !!ALSA Version !! Driver version: 1.0.23 Library version:1.0.23 Utilities version: 1.0.23 !!Loaded ALSA modules !!--- snd_intel8x0 !!Sound Servers on this system !! Pulseaudio: Installed - Yes (/usr/bin/pulseaudio) Running - Yes ESound Daemon: Installed - Yes (/usr/bin/esd) Running - No !!Soundcards recognised by ALSA !!- 0 [ICH5 ]: ICH4 - Intel ICH5 Intel ICH5 with AD1980 at irq 17 !!PCI Soundcards installed in the system !!-- 00:1f.5 Multimedia audio controller: Intel Corporation 82801EB/ER (ICH5/ICH5R) AC'97 Audio Controller (rev 02) !!Advanced information - PCI Vendor/Device/Subsystem ID's !! 00:1f.5 0401: 8086:24d5 (rev 02) Subsystem: 1028:0174 !!Modprobe options (Sound related) !! snd-atiixp-modem: index=-2 snd-intel8x0m: index=-2 snd-via82xx-modem: index=-2 snd-usb-audio: index=-2 snd-usb-caiaq: index=-2 snd-usb-ua101: index=-2 snd-usb-us122l: index=-2 snd-usb-usx2y: index=-2 snd-cmipci: mpu_port=0x330 fm_port=0x388 snd-pcsp: index=-2 snd-usb-audio: index=-2 !!Loaded sound module options !!-- !!Module: snd_intel8x0 ac97_clock : 0 ac97_quirk : (null) buggy_irq : N buggy_semaphore : N enable : N id : (null) index : -1 joystick : 0 spdif_aclink : 0 xbox : N !!AC97 Codec information !!--- --startcollapse-- 0-0/0: Analog Devices AD1980 PCI Subsys Vendor: 0x1028 PCI Subsys Device: 0x0174 Flags: 30 Capabilities : -headphone out- DAC resolution : 20-bit ADC resolution : 16-bit 3D enhancement : No 3D Stereo Enhancement Current setup Mic gain : +0dB [+0dB] POP path : pre 3D Sim. stereo : off 3D enhancement : off Loudness : off Mono output : MIX Mic select : Mic1 ADC/DAC loopback : off Double rate slots: 10/11 Extended ID : codec=0 rev=0 AMAP LDAC SDAC CDAC DSA=0 DRA VRA Extended status : LDAC SDAC CDAC VRA PCM front DAC: 44100Hz PCM Surr DAC : 44100Hz PCM LFE DAC : 44100Hz PCM ADC : 44100Hz AD18XX configuration Unchained: 0x1000,0x,0x Chained : 0x,0x,0x 0:00 = 0090 0:02 = 1f1f 0:04 = 0606 0:06 = 801f 0:08 = 0:0a = 0:0c = 801f 0:0e = 801f 0:10 = 9f9f 0:12 = 0606 0:14 = 0:16 = 9f9f 0:18 = 0606 0:1a = 0:1c = 0:1e = 0:20 = 0:22 = 0:24 = 0:26 = 000f 0:28 = 03c3 0:2a = 01f1 0:2c = ac44 0:2e = ac44 0:30 = ac44 0:32 = ac44 0:34 = 0:36 = 9f80 0:38 = 9f9f 0:3a = 2000 0:3c = 0:3e = 0:40 = 0:42 = 0:44 = 0:46 = 0:48 = 0:4a = 0:4c = 0:4e = 0:50 = 0:52 = 0:54 = 0:56 = 0:58 = 0:5a = 0:5c = 0:5e = 0:60 = 8080 0:62 = 0:64 = 0:66 = 0:68 = 0:6a = 0:6c = 0:6e = 0:70 = 0:72 = 000c 0:74 = 1001 0:76 = 7c20 0:78 = 0:7a = 0:7c = 4144 0:7e = 5370 --endcollapse-- !!ALSA Device nodes !!- crw-rw+ 1 root audio 116, 10 Apr 12 02:20 /dev/snd/controlC0 crw-rw+ 1 root audio 116, 9 Apr 12 02:21 /dev/snd/pcmC0D0c crw-rw+ 1 root audio 116, 8 Apr 12 02:26 /dev/snd/pcmC0D0p crw-rw+ 1 root audio 116, 7 Apr 12 02:20 /dev/snd/pcmC0D1c crw-rw+ 1 root audio 116, 6 Apr 12 02:20 /dev/snd/pcmC0D2c crw-rw+ 1 root audio 116, 5 Apr 12 02:20 /dev/snd/pcmC0D3c crw-rw+ 1 root audio 116, 4 Apr 12 02:20 /dev/snd/pcmC0D4p crw-rw+ 1 root audio 116, 3 Apr 12 02:20 /dev/snd/seq crw-rw+ 1 root audio 116, 2 Apr 12 02:20 /dev/snd/timer /dev/snd/by-path: total 0 drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 60 Apr 12 02:20 . drwxr-xr-x 3 root root 240 Apr 12 02:20 .. lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 12 Apr 12 02:20 pci-:00:1f.5 -> ../controlC0 !!Aplay/Arecord output !! APLAY List of PLAYBACK Hardware Devices card 0: ICH5 [Intel ICH5], device 0: Intel ICH [Intel ICH5] Subdevices: 1/1 Subdevice #0: subdevice #0 card 0: IC
Re: [orca-list] Installing ubuntu desktop- I Give Up! (fwd)
This is all very interesting. We have two video monitors in our house with VGA connectors. One was easy to get to but very old. The other is about ten years old and much more advanced. It turns out that it is capable of syncing to multiple frame rates and it performs flawlessly on the computer in question. It turns out that there is a perfect desktop that appears every time in both Vinux3.1 and the ubuntu live CD but both run totally silently which is kind of a bad thing, as sound is everything, here. I did try something kind of similar to what is discussed below in that I brought up the ubuntu9 version of orca that does talk and made a shell script using terminal to set the amixer controls that appear to be on and working and would contribute to hearing sound. The script is: #! /bin/sh amixer sset 'Master',0 100%,100% on,on amixer sset 'PCM',0 85%,85% on,on amixer sset 'Center',0 100%,100% on,on With my wife watching, I booted vinux3.1, typed Control-Alt-t to start the terminal and then performed sudo su - to be root. All that worked as expected so I plugged in the thumb drive that I had saved that script to, mounted it on /mnt and then typed: sh /mnt/setmixer (the name of the file with those commands) The commands were accepted. When run on the working sound system in ubuntu9, they turned up the volume a bit because I set some sliders to 100% With the vinux3.1 CD, the commands mimed as if they had worked, but no sound resulted. This is certainly not a vinux problem because the ubuntu10.10 live CD mimics the same behavior as near as I can tell. We get a perfect desktop. The language selection and calling of orca works on screen just like the instructions for starting it say, but no sound ever pours forth. I bet both will talk if I can monkey-wrench that sound card to actually be on and producing signals. There is only one sound card on the system and that is the on-board chip set that Dell uses. The hardware discovery process for sound has always been problematic through the years and here, it seems to prove that quote attributed to Mark Twain. "It's not what we don't know that hurts us, but what we know that just ain't so." Jude DaShiell writes: > -- Forwarded message -- > Date: Sat, 9 Apr 2011 05:13:15 > From: Albert Sten-Clanton > To: 'Jude DaShiell' , orca-l...@gnome.org > Subject: RE: [orca-list] Installing ubuntu desktop- I Give Up! (fwd) > > Greetings! > > The problems in the message you forwarded sound a good deal like ones I > had. > I don't know what might work with a Ubuntu live CD, which I'd like to so I > could play with the Unity desktop. I did get Vinux 3.1 to work, though, > thanks to the Vinux quickstart guide: -- Ubuntu-accessibility mailing list Ubuntu-accessibility@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-accessibility
Installing ubuntu desktop- I Give Up!
After spending about two weekends and weekday evenings, basically all spare time, trying to get ubuntu10.10 then failing that, ubuntu9.10 with orca to install on a Dell Dimension system running a Pentium4 processor, I am tossing in the towel. The ubuntu live CD for 10.10 never once produced any sound although it went through the most elaborate mime I have ever seen of the booting process. You could hear the CDROM running and the laser mechanism could be heard zipping back and forth, obviously reading the disk, etc. At the end of about 5 minutes, things would quiet down and I hit Tab, then Enter, then Alt-F2 followed by orca and then Enter again. More rattling from the laser as if something was happening, but more dead silence. The Vinux3.0 and 3.1 CD's go through the same time-wasting tease, making one think that a working system is just minutes away, but the end result is the same as trying to boot the ubuntu10.10 CD. The sound chip set is good. Other disks such as the older Vinux2.1 bootable CD come right up talking. The ubuntu8.10 live CD plays the melody and cricket sounds as it boots up. The ubuntu9.10 live CD uses a different procedure to start orca and one does hear "Welcome to orca." The running orca desktop is not quite healthy, however. It will randomly freeze, maybe 30 seconds; maybe 5 minutes; maybe an hour later, but at some point, one can hit a key, hear no response and it's all over and darned if this P.C. has no HW reset button. There are probably a couple of pins somewhere on the mother board, but I will have to get somebody to help find them and one shouldn't have to do a hardware reset often anyway. I installed ubuntu9.10 on the hard drive and got orca to talk after login, but after another random freeze, the system wants to go in to rescue mode. None of that talks so I may just end up giving up on orca for now, installing the old Vinux so as to get some use from the system, and waiting to see if ubuntu11 has any better discovery mechanisms to get the audio and orca running. During one time when things were running, I installed and ran memtester. There are 1.3 GB of RAM and a 2.7GHZ processor and it all seems to be working like it should. I know the hardware discovery mechanism is extremely tricky and I think that is where things are breaking down. When trying the ubuntu10.10 and Vinux3.x CD's which are based on ubuntu10.10, I get the impression that the hardware discovery mechanism reaches the wrong conclusion on my system and tries to work based on that. My dear wife has helped me go through the CMOS setup several times and we have verified that the CMOS knows the sound is on, that the hard drive is second behind the CDROM in boot order, the video is set to use the onboard chips and we have a 8-meg video buffer. There is really no other way to set it other than to choose a 1-meg buffer. I think we've done everything we can do and ubuntu10.10 refuses to play. Ubuntu9.10 plays, but blacks out and can't remember where it was, so to speak. -- Ubuntu-accessibility mailing list Ubuntu-accessibility@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-accessibility
ubuntu Live CD's Installing ubuntu desktop
Rather than installing ubuntu8 and then attempting to upgrade to 9 and then 10, I downloaded ubuntu9.10 and tried that to see if it would work. Part of the problem turned out to be that the monitor I am using appears to not be able to handle anything but standard VGA signals. When the boot process starts, the screen goes completely random with all kinds of colors and squiggles but I did get orca to speak and one could almost feel a palpable optimism until a few minutes later when the whole system froze up and I had to start that whole bootup process again. This appears to be a rather frequent state of affairs as it took multiple runs at the installation process before it seemed to finally complete without just going off in to never-never land. What I have is a system that almost works except for these intermittent crashes that may happen 5 minutes or 5 hours after startup. One will be typing along and then you don't hear a keystroke echoed nor anything else and it's game over and reboot. The notes on upgrading from 9.10 say the following: * Significant numbers of people with NVIDIA and ATI graphics boards have been seeing problems, so you might want to delay your upgrade until the following issue is resolved: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+bug/464591 I haven't gotten there yet to read that report, but this system has an NVIDIA board in it. My experience with ubuntu, so far, has been fabulous so I have faith that this problem will be resolved, but right now, it's driving me nuts. Is it okay to ssh in to the system, using a command-line, to do the upgrade process as I just don't trust it to stay up long enough to complete tasks that, if half done, mean a complete restart from scratch again. This all looks like it is going to be really great if it can be made stable. Martin McCormick -- Ubuntu-accessibility mailing list Ubuntu-accessibility@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-accessibility
Re: ubuntu Live CD's and the Booting Process
A member of this list reminded me, off list, about the existance of Vinux. First, thank you very much. I am using the Vinux2.x command line shell on the systems I use today and Vinux is a great product. Unfortunately, Vinux3 is built from the same foundation as the present ubuntu10 live CD. This is fine except whatever weird issue on my computer causes the live CD boot to immediately loose sanity also occurs with the Vinux disk. Neither one ever produce any audio from the system and both make the CDROM drive appear to be loading the contents of the CDROM in that one hears the laser mechanism moving back and forth as if it was successfully reading data. I actually think it is, but the data are all being written to the wrong memory space as the video display stops working immediately when the boot starts. After about 3 minutes, the drive stops. Vinux should have welcomed the listener to orca. The live CD should allow one to hit Tab, then enter, listen for a bit of music and then type Alt-F2 orca and Enter to start orca. If you try these steps, the CDROM drive dutifully seeks and makes wrattling noises like it was loading more stuff, but there is still no video or audio. The ubuntu8 CD plays the musical flourish that fades to the sounds of crickets and what I did hear after trying to start orca was a list of supported languages in those languages so that version was making the audio work correctly. We brought up the CMOS setup screen on this system and it immediately showed the roughly 1.1 GB of memory now on the system. I don't thing there is a thing in the world wrong with that computer except that its memory map must not match what the present ubuntu live CD and the Vinux CD are built for. The video display card has a DBI connector on the back in addition to the VGA port. Maybe it has a different memory map to support enhanced graphics. The previous owner of the computer had bought it for playing video games on but other than that, it appears to be just as it came from Dell. It is all very odd. -- Ubuntu-accessibility mailing list Ubuntu-accessibility@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-accessibility
Re: ubuntu Live CD's and the Booting Process
I may have a bit of a break in the quest to get ubuntu and orca installed. I found the last CD I had downloaded from a previous attempt to install the Live CD on a laptop. The README.diskdefines file is as follows: #define DISKNAME Ubuntu 8.10 "Intrepid Ibex" - Release i386 #define TYPE binary #define TYPEbinary 1 #define ARCH i386 #define ARCHi386 1 #define DISKNUM 1 #define DISKNUM1 1 #define TOTALNUM 0 #define TOTALNUM0 1 The files are all dated October of 2008 and it appears that it will boot properly on the target computer. I even got it to talk a little but I may need my wife to watch the screen to tell me exactly when the language selection screen occurs. Would I be able to install from ubuntu8 and then upgrade on line? Thanks. -- Ubuntu-accessibility mailing list Ubuntu-accessibility@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-accessibility
ubuntu Live CD's and the Booting Process
As a computer user who happens to be blind, the CMOS setup application is always something to avoid. About the only real solution as far as I know is to have somebody who can see the screen help out. If necessary, I can talk them through the process but as far as I know, there is no way to access it from a running system. If there was a good way to do this, I wouldn't be asking these questions. I added two 512 MB modules of the appropriate memory to a Dell system which previously had only 256 MB for a total of 1.25 GB. The startup routine beeped at me on the next power up, but this is normal when the amount of memory changes. The new memory appears to work as I have an older Linux kernel installed on the system and the free -b command returns the expected value but there is still trouble. If one tried to run the ubuntu Live CD before the memory upgrade, the system croaked almost immediately as it ran out of memory. After the upgrade, it still fails exactly the same way. Should I be looking for some sort of pointer in the CMOS that might still be set to a memory limit of 256 MB? The rest of the system seems fine but still no Live CD boot. Many thanks. Martin McCormick WB5AGZ Stillwater, OK Systems Engineer OSU Information Technology Department Telecommunications Services Group -- Ubuntu-accessibility mailing list Ubuntu-accessibility@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-accessibility
vinux Distribution
Hellow, list; I installed vinux which is a version of Debian Linux that is optimized for blind and visually-impaired users so it comes up speaking. This is a little gem. As the owner of several still-serviceable but older computers, vinux gives new life to them. I tried the ubuntu-live CD on a Dell laptop dating back to 2003. It contains 256 megs of RAM but still died due to lack of RAM. The "vinux" live CD is a talking console using speakup and appears to be a one-man effort. http://vinux-development.blogspot.com/ I mention it on this list because I saw a previous posting from somebody who was trying to find a mailing list for vinux. We need something like this in a main distribution because not every system in the real world is cutting-edge technology nor is it ready for the recyclers either. When I put vinux on the laptop, it simply started to work. The only issues are that you must do something about the keyboard if you live in the United States. You get a UK keyboard by default. All the letters and numbers are where you expect them, but try typing in a Email address or redirecting a Unix command via the pipe symbol and you get a few surprises. The @ sign and double-quote keys are swapped and several others are not where you are used to finding them. The Caps-lock key does not announce its status but the high pitch of the echoed key strokes lets you know after the fact, and so on. The loadkeys us commands fixes that and, strangely enough, the Caps-lock announces its status and toggles normally when shifted which is a normal behavior under speakup. The fun starts when trying to make the US keyboard the default at boot time. You should be able to run install-keymap us to replace the default boot-time keymap. It doesn't work and an exhaustive trouble-shooting session turned up that under vinux, install-keymap was putting the new map in /etc/console when it should have put it in /etc/console-setup. Someone simply goofed. After fixing the keyboard, the rest is more than I ever hoped for. The speech dispatcher and the audio devices for playing and recording sound peacefully coexist. From a previous Oralux distribution on that same laptop, I know that sound barely worked at all. You could get speech but speech and anything else usually worked poorly or not at all and failed in ways that I am sure were interrupt and contingency-related. As a final blow, the version of speakup that was part of Oralux was one of the older versions that went in to painfully-slow spelling mode when one tried to use a RS-232 serial converter on the USB port. I haven't tried a serial port under vinux, but everything else actually works as expected. I really think separate special distributions are not the best answer because, when the developer moves on or passes on, the project dies and we are back to trying to hammer square pegs in to roud holes or whatever analogy you like to describe the frustration of trying to mate pieces that don't fit the. The accessibility project for orca and ubuntu is nothing short of amazing. If we could only have a way of starting the live CD in vinux mode so that vinux grows along with the main distribution, we would have it made in the shade. The author of vinux actually describes such a hope in the blog. As a final thought, I also installed vinux on a 1995-vintage Gateway system with only 64 megs of RAM but a 400-MHZ processor. The speech works flawlessly but 64 megs is just not enough to let aptitude work correctly so I will have to add at least 64 more megs and then reinstall vinux as the virtual disk wasn't big enough to let the installation process work properly. I am really surprised it works at all. Sorry for the length of this message but I needed to explain why this is a very important and useful development. Martin McCormick WB5AGZ Stillwater, OK Systems Engineer OSU Information Technology Department Telecommunications Services Group -- Ubuntu-accessibility mailing list Ubuntu-accessibility@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-accessibility
