Nice job on the notes; just a few comments and questions. 1. It is important to point out that you must have a linux system of some kind already up and running before you can do all this. I don't myself have a website so I can't volunteer, but perhaps it would be possible to put the modified root.bin and set of brltty disk contents on a website. this is complicated a bit by the fact that, if I understand correctly, there still must be a different brltty executable for each brl driver if you are linking statically. I am sure some of us, myself included, would volunteer to make and send brltty sets to those needing them and not having access to a linux installation or having difficulty doing their own. It is my understanding that, though it is preferable to do floppy images from linux, it is still possible to use the rawrite DOS program for this. Can you also copy a tar.gz file from your DOS directory onto a floppy? 2. it should be pointed out that one can use any flavor of the root.bin and rescue.bin, not just the "bf" ones that were cited in the notes. 3. when I mount the root.bin, I use mount root.bin -o loop instead of mount root /mnt -o loop=/dev/loop0 Perhaps there is a reason why sometimes the specific loop device must be specified. I would like to know the reason for this. 4. to be more specific about the documentation for compiling brltty for use statically, this is located in the brltty source package in Bootdisks/README. Some of the instructions there, specifically the ones for putting brltty on the rootdisk, do not work for debian, but the compile instructions are fine as written. 5. debian woody root.bin does include /dev/vcsa and /dev/vcsa0 so it wouldn't be necessary to have /dev in your tar file, though it doesn't hurt. also, nothing from /lib/brltty is really necessary. It is possible, once you've done the 'make" simply to copy brltty from the package directory, the .hlp file for your driver from the from the 'help" directory (if needed) and your table from the BrailleTables directory into a simple tree containing /sbin with the brltty executable under it, /etch witha brltty directory containing your .hlp file and your table under it. Then you would tar this tree. In a way, this is more steps, but you don't have to actually do an "install" anywhere. 6. I am a bit puzzled about all the changes being made to inittab; I have never found any of them necessary, which of course doesn't mean they might not be in certain circumstances. What is the purpose here? 7. I am currently using the "testing" version of debian, and even in testing the brltty version is still 2.99.5, and the speech part of brltty, at least when I tried using the debian package, wasn't implemented. so I would recommend to people, once you are completely installed and ready to change from the temporary brltty system you have installed to a permanent one, that you get the source from www.mielke.cc/brltty and compile it on your machine. I found the debian config for it to be justabout as complicated (maybe a little more so) as compiling and installing it myself. The one advantage I can see to using the debian package is that you don't have to try to figure out where to put the commands to make brltty come up at boot; as I recall, the debian package does that for you in some way. 8. Just a language pointer: the English word for what you are calling a "brute" copy is actually "raw" when referring to a floppy image. what was written is perfectly understandable, but I am commenting on this just so you will know the proper terminology. 9. just something I have wondered about. The debian documentation says to use bs=1024 when using the "dd" command to transfer the image to a floppy. the brltty documentation talks about using bs=512 Is there a reason for this difference? It's obvious a lot of time and effort went into these notes; several of us appreciate it greatly I am sure. Too bad it will be obsolete in future debian releases. Cheryl _______________________________________________ Blinux-list@redhat.com https://listman.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/blinux-list