Hello, Martin and list. Maybe I missed something in this thread, then, please, forgive me for repeating other advices. But I think GRML (http://www.grml.org) is exactly what you need. HTH, Sergei. >>>>> "MM" == Martin McCormick <martin@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> writes: MM> I seem to be between a rock and a hard place and I haven't MM> even started yet. The Dell laptop is about 5 years old and has a MM> 1-GHZ processor but only 256 megs of RAM. There is no serial port MM> on the system but there is a USB port which I plan to use with a MM> serial converter assuming I get Debian installed. MM> I was thinking of oralux until I got on that web site and read MM> that it has been dead for several years. That's a real shame MM> because I had no serious trouble getting oralux to come up talking MM> on a ten-year-old gateway with 128 megs of RAM and a 400-MHZ MM> processor. If only there was something free and newer with that MM> same functionality so as to see if it is viable. The problem with MM> something that is at its end of life is that one is stuck with MM> whatever final form it took. If there is a bug or lack of support MM> for this or that hardware, too bad. MM> Is there any sort of live CD that doesn't also bring up a GUI MM> or have some other huge resource hog? gnome and orca are great but MM> I have been advised that the ubunto CD probably won't be a good MM> idea in this case. Since there is no native serial port, I don't MM> have my favorite installation method on this system. Usually, I MM> use another working system and kermit to use the Debian serial MM> console which is no problem at all. MM> For what I mostly do, a command line with software speech MM> similar to oralux but supporting more recent systems was what I MM> was shooting for. This system doesn't appear to quite have the MM> memory to handle orca, software speech and gnome. MM> Festival will probably work fine based upon what I have heard MM> it do on slower systems, but it's that need for a talking MM> installation procedure I am concerned about. MM> Martin McCormick MM> _______________________________________________ Blinux-list MM> mailing list Blinux-list@xxxxxxxxxx MM> https://www.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/blinux-list _______________________________________________ Blinux-list mailing list Blinux-list@xxxxxxxxxx https://www.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/blinux-list