There was only a very short period where most hardware speech
synthesizers worked with standard linux kernels. For many years, you had
to compile the kernel yourself to get speech at all regardless of
whether you used hardware or software speech. Then for a brief period,
support for the speakup screen reader was included in most stock kernels
with support for hardware speech. Then somebody patched the kernel code
deliberately to make hardware speech synths not work. This was done
because the kernel developers disapproved of the way speakup talked to
the hardware. I think the short period where stock kernels worked with
hardware synths were numbered 2.3. That was several years ago.
Your best bet, if you want to use speakup with a hardware synth, is to
compile the kernel after patching the code to re-enable hardware synths.
I have directions for doing this on the web site of the International
Association of Visually Impaired Technologists.
http://www.iavit.org/~john/debian/build.html
Those instructions are kind of old and may not work on more recent
kernels. Let me know if they need to be updated and I'll see if I can
figure it out.
On 12/13/2015 05:13 PM, Karen Lewellen wrote:
what i was asking in a way you answered, that new kernels, do not
support hardware speech.
In a totally different thread you indicated the need to compile Linux
with an old kernel, as in not the current one, for hardware speech.
I am asking to confirm this in case I must explain why I do not want a
more current distribution with this Kernel problem.
Software speech is a physical problem for me.
Frankly the fact squeeze is about to stop being supported has no
impact on how I intend using this Linux box, assuming it ever gets
off the ground.
so to keep it simple, current kernels do not support hardware speech
any longer Is this right?
On Sun, 13 Dec 2015, Tony Baechler wrote:
I don't understand what you're asking. I think you're asking if you
need an older kernel for hardware speech. If you're using a serial
synth, the answer would seem to be yes, but there are patches for
newer kernels which I haven't tested. If you can live with software
speech, you don't need an older kernel. If you're only going to ssh
to the machine and don't need speech, it makes no difference what
kernel you're running. I should mention that Squeeze will very
shortly no longer be supported and will be removed from the archive.
Kernel 2.6.32 had upstream support dropped this year. If you have a
sound card and can tolerate software speech, that would be my
suggestion. If you must have serial speech, maybe someone can compile
a custom kernel for you, but you'd have to do the install with
software speech, have someone else do it or do it over ssh. What I
did was install Squeeze, upgrade to Wheezy and keep both kernels.
That way I could have hardware speech if I wanted, but I actually
didn't mind ESpeak for the few times I actually sat at the machine.
I did everything over ssh and I really didn't need speech except
rarely. Another thought I had is a serial console. That might be
better for you since you wouldn't need ssh, could access it from DOS,
use hardware speech and I think D-I lets you install that way. That
also gives you boot messages which you don't get with software speech.
On 12/9/2015 2:07 PM, Karen Lewellen wrote:
Hi all,
I hope I ask this clearly.
I *believe* I may have found a source for local Linux help here.
As I sated a while back I intend using ssh telnet to reach this box.
However I may need to explain to the person helping me about the
changes
that I believe? now might require too much work to insure speech in
later
editions of Debian. the need to compile or use an older Kernel?
I do not pretend to have that fact correctly, only I recall others
making
mention of this need.
I have no interest so much in using speech on this box. still I
may have
a
strong argument for my older editions of Debian based on the older
Kennel
still existing in squeeze.
Thanks,
Karen
_______________________________________________
Blinux-list mailing list
Blinux-list@xxxxxxxxxx
https://www.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/blinux-list
--
Tony Baechler, founder, Baechler Access Technology Services
Putting accessibility at the forefront of technology
mailto:bats@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Phone: 1-619-746-8310 Fax/SMS: 1-619-627-1696
_______________________________________________
Blinux-list mailing list
Blinux-list@xxxxxxxxxx
https://www.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/blinux-list
_______________________________________________
Blinux-list mailing list
Blinux-list@xxxxxxxxxx
https://www.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/blinux-list
_______________________________________________
Blinux-list mailing list
Blinux-list@xxxxxxxxxx
https://www.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/blinux-list