You can either boot a speakup-enhanced kernel image from a floppy, or from your boot loader. I use the boot loader called lilo. an example entry from my "/etc/lilo.conf" is below, for your entertainment :). Note that, in order for this to work, you have to have compiled such a kernel image, according to the instructions on the speakup web site, and those found in the kernel source "README" file. Good Luck, -Dave ### Sample "lilo.conf" entry for ### booting a speakup-enhanced kernel image for the ### doubletalk lt synthesizer. ### This image boots when an "l" ### is typed at system startup... image = /boot/vmlinuz-2.4.9-13custom label=litetalk alias = l read-only root=/dev/hda2 append = "speakup_synth=ltlk"