Well, I got it to work but still have problems. The reason speakup wasn't loading was that the initramfs -u was only updating the 2.6.26-686 initrd image and not the current 2.6.26-1-686 initrd image. I had to specifically specify this with the -k option. What now happens is that my doubletalk does indeed start up very early but then quits and won't be restarted with insert+enter on the numeric keypad or the pause key (key to left of scroll lock). I tried using the pause key to kill speakup early on; I can use it to kill and bring speakup alive just fine over and over throughout the boot but it quits talking permanently, unless I'm missing a method, at about the time the gdm starts and my tty1 automatically logs in on the console. After that, nothing I press brings speakup back to talking. Since I still have brltty talking, I do ctrl-alt-f1 to get back from the gui to my autologged-in console but I am still unable to get speakup to begin talking again. -- Cheryl "Where your treasure is, there will your heart be also."
