[Grml] Customizing GRML to start speech as early as possible

[Kyle Sebion]

Hi John,
I made a script that sets up espeakup in a grml .iso file:
https://github.com/KyleSebion/grml-espeakup/blob/main/mk.sh
It isn't a very long script, so it shouldn't be hard to verify that it
isn't doing anything malicious.
To use it, boot grml, download the grml .iso you want to use and the
script, then run: ./mk.sh <grml.iso>
It will create espeakup.iso.
You might need to make tweaks based on the hardware you boot espeakup.iso
on.
I did do a fair amount of testing though (tested using 4x different grml
.iso files with espeakup.iso as a cd/dvd in a vm and with espeakup.iso
written to a usb drive and booted on my hardware).
You might also want to change the volume I set with amixer (I cranked it to
max because my speakers aren't very loud).
You probably know this already, but screen reading won't start until some
time after boot finishes.

I might look into getting speakup_ltlk working.
That is a bit more work because the initramfs doesn't contain it, yet.
Could be fun, though, because, since I don't have the proper hardware for
it, I'd probably set up some other hardware so that I have a good idea if
it is working.



On Sat, May 10, 2025 at 3:04 PM <tommym2006 at gmail.com> wrote:

> Hi,
> Some other dependencies for software speech would be:
> The espeak-ng package sound hardware configured and volume set to 3/4
> volume
> for Mastre and PCM options.
>
> I don't know how hard this would be to do, the Debian installer has this
> functionality and if there's a way you could look at this you'd have a
> place
> to look as their install has had this for a few versions now working
> properly.
>
> Tom
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Grml <grml-bounces at ml.grml.org> On Behalf Of John G. Heim
> Sent: Friday, May 9, 2025 1:23 PM
> To: grml at ml.grml.org
> Subject: Re: [Grml] Customizing GRML to start speech as early as possible
>
>
> On 5/9/25 11:32 AM, Michael Prokop wrote:
> > * John G. Heim [Wed May 07, 2025 at 01:42:23PM -0500]:
> >> On 5/7/25 12:14 PM, Michael Prokop wrote:
> >>> To clarify the situation: for *you* only "modprobe speakup" is
> >>> relevant, or do you use any of the specific modules like
> >>> speakup_dectlk?
> >>>
> >>> Do *you* need anything other than just "modprobe speakup_soft" or
> >>> alike to get it working/useful for your situation?
>
>
> Personally, I would need the following:
>
> 1. Kernel module speakup
>
> 2. Kernel module speakup_ltlk
>
> 3. kernel module speakup_soft
>
> 4. espeakup program/package
>
>
> The espeakup program has to be running for the kernel to access a text
> to speech engine for software speech.
>
>
>
> >> I mostly use the Litetalk driver, speakup_ltlk. But to use a hardware
> >> synth,
> >> you have to have a machine with a serial port. This is another reason
> >> supporting hardware speech synths is more work than it is worth. My
> blind
> >> friends say the machines they work on do not have serial ports. So
> >> far, that
> >> has not been a problem for me. Even my desktop has a serial port. When I
> >> ordered the mobo, I just made sure it had a serial port header block.
> > Alright, And you don't need anything extra like espeakup or alike,
> > but that might be relevant for users without hardware like yours?
>
>
> For most users, this would be sufficient:
>
> 1. Kernel module speakup
>
> 2. Kernel module speakup_soft
>
> 3. Espeakup program/package
>
>
> >> BTW, if you are interested, I'll be giving a talk a week from today
> >> on being
> >> a blind systems admin to the Campus Research Computing Consortium
> >> (https://carcc.org). Meeting details below. I will probably mention
> >> GRML but
> >> I won't spend a lot of time on it since i have so much to cover.
> > That sounds interesting. :) Did I understand the date/timezone
> > right, that your zoom meeting starts at 12:00 PM in ET (Eastern
> > Time), corresponding to 6:00 PM AKA 18:00 CEST?
> >
>
> I am pretty sure it is at 1:00 Eastern. It is confusing though. The
> meeting was created by somebody in the Central time sone so that's why
> it says 12:00. That's his time but it's 1:00 PM Eastern. I'll send the
> organizer an email just to be absolutely sure
>
> I am starting to think those people who say the entire planet should
> have one time zone are on to something. If I have to get used to 3:00 AM
> being lunch time, so be it.
>
>
>
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