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

Sun May 11 19:06:04 CEST 2025

I'm getting HTML, not a script when I wget that link. But it is 
important to describe the process rather than to provide a script.  The 
reason is that I want to document this so other people can use it in the 
future. It's one thing if the GRML developers change a flag in grml2iso, 
that kind of thing is going to happen and you have to fix your 
documentation when it does. But I don't want to tell people to download 
a script that may or may not be there in the future.

On 5/11/25 12:19 AM, Kyle Sebion wrote:
> 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 
> <https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://github.com/KyleSebion/grml-espeakup/blob/main/mk.sh__;!!Mak6IKo!KRveEP_wSmqkGWjfMoJnuOGc6lW7lEHbwRT5N4XpDK8qH8tNxfcT3cyjCO3wR-YiS5miNMSyPbipyT0jCQ$>
> 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
>     <https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://carcc.org__;!!Mak6IKo!KRveEP_wSmqkGWjfMoJnuOGc6lW7lEHbwRT5N4XpDK8qH8tNxfcT3cyjCO3wR-YiS5miNMSyPbjP_dtPvg$>).
>     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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