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

Thu May 15 07:14:13 CEST 2025

Sorry, just saw your reply was in spam.
You'd need to wget the github raw link instead of the regular one.
The raw link:
https://raw.githubusercontent.com/KyleSebion/grml-espeakup/refs/heads/main/mk.sh

It's a bit to document. I'll see if I can do that tomorrow.

On Sun, May 11, 2025 at 12:07 PM John G. Heim <jheim at math.wisc.edu> wrote:

> 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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