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

Fri May 16 06:19:29 CEST 2025

I added some documentation to mk.sh.
Also, made sure it worked with Grml 2025.05.

On Thu, May 15, 2025 at 12:14 AM Kyle Sebion <kyle at kylesebion.com> wrote:

> 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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>>>
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