[orca-list] Orca Fails in Studio, Espeak Settings Not Applied in Feisty, Audio Woes

[Veli-Pekka Tätilä <vtatila mail student oulu fi>]

Hi,
I asked about Ubuntu Studio and Orca a while back. Well, now I've tried it 
out and the results sure look bad. Ubuntu Studio does have the accessibility 
boot menu and the screen reader option in it. There are also separate 
options for text based and graphical installers. However, when I choose the 
graphical installer and Orca, keyboard and language selection as well as 
hardware detection happen in ASCII graphics in full-screen, meaning Orca 
sure cannot read those. I asked for sighted help but the install didn't 
complete that way either. It complained about not being able to mount the 
cD, even though the installation medium is a DVD. So I really cannot 
recommend Ubuntu Studio yet and am unsure if Orca will work in it. Too bad I 
learned Rose Garden is QT3 only, so no accessible MIDI seq I guess. A MIDI 
sequencer is one of the apps I absolutely need, if I'm going to make any 
music in LInux, using the hardware I already have, too bad.

Then I tried a normal Ubuntu 7.04 system with the accessibility options. It 
speaks using eSpeak fine in my laptop machine which is an HP NX8220 with a 
SoundMax Digital Audio card. HOwever, the speech rate and voice selection 
controls had no effect initially even if hitting OK or apply. Only after I 
had quitted Orca and ran it again, did it apply the new Espeak settings. I 
suppose this is a known problem in the version of orca that comes with 
Ubuntu 7.04. But thought I'd mention it, just in case, if it might be 
particular to my machine. The Ubuntu Accessibility WIki does not mention the 
issue at all.

Also, is there anything one can do if the speech fails to run, I.e. is there 
an accessible way to find out which sound card Gnome has found? I have a 
TerraTec EWS88MT card on my desktop machine, its the ICE24 chipset I think, 
and it does not speak in Ubuntu 7.04 and Orca. I seem to vaguely recall it 
used to speak in Ubuntu 6.10, so there might be hope. I know the TerraTec 
has ALSA drivers so when eSpeak speaks does it use PortAudio via ALSA?

I've tested both the TerraTec system wave out and the wave out 1/2 but 
neither plays system sounds nor the speech. But it might be that Linux has 
chosen some other out device in stead, such as the SP/DIF or wave 7/8. But 
how can I tell without trying them all? Sometimes I've also had issues with 
the volume on some cards. So how do I adjust the volume of individual outs 
using the Gnome volume control? As I cannot read the text, I would need the 
name of the volume control app so I can run it using the run box.

Another accessibility option I would appreciate would be both speech and 
magnification and also Braille at bootup. I have a bit of sight left, and am 
using all 3 in WIndows, with Dolphin SUpernova.

Any help appreciated. I hope this post is not classified as OT, as it is 
somewhat Ubuntu rrelated. But hey, Gnome and Orca Should work the same 
regardless of distro. I suppose I should also try the Ubuntu Accessibility 
list, too.

--
With kind regards Veli-Pekka Tätilä (vtatila mail student oulu fi)
Accessibility, game music, synthesizers and programming:
http://www.student.oulu.fi/~vtatila/