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<div class="moz-cite-prefix">Hi Nikhil,</div>
<div class="moz-cite-prefix"><br>
</div>
<div class="moz-cite-prefix">I prefer BRLTTY when I'm using a Linux
system directly. But most of the time I am working on Windows and
accessing Linux boxes through SSH. It has been a while since I ran
BRLTTY on Windows 10, so some things might be incorrect or out of
date, since I'm typing this from the top of my head.</div>
<div class="moz-cite-prefix"><br>
</div>
<div class="moz-cite-prefix">First of all I ran in the issue that
the libusb drivers seem to lack a valid digital signature. Signed
drivers are required in Windows 10 as far as I know so without
signing they will not be used. The version of BRLTTY that ships
with Windows Narrator (built-in screen reader) has signed drivers
for the supported braille displays and also adds an option to
easily switch drivers between Narrator/other screen reader from
Narrator's preferences. However, the "normal" BRLTTY release
didn't pick up the Narrator BRLTTY supplied drivers when I tested
this, I don't know why. The Narrator BRLTTY version can be started
manually from the command line and can be found in
c:\windows\brltty.</div>
<div class="moz-cite-prefix"><br>
</div>
<div class="moz-cite-prefix">Unfortunately, the Focus displays don't
have an emulated serial port, so the only way to get them to work
with BRLTTY is getting a correct USB driver. So, this would mean
switching between drivers when you want to switch screen readers.
The usbfilter option that Dave mentions doesn't work on Windows 10
as far as I know, but please correct me if I am wrong.</div>
<div class="moz-cite-prefix"><br>
</div>
<div class="moz-cite-prefix">If you get BRLTTY to work, your console
experience will be different from what you'll get on a real Linux
text console. Since the underlying methods of accessing data are
different. I found Windows consoles perform worse than Linux text
consoles. So you might wonder if it is worth the hassle on
Windows.</div>
<div class="moz-cite-prefix"><br>
</div>
<div class="moz-cite-prefix">Also, it would be good if anyone could
reproduce my experiences so we can clearly document what is
possible on Windows 10 and which caveats there are in the official
documentation.</div>
<div class="moz-cite-prefix"><br>
</div>
<div class="moz-cite-prefix">By the way, Microsoft will release the
second version of WSL (Windows subsystem for Linux). This version
is based on a real Linux kernel and not just emulation. If this
new WSL will provide a way to access USB devices from Linux, we
might be able to run BRLTTY on that, but it's to early to tell.</div>
<div class="moz-cite-prefix"><br>
</div>
<div class="moz-cite-prefix">I hope this helps, feel free to ask any
questions.<br>
</div>
<div class="moz-cite-prefix"><br>
</div>
<div class="moz-cite-prefix">Best,</div>
<div class="moz-cite-prefix"><br>
</div>
<div class="moz-cite-prefix">Bram<br>
</div>
<div class="moz-cite-prefix">On 28-7-2019 23:18, Nikhil Nair wrote:<br>
</div>
<blockquote type="cite"
cite="mid:alpine.DEB.1.10.1907282158390.15289@antakarana.nikhil-nair.net">Hi
Dave,
<br>
<br>
Thanks, that's helpful.
<br>
<br>
To be honest, I'm not all that proficient with technical aspects
of Windows
<br>
10 myself - I switched to it relatively recently.
<br>
<br>
I installed BRLTTY from the .exe, for the libusb-1.0 version. I
only
<br>
picked that because it mentioned it was a more recent one, and,
given I'm
<br>
using Windows 10, that sounded more appropriate.
<br>
<br>
I configured it in the installer itself; I chose Freedom
Scientific, and
<br>
USB (the latter simply because I'm completely ignorant about the
technical
<br>
aspects of the FS Focus driver, and didn't know if I was supposed
to bypass
<br>
it, use a virtual serial port, or something else). I'm fairly
sure, from
<br>
what you wrote, thatI chose wrong at that point.
<br>
<br>
How to run BRLTTY was, actually, a non-trivial question for me.
It was
<br>
obvious that, once I got it running, I should choose the option to
install
<br>
it as a service; but I wanted to get it working first. I wasn't
sure
<br>
whether to try to run it from a command prompt - and, if I did,
whether I
<br>
needed to make sure it was run as administrator (the Windows
equivalent of
<br>
a `su' shell). In the end, I used run-debug.bat, but, as I
mentioned
<br>
before, I had to choose "Run as administrator" from the context
menu (the
<br>
Windows equivalent of running it with `sudo').
<br>
<br>
Re my brltty.conf, the only uncommented lines are right at the end
of the
<br>
file, and read:
<br>
<br>
braille-device USB:
<br>
braille-driver fs # FreedomScientific
<br>
<br>
OK, so that's what I did previously.
<br>
<br>
On to your suggestion re using a serial port. I went into the
device
<br>
driver, and looked under `Ports (COM & LPT)'. Both with the
braille
<br>
display unplugged and plugged in, there are 4 entries, 2 for
"Standard
<br>
Serial over Bluetooth link', and 2 for "USB Serial Device`; the
Bluetooth
<br>
ones were COM6 and COM7, and the USB ones were COM3 and COM4. As
far as I
<br>
can tell, though, none of these have anything to do with the
braille
<br>
display driver.
<br>
<br>
When I plugged the braille display in to the USB, a new driver
appeared,
<br>
which is the FS Focus driver. However, I've looked through all
the
<br>
sections (driver, details etc.), and there's no indication of any
link to a
<br>
serial port.
<br>
<br>
I could just try a whole load of serial ports - that shouldn't
take too
<br>
long, and I'm happy to do that, if you think it's the best
approach. Other
<br>
options are probably (a) switch to the libusb-win32 version (I
presume
<br>
that's the version you were referring to, which has the filter;
but please
<br>
correct me if I misunderstood that); or (b) contact Freedom
Scientific, and
<br>
see if I can find out about a virtual serial port attached to the
Focus
<br>
driver.
<br>
<br>
What do you think?
<br>
<br>
BTW, I'm attaching my debug.log, just in case it's helpful; but,
since I
<br>
was using USB: as the port, and you've already told me that that
won't work
<br>
for sharing the display with JAWS, I'm guessing it isn't actually
that
<br>
helpful after all.
<br>
<br>
Cheers,
<br>
<br>
Nikhil.
<br>
<br>
<br>
On Sat, 27 Jul 2019, Dave Mielke wrote:
<br>
<br>
<blockquote type="cite">[quoted lines by Nikhil Nair on 2019/07/27
at 15:00 +0100]
<br>
<br>
<blockquote type="cite">I take it, from the silence, that my
assumption was wrong, and no one (or
<br>
at least, no one who regularly reads this list) has experience
with Freedom
<br>
Scientific displays under the Windows version of BRLTTY.
<br>
</blockquote>
<br>
Freedom Scientific braille devices have indeed been successfully
used on
<br>
windows. The more likely situation is that trying to figure out
what your
<br>
problem is isn't that easy so noone ventured to give it a try.
<br>
<br>
I didn't answer right away because I'm rather illiterate when it
comes to
<br>
Windows - I'm a Linux and an Android person. I was hoping that
someone much
<br>
more familiar with Windows would respond, but, since that hasn't
happened, I'll
<br>
give it a try.
<br>
<br>
How did you install brltty on your Windows system, and how did
you configure
<br>
it? For example, did you unpack the .zip archive or did you run
the .exe
<br>
installer? Also, how are you starting brltty (including which
options are being
<br>
specified). Perhaps you could also post your brltty.conf (as an
attachment will
<br>
do).
<br>
<br>
The usual behaviour of Windows is to direct a specific USB
device to a specific
<br>
driver. Put simply, you can't (easily) have your braille device
directed to
<br>
both the JAWS driver and the LibUSB driver. Since you need JAWS
to continue to
<br>
be able to communicate with your braille device, its driver must
be left in
<br>
control.
<br>
<br>
You could try using the same serial device. If, say, the JAWS
driver is using
<br>
COM6 then you'd set your braille device to serial:com6. You
don't need to
<br>
separately test each existing serial device. Look through the
Windows serial
<br>
device list to find the one that's attached to the JAWS driver
for your braille
<br>
device.
<br>
<br>
If you'd like to use USB directly then, as described above, you
won't be able
<br>
to use the standard LibUSB driver. You need to use the other
LibUSB driver -
<br>
the one that uses a filter. The LibUSB filter gets installed at
the Windows
<br>
kernel level and intercepts all USB operations. Whenever it sees
a USB
<br>
operation that LibUSB is looking for then, if no other
application has that USB
<br>
device open, that USB operation is directed to LibUSB.
<br>
<br>
To keep it simple, it might be best to try the serial approach
first.
<br>
<br>
-- <br>
I believe the Bible to be the very Word of God:
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://Mielke.cc/bible/">http://Mielke.cc/bible/</a>
<br>
Dave Mielke | 2213 Fox Crescent | WebHome:
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://Mielke.cc/">http://Mielke.cc/</a>
<br>
EMail: <a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="mailto:Dave@Mielke.cc">Dave@Mielke.cc</a> | Ottawa, Ontario | Twitter:
@Dave_Mielke
<br>
Phone: +1 613 726 0014 | Canada K2A 1H7 |
<br>
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<br>
</blockquote>
<br>
<fieldset class="mimeAttachmentHeader"></fieldset>
<pre class="moz-quote-pre" wrap="">_______________________________________________
This message was sent via the BRLTTY mailing list.
To post a message, send an e-mail to: <a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="mailto:BRLTTY@brltty.app">BRLTTY@brltty.app</a>
For general information, go to: <a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://brltty.app/mailman/listinfo/brltty">http://brltty.app/mailman/listinfo/brltty</a></pre>
</blockquote>
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