[BRLTTY] braille doesn't work at all under Ubuntu 8.04.1

[Labrador]

On Wed, Sep 03, 2008 at 12:40:20PM -0400, Lee Maschmeyer wrote:
> Brltty comes preinstalled on Hardy. Do I get the right impression that you 
> installed your own version? 

NO I NEVER do that, I prefer apt-get...ing it if it isn't installed, but
Ubuntu comes with Orca and BrlTty; why should I change something I'm
supposed having received with my distro?

>If so this is probably part of the problem, but 
> not a big part so don't panic.

If I'm doing a ps ax |grep brl this is what I see:
ps ax |grep brl
 4384 ?        Ssl    0:00 /sbin/brltty -q

BrlTty is here:
whereis brltty
brltty: /sbin/brltty /etc/brltty /etc/brltty.conf /lib/brltty /usr/share/brltty /usr/share/man/man1/brltty.1.gz

And installed packages containing brltty are:
dpkg -l |bgrep brltty
ii  brltty                                     3.9-6ubuntu1                             Access software for a blind person using a b
ii  brltty-x11                                 3.9-6ubuntu1                             Access software for a blind person using a b
 
> So let's try to break the problem into small steps.
> 
> I suggest the following:
> 
> Press Ctrl+Alt+F1 to get a logon prompt. If you logged on in the GUI it 
> doesn't count here.
> 
> Logon to your ID like this:
> 
> Ubuntu Login: MyID <Enter>
> Password: MyPassword <Enter>

Well, due to help of a sighted person I was now able to add dssh and
openssh-server so now I'm able to log in from my Debian PC! oooh, nice!
 
> Now type:
> 
> sudo -i
> 
> Enter your password again and press Enter. You're now logged on to the 
> console as root, which is necessary to start brltty.

sudo su does also worx for me; I suppose its OK too? 

> Assuming you didn't add your own brltty, you can just type
> 
> brltty

 
> But I think you said you're using a USB-Serial adapter. 

No no! Dave said. I have and won't use that, only REAL USB.

>If so and you had it 
> working before, add those parameters and see if they work. Something like:
> 
> brltty -b al -d ttyUSB0 (where the 0 is probably wrong)
> 
> If you did add your own brltty:
> 
>  the pre-installed one is in the /sbin directory and probably gets invoked 
> instead of your new version which was probably installed in /bin, so specify 
> the full path instead:
> 
> /bin/brltty -b al -d ttyUSB0
> 
> See how far you get and report back. Also I've never used a USB-Serial 
> adapter so could have messed up royally here. Somebody will correct this 
> where necessary.

I put here the output of what you asked me to try:

Script started on wo 03 sep 2008 20:51:04 CEST
root at ubulap:~# brltty
BRLTTY 3.9 rev UNKNOWN [http://mielke.cc/brltty/]

root at ubulap:~# brltty -b al -d ttyUSB0
BRLTTY 3.9 rev UNKNOWN [http://mielke.cc/brltty/]

root at ubulap:~# brltty -b al -d ttyUSB1
BRLTTY 3.9 rev UNKNOWN [http://mielke.cc/brltty/]

root at ubulap:~# killall brltty

root at ubulap:~# ps ax |grep brltty
 6419 pts/1    S+     0:00 grep brltty
root at ubulap:~# ps ax |grep brltty

brltty -b al -d ttyUSB1
BRLTTY 3.9 rev UNKNOWN [http://mielke.cc/brltty/]

root at ubulap:~# brltty -b al -d ttyUSB0
ps ax |grep brltty
 6421 ?        Ssl    0:00 brltty -b al -d ttyUSB0
 6427 pts/1    S+     0:00 grep brltty

root at ubulap:~# ps ax |grep brltty
brltty -b al -d ttyUSB0
ps ax |grep brltty

root at ubulap:~# killall brltty
BRLTTY 3.9 rev UNKNOWN [http://mielke.cc/brltty/]

root at ubulap:~# ps ax |grep brltty
 6430 ?        Ssl    0:00 brltty -b auto -d ttyUSB:
 6436 pts/1    S+     0:00 grep brltty
root at ubulap:~# brltty
BRLTTY 3.9 rev UNKNOWN [http://mielke.cc/brltty/]
root at ubulap:~# exit
exit

Script done on wo 03 sep 2008 20:59:28 CEST


> Running a computer requires great peace of mind. <grin> Have fun,
Your humor and patience is helpfull, but I'm still "blind" at this moment
and hope to see the light before I decide to reinstall Ubuntu from scratch
:-)

Thnx,
Aldo.