[BRLTTY] Ubuntu: Some possible insights

[Lee Maschmeyer]

Hi folks,

I spent much time today messing around with Ubuntu and may have found out a 
few things.

When I installed my native Ubuntu at home I have a sightling (not a computer 
person) reading the screen. She didn't notice any menu about accessibility 
(it may well have been there) so I didn't do anything accessible-wise until 
it was installed. The first time I install Wubi (Ubuntu running on a Windows 
file system) I selected the `Screenreader' option from the Wubi menu. Both 
of these gave me a brltty with a complete /etc/brltty.conf template to 
customize as needed. The former, at home, uses a USB display so the only 
customization I needed there was add the attributes and contraction tables.

The most recent time I installed Wubi I selected `braille terminal' as the 
accessibility method during the setup. This gives me the prompts to type S 
for serial, U for USB, B for Bluetooth, X for exit (maybe another) before 
any output comes up. Because I'm using a serial device, when I entered s I 
then had to type `0' for ttyS0 and `al' for Alva. While this isn't a problem 
once you know what's going on, it was just by chance that my office partner 
happened to come in and notice the prompts, otherwise I wouldn't have had a 
clue.

Once I got on the system I found that instead of the full template in 
/etc/brltty.conf I had just the lines the configuration script chose. In my 
case the lines were correct. The only problem is they're never used during 
startup unless (thanks, Aldo) you edit /boot/grub/menu.lst to remove 
`braille=ask'.

If there are multiple instances of brltty running, it seems not to make a 
difference using my PAC Mate USB display (brought in to work for testing), 
but when using my Alva ABT340 on ttyS0 the dots bounce around and nothing 
can be read. The computer still works, fortunately, so I can do a `killall 
brltty' to clean things up. This is using the brltty that comes with Ubuntu. 
Using 3925 on Cygwin the Alva display has no problems with multiple 
instances. I wonder if all USB displays work as well on Ubuntu and all 
serial ones as badly.

When I removed that teensy brltty.conf, the USB device started properly. It 
also started properly when, with the file not removed, I specified either 
`-d USB:' or `-d usb:'; that is, the case of USB: doesn't matter. I thought 
it was more finicky than that.

My personal recommendation, worth every penny you pay for it, is to install 
Wubi with `screen reader' rather than `braille terminal'. You still get 
braille and can start it up by hand even typing with no feedback before you 
get the automatic stuff working. Just switch to a console (Ctrl+Alt+F1), 
login using your ID you created in installation, and then remember to do a 
`sudo' before typing the brltty command and enter your password on the next 
line after it.

Hope this is of some use,
-- 

Lee Maschmeyer
Wayne State University
Detroit, Michigan, USA