[BRLTTY] Alva and Bluetooth

[Lee Maschmeyer]

Hi all, especially Tami,

Having been gone a couple days and missed some posts on Tami's thread
I thought it would be easier to start a new one than try to untangle
the other.

First of all, you can't downgrade Alva firmware using Linux. It
requires a Windows machine and is unreliable even there. I had my
BC640 downgraded by the vendor. It works as a display but I can't use
the internal disk; any time I try to store something on it the machine
crashes. So don't do it even if you can. :-)

However, Bluetooth should work. If your laptop doesn't have built-in
Bluetooth you should be able to get a dongle (a dongle is included
with a new Alva but I don't know if yours has one). There's at least
one Ubuntu user with Bluetooth experience on this list. There's a file
in the Documents subdirectory if you use the development version of
brltty that should be pretty accurate in telling how to set it up.

I've never used an 80-character display but I think they're less than
optimal especially now that screens are no longer 80 characters wide
in most cases. And the PM display works great with brltty; I used mine
for more than five years. If you have a PAC Mate, detach the display
from it and use the USB plug on the side of the display. Ignore the
wheels except for large movements of multiple lines.

HTH,

-- 

Lee Maschmeyer

"Never imagine yourself not to be otherwise than what it might appear
to others that what you were or might have been was not otherwise than
what you had been would have appeared to them to be otherwise."
     --Lewis Carroll