Seeing Dog Puppy for Blind

[mcewanw]

A couple questions:

1-I need to write a script that will run FreeTTS and then Yasr. The issue is that after I get FreeTTS started I have to use CTRL-C to return to the cursor so the yasr command can be entered. How can that be dome in a script?

I don't have any of these programs you mention, so I'm partly only guessing at what you mean. However, the usual way of starting up a program, from a bash console commandline or from a bash script, such that you don't need to wait on the program finishing before starting another program, is to run it as a "background" process.

To run a program in the background, put a space followed by an ampersand sign at the end of its name on the commandline (or in the startup script):

whatever_the_commandname_is &

For example: freetts &
(or whatever the program name is, and assuming that the program is in your executable search PATH).

Note that the '&' means: run the command in the background.

If you already know the above, you'll need to explain your problem in more detail before I could suggest anything else.

2-What file do I need to edit to get the script running once Speak-Pup boots?

Again, I'm not absolutely sure if this is what you mean, but:

The script /etc/rc.d/rc.local is often used to add commands or programs you want to start up automatically and immediately after your system has booted up.

As for remastering from a commandline Puppy, I'm afraid I have no idea about that, sorry. Perhaps someone else will volunteer an answer.

[raffy]

The remaster script is in /usr/sbin, and you can edit it to remove xdialog and provide direct answers from within the script.

[Trobin]

Thank you

[Trobin]

I don't have any of these programs you mention, so I'm partly only guessing at what you mean. However, the usual way of starting up a program, from a bash console commandline or from a bash script, such that you don't need to wait on the program finishing before starting another program, is to run it as a "background" process.

What I needed was for the script to run the speech synthesizer in the background and then run yasr.

This works

#!/bin/sh
# yasr-freetts - execute yasr (Yet Another Screen Reader) using FreeTTS
# (running as an emacspeak server) as the text to speech synthesizer.
#
#
echo Starting the FreeTTS text to speech synthesizer.
java -jar bin/FreeTTSEmacspeakServer.jar &

sleep 10

echo Starting yasr.
yasr

[Trobin]

Again, I'm not absolutely sure if this is what you mean, but:

The script /etc/rc.d/rc.local is often used to add commands or programs you want to start up automatically and immediately after your system has booted up.

When Puppy-OneBone boots it goes into Elinks. I don't want it to run Elinks. I need it to run my script and a menu.

[Trobin]

No dice

I edited /etc/rc.d/rc.local , in Puppy One Bone, to add the following lines

#start Freetts and yasr
cd /root/freetts-1.2.1
echo start speech synthsizer
java -jar bin/FreeTTSEmacspeakServer.jar &
#
sleep 10
#
echo start screen reader
yasr

It cannot find the java command even though I've cd'd to the FreeTTS directory. Yet when the system is fully booted, I can run another script, pretty much the same, and everything works. Java is found, FreeTTS works in the backgrouns, and I get to be annoyed by the voice.

I can only conclude that somewhere between when rc.local0 calls rc.local and full boot java comes into play. Also Elinks is still run

[HairyWill]

try entering the full path to java

[Trobin]

Thanks, I'll give it a try later today.

I think I'll be okay with OneBone if I can find out why it's booting to Elinks, find the file that's doing it, and tweak it so that it runs emma.sh instead of elinks.

I've already checked all the files in /etc/rc.d/ and cannot see where the elinks command is executed.

[raffy]

Other than /root/.xinitrc, I've read here in the forum that a /root/Startup folder is read at boot time by Puppy.

Have you remembered adding the Java path to PATH in /etc/profile? Below is an example, but if you just added the paths to Java lib and bin, that should be OK.

Code: Select all

export JAVA_HOME=/root/jre1.5.0_06
export PATH=$PATH:$JAVA_HOME

You have to reboot after doing this.

[Trobin]

Thanks. I'll try a start up folder. I did try changing the path, and ended up changing something so that yasr would no longer connect with FreeTTS. I may have to wipe out the pup_save.3fs file and start over again.

If I have to do that I wonder if it's better to use a more up to date version of Puppy as a base. If I do that, and I want Puppy to boo to the command line, how do I get rid of X. Can I do it by deletiong the .xinitrc file? Or is there a way to have Puppy boot and automatically use the PFIX=NOX option?

[Trobin]

Onebone is now working without booting to elinks. Making a search for boot options in the forum I came accross Bruce B's answer about a similar problem. Without finding that I would never have thought of looking at /etc/profile. Also, having it run emma.sh instead of elinks does work, though I had to copy emma.sh to /usr/local/bin. But Java does work and thus Freetts wprks. Still have to figure out why yasr won't link to it though.

[Trobin]

Okay, the problem with YASR has been fixed and the needed changes to /etc/profile were made. Emma.sh, a simple scriopt running FreeTTS and YASR, was copied to /usr/local/bin, and substituted for elinks in the /etc/profile script. (I might actually be learning something here. )

Anyway, speak-pup now runs emma.sh at boot up and there's no problems running java. I still have no idea why it wouldn't work when running the command from rc.local. Maybe somday I'll figure it out, or maybe not. Either way, after the computer boots, the speech synthsizer and the screen reader are running. Which is what I want.

Next step is to find out what programs work and what programs do not. On the working list is elnks and MP, the Internet browser and a text editer. Midnight Commander does not appear to playu nice with Yasr, or FreeTTS or both. It works but when I exit MC, there's a message about a segmentation fault. I wonder if the more graphically colourful the program is the more apt it is to stop the screen reader working.

Hope you guys don't mnd my rambling here.

[raffy]

Rambling is fine, and sharing an ISO is better. You can also tar czf your pup_save.3fs (after copying it to another location, that is) and then share it.

You can upload it here: ftp://puppy:linux@ftp.servage.net

[Trobin]

Just to cheer everyone following this thread, let me say that a group of college students in Manila is currently working on desktop application for the visually impaired (hopefully) using Puppy Linux. I have lectured to them a week ago about Puppy Linux, and informed them about this discussion. Hence, many eyes (and a few no eyes ) from Manila are watching this discussion intently.

Happy New Year!!!

How are they doing?

[raffy]

Just recently they emailed me that their project proposal was approved.

[Trobin]

Just recently they emailed me that their project proposal was approved.

I have no doubt they will be able to come up with a more polished effort.

[Trobin]

I suppose it's time to let some one who actually knows what they are doing have a crack at the thing. So I tar cvf'd the pup_save.3fs file. I have no idea how to upload to a ftp site. I uploaded it to the free media file site and should be available at:

http://www.mediafire.com/?9tn0fwlig2m

File name is speech.tgz

Let me know if it doesn't work and I'll try somewhre else. Downloading that is.

It's 72 megabytes. I have no idea how long it's going to be there.

Warranty - - there is none. If by opening the file your home town is caused to sink into the primordial ooze I will be truely amazed and gobsmacked. I do not, and will not, volunteer to rescue your computer.

For the brave of heart, untar to pup_save.3fs, making sure it does not conflict with any files on your computer. and use Puppy Onebone-210-elinks to use it. Puppy Onebone should boot and at the end of the process should run a script named emma.sh. A similar script should appear earlier in this thread. Emma.sh should start the FreeTTS speech server operating and then the Yasr screen reader. If you hear the word number then you know it is working. OneBone uses the '#' to indicate the curser . FreeTTS reads it as "number".

The quality of the voice is crappy. Or maybe I got crappy speakers.

Once emma.sh is run the screen clears and a menu appears as the menu.sh script is run. This is a kludge that needs to be fixed. I needed menu.sh to run at the end of the boot process. I tried runnong it in /etc/rc.d/rc.local, but that meant that the menu file was run before emma.sh was, and thus there was no speech or reading of screens. The only solution I could think of was this line "exec /root/menu.sh" which I placed as the very last line in /etc/profile. Unfortunately this wiped out the quit function.

The only way out, that I know of now, is to use the editer, choice E on the menu, and open the /etc/profile script. Comment out the last line, which should read "exec /root/menu.sh." Save the file, and reboot. Once rebooted the menu will not be run. But you will be at the command line. You can run the menu by typing "./menu.sh" and the q for quit function will work.

Future plans
fix the voice
fix the menu
get a braille monitor working
set it up sp that acessibility hardware can be use. I don't have any so will be unable to test it.
set it up for voice controll

Use at your own risk.

[Trobin]

If you want to tweak the pup_save.3fs file, without editing the /etc/profile script, use the regular copy of 210. Then when you want te screen reader working, reboot to Puppy-Onebone-210-elinks.

A more up to date version of puppy may be able to be used to edit the file, but a different kernel may cause problems.

[Trobin]

i seem to be t a bit of stand still. I should fiddle with the voice to get it working better, to my ear anyway. I just don't feel much like it at the moment. I'll be getting vack to that later. Right now i want to see if tis thing can be made useful.


Quote djringjr

A blind user could slip the CD in, it would boot up with synthesizer, go to the simple menu.

I think that's pretty much handled. Okay it needs tweaking. But the Speak-Pup does boot with the Synthesizer going.

I've been looking through the thjread, to get some idea of what is wanted, or suggested as wanted.

WEB.........................................................Elinks.........................already installed.
MAIL........................................................Elmo...........................already installed
I R C Chat
PLAY AUDIO..........................................MP3Blaster------------not installed *
PODCASTS..............................................Podcaster.....................not installed
EDITOR....................................................MP...............................Already instlled
COMMAND LINE....................................?
QUIT SEEING EYE PUPPY

Elinks for the web. It works, and the text is read. You just don't want to get too far ahead, because te computer is going to read the pages. So what if that page is six links back. Elinks does no play nice with Hotmail, but I did get it working with yahoo mail, using the older display. I had to keep going back to it.

Elmo is for mail. I don't have an account that Elmo would work on. So I can't test it. I think having seperate command options for recieving mail, composing mail and sending mail is a bit out of my expertise zone.

Nathan F has already installes MPG123 as an audio player. I think that the installed program requires one to enter the command followed by the name of the music file that the user wasnt's to listen to. Unfortunately while Speak-Pup does load the program, it almost instantly returns. Often too fast for me to have actually have seen something before it returns to the main town.

Podcasts. I've found a command line program called podcatcher. I wonder if there is a command line program that would allow the user to creae a podcast.

MP the text editer comes installed with every Puppy version I've tried. I'm not too enamored with MP, but I can't find a simple and decent word processor that works from the command line.

So I'm tossing out the question...What woud you want your computer to do if you wer blind?

[Trobin]

I've installed Brltty, a daemon that supposedly works in the background, nd can send data to a brailler. I have no idea if it works, or is properly installed. I can not test it as I do not have access to a briller. All I can say it that I never saw anu errors during the compilation process.

I also tried to get a better voce working. It did not work and really messed up elinks, and the menu script.

If anyone knows of a semi decent linux command line text editer / word processor I really like to know about it.