hi Stefan und Samuel, the problem with the braille support in bios is that the modern PCs don't have a seriel-port maybe an on-board pin-connector
that's why more an more braille-display manufactories switch to usb-connection so, we need usb-serial-converter support in bios another problem is that the braille-display-protocoll is not a standard each manufactory use their own protocoll in some cases the protocoll is dependent on the model and they also use different usb-serial-converters the braille-driver is only one part a second part is a very small and simple screenrading mechainism to genrate a proper output I think first it would be helpful to have bios access from the console with a small tool to adjust bios settings like boot from CD or enable/disable hardware maybe there is already a way to do this best regards marco On Mon, 3 Jul 2006, Stefan Reinauer wrote: > * Samuel Thibault <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> [060703 00:06]: > > BIOSes is an area where accessibility is approximately non-existent. > > Asking vendors to support hardware speech syntheses and braille devices > > is quite dreamwork. I tried to convince accessibility people to release > > basic drivers with BSD licenses so that vendors might integrate them, > > but they just refused that, arguing that vendors will not make any > > effort to integrate them, and there will always be bugs > > Maybe this code could be encapsulated, similar to how VGA > bios or network boot is handled. On the other hand, this would cut off > quite some of the bringup from "visibility" > > > LinuxBios, however, can be a great opportunity to have an accessible > > BIOS. > > > > So what can be done? If I understood well, LinuxBios is a linux kernel > > -based bios. Does that mean that it has the notion of process, or does > > it run only in kernel mode? (which is sufficient for taking advantage of > > linux drivers). > > LinuxBIOS initializes the machine just far enough so that it can run a > Linux kernel from flash memory, hence the name. This in-flash Linux can > run normal userspace programs as well as load another kernel from a > hard disk or any other supported medium. > > usually we can say: the main information exchange with LinuxBIOS (before > the kernel is started) is not via VGA but via serial, which i believe is > in theory usable with a braille terminal connected to another machine. > (Is this correct?) > > The interaction part is all happening while Linux is loaded (ie. from flash) > so we could use a local braille terminal at this point by using all the > Linux utilities. > > One question is: how big is the Linux code to support one/some/many/all > braille terminals and can we fit this in a 512kB/1MB flash part. > The answer mostly depends on your needs. > > Regards > Stefan > > -- > coresystems GmbH o Brahmsstr. 16 o D-79104 Freiburg i. Br. > Tel.: +49 761 7668825 o Fax: +49 761 7664613 > Email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] o http://www.coresystems.de/ > ------------------------------------------------------------ Marco Skambraks, Product Manager SUSE LINUX Products GmbH, Maxfeldstr. 5, D-90409 Nuernberg T: +49 (0) 911 74053-0 Fax: +49 (0) 911 74053-483 [EMAIL PROTECTED] ------------------------------------------------------------ ** life is hard and then you die ** -- linuxbios mailing list [email protected] http://www.openbios.org/mailman/listinfo/linuxbios
