On 05/11/12 21:46, Eric Oyen wrote: > hello everyone. > > I was thinking that if we had a live image (A full running system) with an > installer, we could have easier installations for the blind (and others as > well). Now, some systems have the ability to port the screen to a local serial > port (these are getting rare in modern commodity systems) and there are a > couple of screen device options that will allow either screen->console output > or screen->network. these, however, are fairly expensive solutions. > > I even suggested this to an interviewer from the conference happening in > canada today. Now, I do understand that making OpenBSD capable of this might > entail a lot of development work. > > now, some linux projects (like OpenSUSE, Ubuntu and Vinux) can operate as a > live dvd (and in the case of Vinux, even the installer is fully accessible) > but OpenBSD isn't Linux. However, this type of installation system could prove > to be very powerful as hardware detection and settings could be made before > running the installation script. > > Oh, and Theo, I would understand if you find this idea a little far fetched. > Still, all I request is that you and your team give it a look-see. I am > still looking at using the custom scripting project to perform an install, but > have run into a couple of snags dealing with some of the variables that need > to be passed to the installer (I know, I know, read some more). > > anyway, take a look and see if this idea is doable. There are a lot of blind > people like me that want something more secure than windows and easier to > work. > > Let me know what you guys think. > > btw, as an afterthought, I should mention that I am using OpenBSD 5.0 with > Speakup as the console screen reader. This system is my household firewall and > internal DNS. > > -eric
gee...now I'm getting self-conscious... what's better for a screen reader, top posting or bottom posting? (Part of me really hopes you say "top posting", love to stick it to the people who can't write in complete sentences, but will dictate to the rest of the world how to write). First of all...the easy part...live CD. I suspect the interest in that is rapidly approaching zero. Its a concept who's time has come...and gone, I think. Five or six years ago, yeah...cool. Today...why?. A live CD gives you a very rigid, predefined read-only environment. I think a much more useful tool these days is a USB flash drive -- they are smaller than a CD, more rugged, and probably run on more modern systems than CDs do (I say that with some uncertainty -- some modern computers come with no DVD, virtually all come with USB ports, but some have broken BIOSs). Making a live USB stick is exactly the same as making a standard install; no need for anything "new", assuming you have something that can boot from a CD or floppy and has a USB port (bootable or not!) to do the initial install from. Making it into an installer is as simple as adding the standard install files to a subdirectory on the flash drive, booting "bsd.rd" and pointing the installer at that location for the files. As for a vision-impared-friendly version of OpenBSD, I think this is a potentially a great idea for a side project (unlike most "side projects" which would be better replaced with a few lines of explanatory instruction). I would think this would be best handled like OpenSSH and friends are handled -- take the basic OpenBSD and rebundle to add whatever you need to add to make it screen-reader friendly. Follow OpenBSD, but re-bundle it as you feel best. If there are things that create problems for the vision impaired in OpenBSD or screen-reader incompatabilities, make a diff, make a regression test and submit it for inclusion... As for sending the screen out to a serial port, "It's In There" -- just use a serial console, and "tap" it to your serial reader (I'm having Vortrax Type n Talk flashbacks) (actually, I'd half-guess a modern serial reader would provide the serial port pass-through, but I have no idea). You probably want something where you just echo what is on the screen to the serial port...I'm guessing that would be a modest change to the wscons subsystem (but please don't take my comments as anything resembling authoritative or correct). Nick.
