a blindunfriendly Sarge installer problem
Please respond me in BCC since I'm not subscribed to the list.
Hi,
I am vision impaired, and since I help people migrating to Sarge I'm
"forced" to use my Mini-Woody to be able to install a Sarge (excluding
only the non-US mirror):
it works fine but I had preferred installing Sarge from a Sarge CD.
Currently this cannot!
Why does it works starting from a Woody?
- my method:
I open with alt+f2 a new console where I was able to mount a floppy
containing a statically linked brltty bin;
then, switching again to alt+f1 or launching dbootstrap was Ok to have
braille support during installation.
- Sarge's problem:
I wasn't able to mount any floppy at all after my alt+f2 enter;
so finally I was TOTALLY dependent of a sighted person (already 2 times)
to be able to install for a third party a Sarge.
This is not a positivie evolution for me and other people like me!
Why does it works elsewhere?
- maybe a suggestion:
Mandriva uses the method known from the Knoppix, passing
brltty=mm,/dev/ttySn,text.oo.tbl params at the "boot:" prompt.
Why not providing such an easy and blindfriendly solution too? by the
way, there is no timeout on the Sarge installer's first screen, so as
long as we don't type linux26 brltty=etcetera... we're safe of any
starting action while ignoring it!
I'm using Debian for five years now, as end-user, not as developer, but
I'd like to use it forever if Debian people authorizes me to do so!
but then without having to depend from other people (and surely if I'm
helping myself other novices: how can I do that if I need help myself?)
- another extra (easy) suggestion:
I did another trial of installing the Sarge on a pc using a
hardware braille display: such a device reads from the videocard, so no
brltty driver needed, but the cursor can't follow the hard cursor, so
it's impossible to follow the menu cursor:
maybe a good idea was to provide a toolbar such as in Mutt or so, on the
bottom of the screen where the current choice is shown.
This will not cause esthetical problems for sighted while it will be
efficient for us.
Note: such "old" hardware displays no longer exist but if I wasn't able
to install Sarge with that, then it is the ultimate test before asking
Debian People to reconsider some approaches. I hope this feedbakc will
help!
Note-bis: I thought there was a maintainer of anything regarding
Accessibility for Debian, unfortunately my migration to Sarge is not
the best experience in my life!
At this point I'm more desperate, but I accept the fact that
developers/maintainers/volunteers only can do their best when they know
about problems.
IMHO it's not my task ... but if nobody does, we are grooing into
drammatic totally unaccessible installer such as now.
I tried to explain it in my best Internet English :-)
Sorry for bad languages expressions/mistakes.
Osvaldo La Rosa aka Aldo.
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