Re: adding graphical user interface to debian box question

[Jason White <jason jasonjgw net>]

Jude DaShiell <jdashiel shellworld net> wrote:
> I've got speakup already running on a debian box.  Other than using 
> tasksel to add desktop environment to the system (that turned out to be 
> less than accessible), what would be proper steps so that at the end of 
> the process gnome is up and running correctly and orca is talking?  

That's really a Debian-specific question rather than a Gnome one, so I don't
think this is the right forum for it.

Nevertheless, start by installing the gnome package. If this doesn't bring in
Orca as a dependency, then install gnome-orca. You seem to want speech output,
so be sure that speech-dispatcher is installed as well. Then run orca -t to
configure it from the console, and finally start an X session with startx and
see if that works.

If it doesn't, look for missing dependencies, check for relevant error
messages in places such as ~/.xsession-errors etc.

I haven't installed a system from scratch for a long time so I don't know the
exact sequence of package installations needed to get there.

There are a few dependency issues still being resolved in the Debian packages
associated with Gnome accessibility and Orca, as discussed on the
debian-accessibility list. If you want the latest, you'll need to be running
debian Sid, but if that's of concern then at least run Debian testing.

Finally, for the latest Firefox/Iceweasel and Libreoffice, Debian's
experimental repository is needed at the moment, because the main repositories
are tightly controlled while they fix bugs in preparation for a release.