Re: Gnopernicus Sending Output to Serial Device Crashes Hardware Synthesizer

[Kenny Hitt <kenny hittsjunk net>]

Hi.

On Mon, Feb 14, 2005 at 02:05:28PM +0000, Bill Haneman wrote:
> Hi:
> 
> Kenny said 'I have not enabled braille in gnopernicus', but the bug 
> report seems to indicate that 'screen reader' may be been enabled from the
> 'Desktop Preferences->Accessibility->Assistive Technology Support' dialog.
> This dialog turns on both gnopernicus speech and braille.
> 
> Kenny, can you run this command to confirm that gnopernicus braille is 
> turned on, as I suspect it is?
> 
> gconftool-2 -g /apps/gnopernicus/srcore/br_active
> 
Yep, it returns "true and my hardware synth is now trashed.

For the record: I configured my console screan reader to use software speech
through speech-dispatcher or I couldn't run this test.

> I am suspecting that it will return 'true'.  If it does, please try 
> turning it off with
> 
> gconftool-2 -s -t bool /apps/gnopernicus/srcore/br_active false
> 

That set the key back to false.  It required power cycling the synth and
rebooting the system to allow my console screen reader to use the synth
again.

> And see if this solves your problem.  If you still need braille, you 
> should be able to configure it to use the correct serial port from the 
> gnopernicus GUI, once you've got speech working with the above fix.
> 
> I'll ask for more details in the bug report, but since you are having 
> some problems accessing bugzilla I will ask here - please also report 
> the result of
> 
> gconftool-2 -R /apps/gnopernicus/braille
> 

This produced a lot of output.  I ran the command after I had disabled
braille and rebooted the system.  Below is the output from the command.

brldev_6_ID = ALVA340
 fill_char = ##
  brldev_0_ID = VARIO20
   cursor_style = underline
    brldev_15_ID = HTBS8
     port_no = 1
      position = 2
       brldev_7_ID = ALVA34d
        optical = 0
	 brldev_1_ID = VARIO40
	  status = CursorPos
	   brldev_16_ID = HTMB2
	    brldev_10_ID = ALVA570
	     brldev_20_ID = ECO40
	      brldev_default = 0
	       brldev_8_ID = ALVA380
	        brldev_2_ID = VARIO80
		 brldev_10_description = ALVABRAILLE 570
		  brldev_11_description = BRLTTY's BrlAPI
		   brldev_17_ID = HTMB4
		    brldev_11_ID = BRLTTY
		     brldev_21_ID = ECO80
		      brldev_9_ID = ALVA544
		       device = VARIO
		       brldev_3_ID = DM80P
		        braille_style = 8
			 brldev_count = 22
			  brldev_12_description = HandyTech Braille Wave
			   brldev_14_description = HandyTech Braille
			   Star 40
			    brldev_13_description = HandyTech Braillino
			     brldev_15_description = HandyTech Braille
			     Star 80
			      brldev_16_description = HandyTech Modular
			      24
			       brldev_17_description = HandyTech Modular
			       44
			        brldev_18_ID = HTMB8
				 brldev_18_description = HandyTech
				 Modular 84
				  brldev_19_description = EcoBraille 20
				   brldev_0_description = BAUM VARIO -
				   20 cells
				    brldev_1_description = BAUM VARIO -
				    40 cells
				     brldev_12_ID = HTBRW
				      brldev_4_ID = INKA
				       brldev_19_ID = ECO20
				        brldev_13_ID = HTBL2
					 brldev_5_description =
					 ALVABRAILLE 320
					  brldev_2_description = BAUM
					  VARIO - 80 cells
					   brldev_7_description =
					   ALVABRAILLE 34d
					    brldev_4_description = BAUM
					    INKA
					     brldev_9_description =
					     ALVABRAILLE 544
					      brldev_6_description =
					      ALVABRAILLE 340
					      brldev_3_description =
					      BAUM DM80 - 80 cells
					       brldev_8_description =
					       ALVABRAILLE 380
					        brldev_5_ID = ALVA320
						 attribute = 8
						  brldev_14_ID = HTBS4
						   brldev_20_description
						   = EcoBraille 40
						    brldev_21_description
						    = EcoBraille 80
						     translation_table =
						     de

It's my view that an access technology shouldn't assume anything about a
hardware device existing on a port unless it has been told so by a
command line option.  Gnopernicus deciding to enable braille support and
assuming a braille display is connected to /dev/ttyS0 is like a program
deciding to break a sighted person's moniter.
What's even worse about this behavior, is a blind person will already be
running gnopernicus before they can access this dialog.  This dialog
shouldn't make changes to gnopernicus's config if Gnopernicus is already
running.

          Kenny