[orca-list] Fedora 11 gdm success

[Terry Klarich <terry klarich net>]

Hello all:

How in the world does one get orca talking on Fedora 11 during the the gdm login screen anyway?

Well, I'll tell you.

First of all, I prefer Fedora because all my linux machines at work are Redhat.  By running Fedora, I get a 
preview what is coming
up in Redhat's future.  

I installed Fedora 11 with the telnet install using a kick start file.  Those turkeys hacked up the anaconda 
text based install
such that the resulting system is built with one large volume and no option to modify the disk partitioning.  
The menu to
choose packages has been removed as well.  What a durty trick.  I'd say the really ticked me off.  Their 
solution is VNC; but, they
don't seem to understand that this is useless  for obtaining text output for speech synthesis.  Maybe a vnc 
client with some sort
of OCR will be what we have to do.

I am hoping there is a way to start orca during the install so that a graphical installation is possible.  I 
didn't find it in the
installation guide.  So, if someone knows something I don't, please let me know.

Once, the system is installed, connect to your system with ssh and run these commands.  This is a direct cut 
and paste from my
session:
[root green ~]# chsh -s /bin/bash gdm
Changing shell for gdm.
Shell changed.
[root green ~]# su - gdm
-bash-4.0$ gconftool-2 --get /desktop/gnome/interface/accessibility
false
-bash-4.0$ gconftool-2 --set --type bool  /desktop/gnome/interface/accessibility true
-bash-4.0$ gconftool-2 --get /desktop/gnome/interface/accessibility
true
-bash-4.0$ gconftool-2 --get /desktop/gnome/applications/at/screen_reader_enabled
false
-bash-4.0$ gconftool-2 --set --type bool /desktop/gnome/applications/at/screen_reader_enabled true
-bash-4.0$ gconftool-2 --get /desktop/gnome/applications/at/screen_reader_enabled
true
-bash-4.0$ exit
logout
[root green ~]# chsh -s /sbin/nologin gdm
Changing shell for gdm.
Shell changed.
[root green ~]# telinit 3 && sleep 10 && telinit 5

What I did was:
Unlock the gdm account
As the gdm user, turn on the needed accessibility parameters using gconf
lock the gdm account again
Stop and restart X

After reading about gconf, I have to admit I am impressed with the plan.  A lot of thought has been put into 
gconf.

Hope that helps.

Terry