[orca-list] Installing ubuntu desktop- I Give Up! (fwd)

[Jude DaShiell <jdashiel shellworld net>]

---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Thu, 7 Apr 2011 10:21:45
From: Martin McCormick <martin dc cis okstate edu>
To: ubuntu-accessibility lists ubuntu com
Subject: Installing ubuntu desktop-  I Give Up!

        After spending about two weekends and weekday evenings,
basically all spare time, trying to get ubuntu10.10 then failing
that, ubuntu9.10 with orca to install on a Dell Dimension system
running a Pentium4 processor, I am tossing in the towel. The
ubuntu live CD for 10.10 never once produced any sound although
it went through the most elaborate mime I have ever seen of the
booting process. You could hear the CDROM running and the laser
mechanism could be heard zipping back and forth, obviously
reading the disk, etc. At the end of about 5 minutes, things
would quiet down and I hit Tab, then Enter, then Alt-F2 followed
by orca and then Enter again. More rattling from the laser as if
something was happening, but more dead silence.

        The Vinux3.0 and 3.1 CD's go through the same
time-wasting tease, making one think that a working system is
just minutes away, but the end result is the same as trying to
boot the ubuntu10.10 CD.

        The sound chip set is good. Other disks such as the
older Vinux2.1 bootable CD come right up talking. The ubuntu8.10
live CD plays the melody and cricket sounds as it boots up.

        The ubuntu9.10 live CD uses a different procedure to
start orca and one does hear "Welcome to orca."

        The running orca desktop is not quite healthy, however.
It will randomly freeze, maybe 30 seconds; maybe 5 minutes;
maybe an hour later, but at some point, one can hit a key, hear
no response and it's all over and darned if this P.C. has no HW
reset button. There are probably a couple of pins somewhere on
the mother board, but I will have to get somebody to help find
them and one shouldn't have to do a hardware reset often anyway.

        I installed ubuntu9.10 on the hard drive and got orca to
talk after login, but after another random freeze, the system
wants to go in to rescue mode. None of that talks so I may just
end up giving up on orca for now, installing the old Vinux so as
to get some use from the system, and waiting to see if ubuntu11
has any better discovery mechanisms to get the audio and orca
running.

        During one time when things were running, I installed
and ran memtester. There are 1.3 GB of RAM and a 2.7GHZ
processor and it all seems to be working like it should.

        I know the hardware discovery mechanism is extremely
tricky and I think that is where things are breaking down. When
trying the ubuntu10.10 and Vinux3.x CD's which are based on
ubuntu10.10, I get the impression that the hardware discovery
mechanism reaches the wrong conclusion on my system and tries to
work based on that.

        My dear wife has helped me go through the CMOS setup
several times and we have verified that the CMOS knows the sound
is on, that the hard drive is second behind the CDROM in boot
order, the video is set to use the onboard chips and we have a
8-meg video buffer. There is really no other way to set it other
than to choose a 1-meg buffer.

        I think we've done everything we can do and ubuntu10.10
refuses to play. Ubuntu9.10 plays, but blacks out and can't
remember where it was, so to speak.

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