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

["Albert Sten-Clanton" <albert e sten_clanton verizon net>]

Greetings!

The problems in the message you forwarded sound a good deal like ones I had.
I don't know what might work with a Ubuntu live CD, which I'd like to so I
could play with the Unity desktop.  I did get Vinux 3.1 to work, though,
thanks to the Vinux quickstart guide:

http://vinuxproject.org/getting-started-

  In particular, using the volume_keys command described in the section
about troubleshooting sound problems got me a talking Vinux.

I also note that I did not have sound after actually installing Vinux 3.1 on
my hard drive:  the sound settings that volume_keys allowed me to get didn't
carry over.  I used the instructions for storing the state of the sound card
found at 

<https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Arch_Linux_for_the_blind>

With a change or two relevant to my then-new Vinux installation.  It worked.


Hope this is useful.

Al

----Original Message-----
From: orca-list-bounces gnome org [mailto:orca-list-bounces gnome org] On
Behalf Of Jude DaShiell
Sent: Saturday, April 09, 2011 4:14 AM
To: orca-list gnome org
Subject: [orca-list] Installing ubuntu desktop- I Give Up! (fwd)





---------- 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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