[orca-list] Gnome Boxes vs. Virt Manager

[Tony Baechler <tony baechler net>]

All,

I posted here a few days ago asking about the accessibility of Virt-Manager. 
 While I didn't get a direct answer, Gnome Boxes was suggested.  The reason 
why I didn't ask about or install Gnome Boxes in the first place is because 
it didn't show up in my Debian testing package search for KVM, therefore I 
had no reason to think that it works with KVM.  Even after looking at the 
full package information, it doesn't depend on KVM, but does suggest 
qemu-x86, so I don't think it does actually let me use KVM.  However, since 
several people here suggested Boxes, I installed it.

While I am able to use Virt-Manager with ease, Boxes is mostly inaccessible. 
 Specifically, it has no way to create a new VM from the keyboard.  I had 
to use the Orca left click to get the dialog for a new machine to come up. 
Similarly, pressing Tab does not seem to work and I couldn't get to the 
Continue button.  Therefore, I gave up.  I didn't have the time or interest 
to read everything on the screen with flat review when Virt-Manager is 
already a very good alternative.

In contrast, Virt-Manager is very accessible.  When it first opens, it lists 
all configured machines and lets you tab to the various buttons.  It has the 
wizard interface I was looking for and lets you pick the amount of memory, 
storage space, etc.  It also let me add a sound card without difficulty.  I 
used the Debian 8.1 installer as my test image since I know that speech 
should come up if I press "s" and Enter after it boots.  I was able to 
create a new VM and boot it.  It says it's running and a new window comes up 
with the name of the VM (VM1 in this case) in the title.  I've verified that 
the CD image is good because it works fine with KVM from the command line. 
Speech comes up as it should.

The only problem I'm having is apparently keys aren't being passed through 
to the VM.  Could this be related to Orca?  I know Linux is not Windows, but 
Windows screen readers intercept all key presses and don't always pass them 
to the underlying program.  As I say, it says the VM is running and I can 
Alt-Tab between "Virtual Machine Manager" and "VM 1," but pressing "s" and 
Enter in the VM window doesn't seem to work.  I turned on emulation for both 
AC97 sound and the PC speaker, but I don't hear a beep at boot either.  Orca 
says "s" when I press it, but nothing else seems to happen.  Pressing Alt-F4 
shuts down the program, making me think keys aren't being passed through. 
I'm running Orca 3.14 if that matters.

Once I can get that problem solved, I'll have a very nice, accessible VM 
manager which meets my needs and is exactly what I'm looking for.  I don't 
see how Orca could be causing a problem, but I can't think of what else I'm 
missing.  I guess I should try looking at the help, but the only thing in 
the Help menu is About.  Have you had any similar experiences with this odd 
behavior and do you have any ideas how to work around it?

--

--------------------
Tony Baechler, Baechler Access Technology Services
Putting accessibility at the forefront of technology
mailto:bats batsupport com
Phone: 1-619-746-8310   Fax: 1-619-449-9898