Re: [orca-list] Questions about the raspberry pie

[Andrew Hart <ahart42 gmail com>]

I don't know if this information is still current, but I bought and set 
up two Raspberry Pi 4's last year. I set the first one up with the 
official Raspian OS desktop Linux distribution as I didn't know what I 
was doing. I set the second one up headless with Raspian OS Lite, i.e. 
with no monitor, mouse nor keyboard since it's only being used as a 
music streamer.

Both versions of Raspian are based on Debian. There are a pile of hoops 
to jump through in order to set the Pi up with the stock standard 
Raspian OS distribution without sighted assistance. Here's a brief 
overview of what I did to get my first Pi up and running without any 
sighted assistance.

First, I put the Desktop version of Raspian OS on an SD. If your Pi came 
with a preloaded chip, it may actually come with a number of different 
OS's and you have to first select which OS you want to launch and set up 
the first time it gets powered on. By putting the Raspian OS straight 
onto the SD, I didn't need to worry about getting passed any menus or 
anything else.

Next, you'll need a keyboard and an HDMI tv/monitor. The sound will come 
out of the tv speakers initially. After you get it set up and talking, 
you can then deal with getting the sound to come out of the 3.5MM audio 
jack or you can attach a USB sound card or something else later. Raspian 
OS requires an active HDMI connection. If it does not detect an HDMI 
output device, it will not start the graphical user desktop. I'm aware 
there are ways to get around this, but I couldn't tell you how to do it 
myself as I haven't done it.

You'll also need  a working Internet connection. The Pi four has Wi-fi, 
but if you can hard wire it to the local network with an ethernet cable,
it saves dealing with configuring the Wi-fi connection and removes a 
possible point of failure before you get the Pi talking.

So, I attached the keyboard, the ethernet cable, the TV and turned the 
tv on. Hint: make sure the tv input selector is set to receive the 
signal from the Pi and not some other source and that the volume is not 
turned right down.
Insert the SD card into the Pi and attach it it to a power supply.
Now the SD card starts to boot and it will take quite a while the very 
first time because it will expand the Linux partition to use the whole 
capacity of the card.
Eventually, you should hear a message instructing you to press a certain 
keyboard combination if you want to install Orca, etc. I'm not really 
sure, because it was such a long tie ago that I did it, but I think the 
key combination is Alt+Ctrl+Space. Anyway, when you hear that message, 
you press the indicated key combination. At that point, it will go and 
download all the software needed to set up Orca. That's why you need the 
Internet connection and why it's best not to have to do any 
configuration. It just goes and downloads Orca, the accessibility stack 
and whatever is necessary. Once that is done, Orca should come up and 
you should have speech throughout the rest of the set-up process. At 
some point it asks you about setting up Wi-fi, your country/region and 
timezone information etc. The Pi doesn't have a on-board clock, that is, 
it forgets the time every time you shut it down. However, it queries an 
ntp server for the current time each time you power it on, provided it 
has access to the Internet. Once you've got Wi-fi enabled, you can 
dispense with the wired network link. During initial setup, it also asks 
about updating the system. If you choose to do this, it can take quite a 
while.

Hopefully that gives you an idea what is necessary to get it up and 
talking with the stock standard Raspian OS distribution. However, as 
others have mentioned, there are alternative Linux distros available for 
the Pi. Also, It would be well worth joining the RaspberryVi mailing 
list as Jeff suggested because there are a bunch of people there who 
will be able to help out with any difficulties you may encounter. Also, 
folks there may be able to piont you to ready-to-go talking OS images 
for the Pi which might suit your use case better.

Hth,
Andrew.

On 26/01/2022 13:53, Michael Weaver wrote:
> I have just got myself a Raspberry Pie and have a few questions as I am a Pie newby although I have a friend 
> who has one.
> I am aware my questions may not be Orca specific mostly apart from 1.
> My friend who has 1 says I need to plug my Pie which I got today into an HDMI socket on my TV. There are 2 
> issues to this unless I can use the Pie Eyes Free as the first issue is I am Totally Blind and although I 
> have a Sighted girlfriend, she isn’t as interestesd in technology as me and she is also Disabled with 
> Cataracts and has inherited muscular Dystrophy in Laymens terms, something known as Myotonic Dystrophy so it 
> is probably easier to say she has inherited Muscular Dystrophy.
> Even if we needed to use a screen like if I needed her help at least to get the Pie set up, I would probably 
> need a computer monitor rather than plug my Pie into the TV because my desk and TV are at opposite ends of 
> the room, even though I have a small Livingroom, the TV being wall mounted to the left by the window and my 
> desk being just to the right by the door, the second issue.
> These 2 other questions are Orca related.
> Does the Pie have its own built in speaker so I can get Orca speaking from r the get go?
> The second question, does Orca come up talking after a wait of about 30 seconds to a minute like I heard in a 
> demo of setting up a pie which was done by someone Sighted on YouTube. It was the only demo I found where 
> someone transferred and booted the Pie but of course as he didn’t need speech, he Disabled it when a spoken 
> message was read. I also did manage to find an article stating that to launch Orca when first booting the 
> pie, you use Control ALT L unless you leave it for 30 seconds.
> Hope someone can answer my questions.
> The Pie I have is the Raspberry Pie 4 if this helps.
> My mate who has 1 says the 1 I ordered came with the keyboard built in.
>
> Sent from my iPhone
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> GNOME Universal Access guide: https://help.gnome.org/users/gnome-help/stable/a11y.html