The Linux Emacspeak HOWTO

The Linux Emacspeak HOWTO
Jim Van Zandt, [email protected]
v.1.6, 10 April 1999

This document describes how a blind user can use Linux with a speech
synthesizer to replace the video display. It describes how to get
Linux running on your own PC, and how to set it up for speech output.
It suggests how to learn about Unix.
______________________________________________________________________

Table of Contents

1. Introduction

2. Stage 1. DOS with speech

2.1 Getting Linux on CDROM
2.2 Getting Linux by FTP
2.3 Linux Documentation

3. Stage 2. Terminal to remote UNIX system

3.1 Learning Unix
3.2 Learning Emacs

4. Stage 3. Terminal to local Linux system

4.1 Installing Linux
4.2 Learning Unix System Administration

5. Stage 4. Emacspeak under Linux

5.1 Emacspeak Introduction - Speech Enabled Normal Commands
5.2 Emacspeak Introduction - New Commands
5.3 Emacspeak Introduction - Using the Help System

6. Footnotes and References

6.1 JAWS
6.2 TELIX
6.3 COMMO
6.4 SimTel
6.5 InfoMagic
6.6 Walnut Creek
6.7 Red Hat
6.8 Craftwork
6.9 Yggdrasil
6.10 Emacs for DOS
6.11 GNU Mirror Sites
6.12 Emacspeak with Earlier Slackware Releases

7. Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

7.1 Why does it say "space" after each character?
7.2 Why the high pitched tone from a DECtalk?
7.3 Why the "No library autorevert in search path" message?
7.4 How do I change Emacspeak defaults?
7.5 What if an error message is not spoken?
7.6 The terminal emulator is the most problematic portion of Emacspeak.
7.7 In a term buffer, the first half screen is not spoken
7.8 Term mode gets flaky after a long session.

8. Legalese

______________________________________________________________________

1. Introduction

Emacspeak is an Emacs subsystem that allows the user to get feedback
using synthesized speech.

Screen reading programs allow a visually impaired user to get feedback
using synthesized speech. Such programs have been commercially
available for well over a decade. Most of them run on PC's under DOS,
and there are now a few screen-readers for the Windows platform.
However, screen-readers for the UNIX environment have been conspicuous
in their absence.

This means that most visually impaired computer users face the
additional handicap of being DOS-impaired :-)

Emacspeak is an emacs subsystem that provides basic speech access.
Emacspeak will always have the shortcoming that it will only work
under Emacs. This said, there is very little that cannot be done
inside Emacs, so it's not a real shortcoming:-) Within Emacs, you can
open a "shell window" where you can run commands and examine their
output, even output which has scrolled out of the window. Emacs
provides special modes for running certain commands. For example, it
can parse error messages printed by a compiler and open a separate
edit window with the cursor at the point of the error. It can also
run a debugger and keep a separate edit window open at the point in
the source code corresponding to the program counter.

Emacspeak does have a significant advantage: since it runs inside
Emacs, a structure-sensitive, fully customizable editor, Emacspeak
often has more context-specific information about what it is speaking
than its commercial counterparts. In this sense, Emacspeak is not a
"screenreader", it is a subsystem that produces speech output. A
traditional screen-reader speaks the content of the screen, leaving it
to the user to interpret the visually laid-out information.
Emacspeak, on the other hand, treats speech as a first-class output
mode; it speaks the information in a manner that is easy to comprehend
when listening.

This initial version provides a basic speech subsystem for Emacs;
using Emacs' power and flexibility, it has proven straightforward to
add modules that customize how things are spoken, e.g. depending on
the major/minor mode of a given buffer. Note that the basic speech
functionality provided by Emacspeak is sufficient to use most Emacs
packages effectively; adding package-specific customizations makes the
interaction much smoother. This is because package-specific
extensions can take advantage of the current context.

Emacspeak will only work with emacs. However, emacs can be used to
run any program that has a command-line interface (ls, cd, rm,
adduser, etc.). In general use M-x shell to run such programs.

You can even run those like less or lynx which use escape sequences to
control the appearance of the screen. The key to this is term mode,
which you get with the emacs command M-x term.

Let me insert here some explanation, because the word "terminal" is
used in several senses. The original terminal was of course an
electromechanical device that translated keystrokes into character
codes and received the same codes and printed the characters.
Eventually these were replaced by entirely electronic "dumb terminals"
which also implemented escape sequences to clear the screen, move the
cursor, etc. Unix adapted to these by introducing an abstract notion
of a "terminal" with very general capabilities. A program like a text
editor issues generic commands, which are translated into the commands
suitable for your terminal. The choice of translation is controlled
by the variable "TERM" in the environment. One common value for this
variable is "vt100", since many terminals implement the same commands
as the DEC VT100. The Emacs command `M-x term' starts a virtual
terminal with its own set of cursor commands. It notifies the
operating system of this by setting the environment variable "TERM" to
the value "eterm" (which is why it is sometimes called eterm mode).

Note that this Unix "terminal" is concerned only with escape commands
for the display. Let me just mention a couple of other kinds of
"terminal" to distinguish them from the Unix concept: For DOS, there
are "terminal emulators" like COMMO and TELIX that simulate a
terminal, and can be used to connect to a remote computer via a serial
port (and usually a modem). That is, they accept keystrokes and send
the character codes out a serial port, and receive character codes
from the serial port and display them. Unix has similar programs,
such as minicom and seyon. Both DOS and Unix have another program
called "telnet" which can establish a similar connection to a separate
computer using the Internet (that is, a TCP/IP connection rather than
a serial connection). The program "kermit" is available for both DOS
and Unix, and can establish either kind of connection. However, none
of these should be confused with the eterm mode of emacs. There is
nothing about eterm mode that implies a connection to a remote
computer.

Note that in most cases there is an emacs mode that works better than
the separate program in an eterm buffer. That is, instead of "less",
just open a buffer on the file. Instead of "lynx", use w3. Instead
of "man", use `M-x man', and type the name of the program in the
minibuffer.

Remember, though: ordinary command-line oriented programs are best run
in shell mode, which starts with the command `M-x shell'.

Emacs is a large program, but it does not all have to be in RAM,
because Linux has virtual memory. You can designate a swap partition,
so that programs (or parts of programs) can be swapped out when they
are not being used. You can comfortably run emacs with 8 MB of ram
plus 8 MB of swap space.

This document is limited to the following:

o Linux (not Free BSD)

o The Slackware distribution (not Red Hat, Debian, etc.)

o Speech output only (not Braille - see the Access HOWTO)

o DECtalk (Dectalk Express and MultiVoice), DoubleTalk, LiteTalk,
Braille 'n Speak, Type 'n Speak, Braille Lite, Apollo, and Accent
synthesizers (--not the SmarTalk, a sound card, etc.)

o Use of Emacs, with T. V. Raman's Emacspeak package, to drive the
synthesizer.

The use of adaptive technology with Linux, and in particular, using
adaptive technology to make Linux accessible to those who could not
use it otherwise, is covered in the Linux Access HOWTO.

If you would like to help extend this document to cover one or more of
the other alternatives, or point me to a discussion somewhere else,
please contact me.

The most recent version of this document should be available in
several formats at <ftp://metalab.unc.edu/pub/Linux/docs/HOWTO/> and
its mirrors (see below). The plain text version should be available
at <ftp://leb.net/pub/blinux/doc/>.

Emacspeak was written by T. V. Raman [email protected]. Emacspeak has a
Web page at
<http://www.cs.cornell.edu/Info/People/raman/emacspeak/emacspeak.html>.

Emacspeak supports several speech synthesizers. The software required
depends on which you have.

If you have a DECtalk Express or MultiVoice, you need the basic
Emacspeak package, tcl (an interpreter), and tclx (extensions for
tcl). You can get the source package for Emacspeak from the Emacspeak
web page, or a binary package in one of the popular distributions of
Linux (Slackware, Red Hat, or Debian). I build each of these
packages. Since I normally run Debian, the Debian package will be
available a little sooner than the others. At this writing, the most
recent release of Emacspeak is version 7.0. Here are some URLs:

<http://leb.net/pub/blinux/emacspeak/cornell.mirror>
<ftp://leb.net/pub/blinux/emacspeak/blinux/emacspeak-6.0-2.i386.rpm>

Note: there are European mirrors of the blinux site which you should
use if they closer:

<ftp://ftp.uni-muenster.de/share/public6/>
<ftp://ftp.gwdg.de/pub/linux/misc/blinux/>

For the internal DECtalk PC, you also need a kernel driver which is
available from <ftp://leb.net/pub/blinux/dectalk_pc-0.91.tgz>

Extract it with the command: `tar xfz dectalk_pc-0.91.tgz' and then
follow the installation instructions found in the README file. This
driver apparently works with both the original DECTALK-pc and the new
DECTALK-PC II.

For the external DoubleTalk, LiteTalk, Accent, or Apollo synthesizers,
or for the Braille 'n Speak, Type 'n Speak, or Braille Lite devices in
"speech box" mode, you need the Emacspeak package and a separate
"speech server" which comes in the emacspeak-ss package:

<ftp://leb.net/pub/blinux/emacspeak/blinux/emacspeak-ss-0.5.tar.gz>

The DoubleTalk and LiteTalk are also supported by a separate speech
server which has been packaged for Red Hat and Debian systems:

<http://www.mv.com/ipusers/vanzandt/emacspeak-dt-tcl-1.2.tar.gz>
<ftp://leb.net/pub/blinux/emacspeak/blinux/emacspeak-
dt-1.2-1.i386.rpm> <http://www.mv.com/ipusers/vanzandt/emacspeak-
dt_0.27-1_i386.deb> <http://www.mv.com/ipusers/vanzandt/emacspeak-dt-
tcl_1.2-1_all.deb>

For the internal DoubleTalk, you need three pieces of software: the
basic Emacspeak package, the emacspeak-ss or emacspeak-dt package, and
a device driver. Here are some URLs for the device driver:

<ftp://leb.net/pub/blinux/emacspeak/blinux/dtlk-1.12.tar.gz>
<http://www.mv.com/ipusers/vanzandt/dtlk-1.12.tar.gz>
<http://www.mv.com/ipusers/vanzandt/dtlk_1.12-1_i386.deb>

There is a server for the Braille 'n Speak, Braille Lite, and Type 'n
Speak devices used in "speech box" mode:

<ftp://leb.net/pub/blinux/emacspeak/blinux/emacspeak-bs-
tcl-1.2.tar.gz> <ftp://leb.net/pub/blinux/emacspeak/blinux/emacspeak-
bs-tcl_1.2-1_all.deb> <ftp://leb.net/pub/blinux/emacspeak/blinux/emac-
speak-bs-1.2-1.i386.rpm>

Once again, the emacspeak-ss server handles all the synthesizers other
than the DECtalk. You should use that one if you don't mind building
and installing a source package.

Computer hardware, Unix user commands, Unix system administration,
Emacs, and Emacspeak are each substantial subjects. Attempting to
learn all of them at once is likely to lead to frustration. Instead,
I suggest that the new user go through a sequence of stages, learning
about only one system at a time.

2. Stage 1. DOS with speech

Most blind computer users have speech synthesizers with a screen
reader program like JAWS [``JAWS'']. (References in this format refer
to entries in the "Footnotes and References" section below.) Using
this setup, install and become familiar with some terminal emulator
like Telix [``TELIX''] or Commo [``COMMO''], which are available from
the SimTel archive [``SimTel''] among others.

2.1. Getting Linux on CDROM

If you have or can borrow a CDROM drive, I recommend you get one of
the many good distributions of Linux on that medium. The instructions
below are for the Slackware distribution. I am most familiar with
disks from InfoMagic [``InfoMagic'']. Another source is Walnut Creek
[``Walnut Creek''] (where the whole idea of inexpensive CDROMs full of
programs from Internet archives got its start). Distributions other
than Slackware are available from Red Hat [``Red Hat''], Craftwork
[``Craftwork''], and Yggdrasil [``Yggdrasil'']. As a rule, these
CDROMs use the "ISO 9660" format, which can be read under DOS. (They
also use the "Rock Ridge extensions" which add extra files in each
directory. Linux uses the extra information to give you long
filenames, both upper and lower case characters in filenames, and file
permissions.)

2.2. Getting Linux by FTP

Another way to get Linux and its documentation is by FTP over the
Internet. The home site for the Slackware distribution is Walnut
Creek [``Walnut Creek'']. It is also carried by sunsite and many of
it mirror sites. Here is a partial list:

o USA (home site) <ftp://ftp.cdrom.com/pub/linux/slackware>

o UK/Europe
<ftp://src.doc.ic.ac.uk/public/Mirrors/ftp.cdrom.com/pub/linux/slackware-3.1>

o Japan <ftp://ftp.cs.titech.ac.jp/pub/os/linux/slackware>

o Taiwan <ftp://NCTUCCCA.edu.tw/OS/Linux/Slackware>

o Hong Kong <ftp://ftp.cs.cuhk.hk/pub/slackware>

o USA <ftp://metalab.unc.edu/pub/Linux/distributions/slackware>

o USA
<ftp://uiarchive.cso.uiuc.edu/pub/systems/linux/sunsite/distributions/slackware>

More sites are listed in the INFO-SHEET:

<http://metalab.unc.edu/pub/Linux/welcome.html> <ftp://meta-
lab.unc.edu/pub/Linux/docs/HOWTO/INFO-SHEET>
<ftp://uiarchive.cso.uiuc.edu/pub/systems/linux/sun-
site/docs/HOWTO/INFO-SHEET>

2.3. Linux Documentation

Read the Linux documentation. I will quote here the file names and
locations on the first disk of InfoMagic's December 1996 "Developer's
Resource" set of six CDROMs, as seen under DOS. Other CDROM sets
should have similar information, though perhaps differently arranged.
The Slackware distribution is on disk 2 of the set. Matt Welsh's step
by step guide to installing Slackware is in
\doc\install-\install-.002. (This is a 245 page book!)

More general information is in the Linux "Frequently Asked Questions"
list in \docs\linux.faq\linux-fa.asc. Longer descriptions are in
"HOWTO" documents (of which this is one). They are found in \docs.
Note particularly \docs\hardware, which lists which kinds of hardware
are supported by Linux, \docs\meta-faq, which points to sources of
information (that is, a more extensive version of this paragraph), and
\help\index, which is a list of the HOWTO documents with short
descriptions. The Linux installation HOWTO, \docs\installation, is
another (much shorter, somewhat older) version of Matt Welsh's
installation instructions.

One note on reading the documentation. You may run into files with
ASCII highlighting, where character-backspace-character stands for
"bold", and underscore-backspace-character stands for "italics". One
way to handle this is to use the less program, which displays these
sequences in alternate colors. A DOS screenreader can, for example,
search for such highlighted text. A DOS version of less can be
obtained by FTP from the SimTel archive [``SimTel'']. Within the
SimTel collection, look for directory msdos/textutil. For example,
try <ftp://ftp.coast.net/pub/SimTel/msdos/textutil>.

I will suggest four alternatives for learning Emacs commands (see
section [``Learning Emacs'']). The first option is to install Emacs
under DOS and learn it while using the DOS screen reader. Where to
get Emacs for DOS is a "frequently asked question" [``Emacs for
DOS''].

The source code for Emacs (about 10 MB) can be gotten from
<ftp://prep.ai.mit.edu/pub/gnu/> (look for emacs-19.34b.tar.gz or
similar), or from one of many mirrors of the GNU collection [``Gnu
Mirrors''].

3. Stage 2. Terminal to remote UNIX system

Arrange for what is called a "shell account" on some Unix system.
Most Internet Service Providers (ISPs) can provide this service. Use
the terminal emulator program and a modem to dial in. Learn the basic
Unix commands. If the system has Emacs installed, or you can persuade
the system administrator to install it, this is your second chance to
learn it. It is probably best to learn it at this point, because
administering a Unix system (the next stage) will call for you to edit
files. Therefore, I include here my suggestions for learning both
Unix and Emacs.

3.1. Learning Unix

When you arrange for a shell account, or set up a new account on your
own machine, you will have to decide on a username and a password.
Your username will also be used in your email address, so try to find
something short and memorable. Your password is important, and should
be hard to guess. That usually means at least six characters,
including at least one non-alphanumeric character.

When a Unix system is ready for you to log in, it normally displays a
prompt ending with "login:". At this point you should type in your
username. It will then prompt you for your password, and will turn
off command echoing while you type it in.

The command to finish a terminal session is logout.

To learn about a command, use the man command to display its manual
page. For example, learn more about the cp command by typing man cp.
Of course, this helps only if you know or can guess the command name.
However, each man page has a line near the beginning with the command
name and a short description of what the command does. You can search
a database of these lines using the command apropos. Thus, typing
apropos working will list lines that include the word "working".
Here's what that command prints here:

cd (n) - Change working directory
pwd (n) - Return the current working directory
Cwd (3pm) - get pathname of current working directory
chdir (2) - change working directory
fchdir (2) - change working directory
get_current_dir_name (3) - Get current working directory
getcwd (3) - Get current working directory
getwd (3) - Get current working directory
pwd (1) - print name of current/working directory
rcsclean (1) - clean up working files

The numbers in parentheses are sections of the manual. User commands
are in section 1. Functions called from within programs are in sec-
tions 2 and 3. Commands used mostly by the system administrator are
in section 8. You can find out more about the on-line manual with the
command man man.

Under Unix, commands normally accept options starting with a minus
sign rather than the forward slash used under DOS. In a path,
directory names are separated by forward slashes rather than backward
slashes. Both operating systems have a "standard input", by default
the keyboard, and a "standard output", by default the display screen.
You can redirect the standard input using "<", and redirect the output
using ">". You can use the output from one command as the input of
another by separating the two commands with "|". This is called the
"pipe" symbol.

The program that interprets your command is a "shell". Under DOS,
COMMAND.COM is the shell. Most Unix shells are descendents of either
the Bourne shell sh or the C shell csh. The shell most commonly used
with Linux is the "Bourne again shell", or bash.
If a program gets "stuck", here is a sequence of keystrokes to try:

o Control-Q. You may have sent a control-S, which halts all output,
without realizing it. The control-Q will restart it.

o Control-D, which signals "end of file" under Unix (similar to
control-Z under DOS), in case the program expects input which you
are not prepared to supply.

o Control-C is an interrupt, which may halt the program.

o Control-Z puts the program in the background. At this point you
may simply log out, although you will be warned about the
background process and will have to repeat the logout command. You
can instead kill the process, as follows: Run ps with no arguments.
It will list a header line, then one line for each of your
processes. The first item on each line is the process id number,
or PID. The command used to start the process (or at least the
beginning of it) appears at the end of the line. If the PID were
117, you would kill the process with the command kill -9 117.

o If running Linux from the console, alt-2, or some other alt-number
combination, will switch to a different virtual console. You can
log in there just as if you had sat down to a different terminal.

o If your machine is connected to a network, you can log in from
another machine.

o Control-alt-del should reboot the computer nondestructively.

o As a last resort, you can hit "reset" or cycle the power. This
will leave the filesystems in an invalid state, since some buffers
will not have been written to disk. The kernel will discover this
while booting, and will take time to check and repair the
filesystems. Actual data loss is unlikely unless you had something
else going on at the time.

Guido Gonzato [email protected] has written an excellent guide to
Linux for (former) DOS users, the DOS2Linux mini-HOWTO. You can
probably find it where you found this document, or else at
<ftp://metalab.unc.edu/pub/Linux/docs/HOWTO/mini/>.

You can find general Unix information, including manual pages for
several systems at <http://www.cis.ohio-
state.edu/hypertext/man_pages.html>

There is a tutorial entitled "Beginning Unix and the C Shell" at
<http://www.eng.hawaii.edu:80/Courses/C.unix/page-03.html>.

You can get general help from <http://www.nova.edu/Inter-
Links/UNIXhelp/TOP_.html> or <http://www.eecs.nwu.edu/unix.html>

You can find a list of books on UNIX at
<http://www.eskimo.com/~cher/eskimospace/booklist.html>.

3.2. Learning Emacs

When you start Emacs, you will normally list on the command line one
or more files which you will be editing. To edit a file named
"foobar" with Emacs, you would enter the command emacs foobar. If you
enter the command emacs with no arguments, GNU Emacs will print out an
introduction which includes the first five commands you need to learn,
approximately as follows:

Type C-h for help; (`C-' means use CTRL key.)
Type C-x u to undo changes.
Type C-h t for a tutorial on using Emacs.
Type C-h i to enter Info, which you can use to read GNU documentation.
To kill the Emacs job, type C-x C-c.

Note the way Emacs documentation refers to key combinations. C-h
means hold the control key down while typing "h". You will also run
into key combinations like M-v, which is pronounced "meta v". The
tutorial suggests holding down the key labeled "edit" or "meta" then
typing "v". I have never run across a keyboard with those keys, so I
always use the escape key instead: typing "Esc" then "v" (two separate
keystrokes). After using Emacs for a long time, I discovered that
under Linux, the left "Alt" key works like a "meta" key. You may want
to use this. On the other hand, some of these key combinations may
conflict with your screen reader or communications program under DOS.
Using the escape key is more reliable.

Three of the above commands start with C-h, which may be treated as a
backspace by your communications program. In that case, you may
access the help command using the long form M-x help. Conversely, you
may find that pressing the backspace key starts the help command.
This issue is treated in the Emacs FAQ, which is available within
Emacs using C-h F or M-x help F. Look for the question "Why does the
`Backspace' key invoke help?". In the mean time, you can end the help
session with the command C-g. (This is the keyboard-quit command,
which cancels any prefix keys you have typed.)

You may also find that C-s and C-q are unavailable because they are
used for flow control (XON and XOFF). You should look at the question
"How do I handle C-s and C-q being used for flow control?" in the FAQ.
For the particular command C-x C-s (save buffer), you may substitute
the command C-x s (save-some-buffers). The former command saves the
current buffer, while the latter asks the user about each of the
modified buffers.

Note in particular the command "C-h t" to start the Emacs tutorial.
That is one the first things you will want to try. I will only make a
couple of comments on the tutorial. To move the cursor, it gives the
four commands C-f, C-b, C-p, and C-n (for forward, back, previous
line, and next line). These commands always work. However, with a
properly installed Emacs, the regular arrow keys should also work.
Try them out and use them if you are more comfortable with them.
Similarly, you may be able to use home, end, page down, and page up
keys in place of the standard commands C-a, C-e, C-v, and M-v.
Finally, all Emacspeak commands begin with C-e. Once you start using
Emacspeak, you will have to type it twice to get the end of line
function. (The "End" key should be unaffected by Emacspeak.)

4. Stage 3. Terminal to local Linux system

This arrangement again requires a DOS machine with a speech
synthesizer and a terminal emulator program. However, instead of
dialing up a remote computer, it is used as a terminal to a local
computer running Linux. To get to this point, you need to install
Linux on a machine. You may be able to prevail on a knowledgeable
friend to help you with this. However, it is also possible to install
it yourself with speech feedback for almost the whole procedure.

4.1. Installing Linux

First, some background. Even the simplest Unix system requires a
program called the kernel and a root file system. The kernel has all
the device drivers and resource management functions. One normally
thinks of a "file system" as residing on a hard disk or floppy disk,
but during an installation it is usually in ram. Linux is normally
installed by writing a kernel image to a floppy disk, called the "boot
floppy", configuring it to reserve a section of RAM for a ramdisk,
then filling that ramdisk with data from a second floppy disk, called
the "root floppy". As soon as both floppies have been read in, the
user can log in as "root" and complete the installation. The sighted
user logs in on the "system console", that is, the computer's own
keyboard and video display. However, remember that Unix has been a
multiprocessing operating system from the very beginning. Even this
very primitive Unix system, running out of a small ramdisk, also
supports logins from a terminal connected to a serial port. This is
what a blind user can use.

To connect the two computers, you can use a "null modem", a serial
cable that connects ground to ground, and transmit on each end to
receive on the other. The cable that comes with the DOS application
LapLink will work fine. It is particularly handy, in fact, because it
has both a 9 pin and a 25 pin connector on each end. If you want to
check a cable or have one made, here are the required connections:

For two 9 pin connectors, connect pin 2 (receive data) to pin 3, pin 3
(transmit data) to pin 2, and pin 5 (signal ground) to pin 5.

For two 25 pin connectors, connect pin 2 (receive data) to pin 3, pin
3 (transmit data) to pin 2, and pin 7 (signal ground) to pin 7.

For a 9 pin connector (first) to a 25 pin connector (second), connect
pin 2 (receive data) to pin 2 (transmit data), pin 3 (transmit data)
to pin 3 (receive data), and pin 5 (signal ground) to pin 7 (signal
ground).

You may have noted that I have included no connections for the
"handshaking" signals. During login, the serial port is handled by
the program agetty. Recent versions of this program accept a -L
switch which tells it not to expect modem control signals. The
version in Slackware 3.0 does, but the one on the 3.0 (and earlier)
installation root disks does not. However, Pat Volkerding has assured
me that the root disks in the next release of Slackware will have the
updated version of agetty. It is also possible to use the earlier
root disks [``Emacspeak with Earlier Slackware Releases''].

Consult the documentation on your CDROM, or downloaded from an FTP
site, and choose a boot disk with the proper kernel features for your
hardware (IDE or SCSI, CDROM driver, etc.). I have the InfoMagic
September 1996 "Developer's Resource" set of six CDROMs. Slackware
3.1 is on disk 1 of that set, mostly in the two directories slackwar
and slakware. (Note the difference in spelling. You will access them
in alphabetical order: first slackwar, then slakware.)

Documentation on the boot floppies is in \bootdsks.144\which.one. A
copy of the DOS program for writing boot images to a floppy,
rawrite.exe, is in the same directory. Assuming the CDROM is the M
drive under DOS, one might use these commands to write to a floppy
disk in the A drive:

C>m:
M>cd \bootdsks.144
M>rawrite scsinet.s a:

Similarly, to write the "text" root disk:

C>m:
M>cd \rootdsks
M>rawrite text.gz a:

If you install from floppies, you should also copy the Emacspeak
package onto a floppy with a command like this:

C>copy m:\contrib\emacspea.tgz a:

For the actual installation, proceed as follows: Use the null modem to
connect the computer running DOS and equipped with speech output
(which I will call the "DOS machine") to the computer into which you
want to install Linux (the "Linux machine").

Boot the DOS machine, and start your terminal emulation program. Set
it up for 9600 baud, no parity, eight data bits, 1 stop bit.

On the Linux machine, insert the "boot" disk and boot (power up, cntl-
alt-del, or hit the reset switch). It should read the disk for five
seconds or so, beep, and stop with the following text:

(Note: in the following, the large blocks of text quoted from the
installation disks are preceded by "-- begin quote" and followed by
"-- end quote". To skip to the end of a quote, you may search for two
dashes starting in the first column. I have word wrapped some
sections to limit the line lengths.)

-- begin quote

Welcome to the Slackware96 Linux (v. 3.1.0) bootkernel disk!

If you have any extra parameters to pass to the kernel, enter them at
the prompt below after one of the valid configuration names (ramdisk,
mount, drive2)

Here are some examples (and more can be found in the BOOTING file):

ramdisk hd=cyl,hds,secs (Where "cyl", "hds", and "secs" are the
number of cylinders, sectors, and heads
on the drive. Most machines won't need
this.)

In a pinch, you can boot your system with a command like:
mount root=/dev/hda1

On machines with low memory, you can use mount root=/dev/fd1 or mount
root=/dev/fd0 to install without a ramdisk. See LOWMEM.TXT for
details.

If you would rather load the root/install disk from your second
floppy drive: drive2 (or even this: ramdisk root=/dev/fd1)

DON'T SWITCH ANY DISKS YET! This prompt is just for entering extra
parameters. If you don't need to enter any parameters, hit ENTER to
continue.

boot:

-- end quote

I have almost always been able to just hit "enter" at this point.

After your entry, the Linux machine should read the floppy for another
twenty seconds or so, then boot the kernel. The first thing it prints
is "Loading ramdisk...", which is somewhat misleading. In this case,
"ramdisk" is actually the name of the kernel configuration.

Each device driver in the kernel displays a line or two. The
particular disk I'm using (the "bare.i" bootdisk) displays more than
one screen's worth. It is possible to type shift-page up to scroll
the text back. On my machine, the boot messages are as follows:

-- begin quote

Loading ramdisk.....
Uncompressing Linux...done.
Now booting the kernel
Console: colour VGA+ 80x25, 1 virtual console (max 63)
Calibrating delay loop.. ok - 35.94 BogoMIPS
Memory: 23028k/24768k available (688k kernel code, 384k reserved,
668k data)
Swansea University Computer Society NET3.035 for Linux 2.0
NET3: Unix domain sockets 0.12 for Linux NET3.035.
Swansea University Computer Society TCP/IP for NET3.034
IP Protocols: ICMP, UDP, TCP
VFS: Diskquotas version dquot_5.6.0 initialized
Checking 386/387 coupling... Ok, fpu using exception 16 error reporting.
Checking 'hlt' instruction... Ok.
Linux version 2.0.0 (root@darkstar) (gcc version 2.7.2) #1 Mon Jun 10
21:11:56 CDT 1996
Serial driver version 4.13 with no serial options enabled
tty00 at 0x03f8 (irq = 4) is a 16550A
PS/2 auxiliary pointing device detected -- driver installed.
Ramdisk driver initialized : 16 ramdisks of 49152K size
hda: IBM-DBOA-2720, 689MB w/64KB Cache, LBA, CHS=700/32/63
ide0: at 0x1f0-0x1f7,0x3f6 on irq 14
Floppy drive(s): fd0 is 1.44M
Started kswapd v 1.4.2.2
FDC 0 is a 8272A
Partition check:
hda: hda1 hda2 hda3
VFS: Insert root floppy disk to be loaded into ramdisk and press ENTER

-- end quote

Some messages will of course be different on a machine with different
hardware. Now, insert the "text" rootdisk and press ENTER. After it
is read, the following is displayed on the console:

-- begin quote

RAMDISK: Compressed image found at block 0
JAVA Binary support v1.01 for Linux 1.3.98 (C)1996 Brian A. Lantz
VFS: Mounted root (minix filesystem).
INIT: version 2.60 booting
none on /proc type proc (rw)
INIT: Entering runlevel: 4

Welcome to the Slackware Linux installation disk ,version 3.1.0-text!
### READ THE INSTRUCTIONS BELOW CAREFULLY! ###

You will need one or more partitions of type "Linux native"
prepared. It is also recommended that you create a swap partition
(type "Linux swap") prior to installation. Most users can use the
Linux "fdisk" utility to create and tag the types of all these
partitions. OS/2 Boot Manager users, however, should create their
Linux partitions with OS/2 "fdisk", add the bootable (root) partition
to the Boot Manager menu, and then use the Linux "fdisk" to tag the
partitions as type "Linux native".

If you have 4 megabytes or less of RAM, you MUST ACTIVATE a swap
partition before running setup. After making the partition with fdisk,
use:

mkswap /dev/<partition> <number of blocks> ; swapon /dev/<partition>

Once you have prepared the disk partitions for Linux, type "setup" to
begin the installation process.

You may now login as "root".

slackware login:

-- end quote

The program that prints the login prompt is called agetty. The
Slackware 3.1 root disks are set up to allow logins only from the
computer's own keyboard. You will have to reconfigure it to also
allow logins from a serial port. This requires typing four lines on
the Linux machine keyboard, with no voice feedback. If you realize
you have made a mistake before hitting the carriage return, you can
erase it with the backspace key. You can also discard what you have
typed on a line with control-C. Here is what you type:

root
cat >>/etc/inittab
s1:45:respawn:/sbin/agetty 9600 ttyS0
control-D
init q

I will repeat that with explanations of what is going on.

First, type "root" and a single carriage return to log in (no password
is needed). Next, you need to append one line to /etc/inittab. Type
the following two lines:

cat >>/etc/inittab
s1:45:respawn:/sbin/agetty 9600 ttyS0

Finish each line with the "enter" key. Then type a control-D, which
signals end of file to a Unix program. (Note: In the second line, the
next to last character is an upper case "S". Everything else is in
lower case.) This adds a line to the configuration file of the
program init, to instruct it to use agetty to watch for logins on the
first serial port on the Linux machine, called "COM1" under DOS, or
"/dev/ttyS0" under Linux. To use the second port instead, change the
last item on the above line to "ttyS1".

Then type

init q

which causes init to reread /etc/inittab. At this point the DOS
machine should display the login prompt (the third of the blocks of
text quoted above). On the DOS machine, type root, and finish the
installation. (The next thing you should do is create and enable a
swap partition.)

If you don't get the Slackware installation disk prompt, try the
following:

o Type a single carriage return on the DOS machine.

o Recheck the terminal setup (9600 baud, no parity, eight data bits,
1 stop bit)

o Disconnect the null modem from the DOS machine. In its place,
connect a modem which supports the Hayes "AT" commands. Type AT
and a carriage return. You should get a reply of "OK" from the
modem.

Once you get the above prompt on the DOS machine, you may type root
and a carriage return to log in, and complete the installation like
any other user. Of course, you must remember to include these
packages: emacs, tcl, and tclX.

The installation script will offer to prepare a boot floppy. You
should do this, since it is the most foolproof way to boot Linux. You
will probably also want to install lilo (which is an abbreviation for
"Linux loader") and/or loadlin (which is an abbreviation for "load
Linux"). The installation script can install lilo. Loadlin is a DOS
program that will let you boot from DOS to Linux. Install it on a DOS
partition, and copy a compressed kernel file (usually named zImage) to
the same partition. While running DOS, you may boot Linux with a
command like loadlin zimage root=/dev/hda3 ro/. (I have assumed here
that the kernel image is in the same directory as the loadlin program.
You may find it more convenient to store kernel images in
subdirectories named for the kernel version.)

After the Slackware setup script finishes the main installation, it
will tell you to restart by pressing cntl-alt-del. Before doing that,
you should install emacspeak. It can be found with the other
"contributed" software. In the InfoMagic set, it is in
slackwar/contrib. Assuming you are installing Linux directly from a
CDROM, the setup script will mount the CDROM under /CDROM, and you may
install emacspeak with the following command:

# installpkg /CDROM/slackwar/contrib/emacspeak.tgz

If you install from floppies, insert the floppy you made earlier and
type this:

# mount -tmsdos /dev/fd0 /floppy
# cp /floppy/emacspea.tgz /tmp/emacspeak.tgz
# installpkg /tmp/emacspeak.tgz

You should not install the package directly off the floppy disk,
because the DOS filesystem will not allow the full filename, so the
installpkg program will think the package name is "emacspea" and will
store its records under that name.

If you have a DoubleTalk or LiteTalk speech synthesizer, you should
also install the emacspeak-dt package.

Reboot the Linux machine with the new boot floppy, with the DOS
machine still connected. You should get a login prompt on the DOS
machine. Celebrate! After getting this system working, you need to
learn emacs (third option) and Unix system administration.

4.2. Learning Unix System Administration

Mostly you will learn system administration as the need arises. First
adding a user (yourself), then installing programs, and so forth. The
exception to this is making backups, which you should learn before you
need them.

Among the many programs you will need to learn are these:

adduser
Register a new user, including creating a home directory and
adding an entry in /etc/passwd.

tar
Create and unpack .tar files, which are collections of files
(something like .zip files). To list the contents of an
archive, use tar -tf foobar.tar. For a more verbose listing,
use tar -tvf foobar.tar. To unpack an archive, use tar -xf
foobar.tar.

chmod
Change permissions of a file or directory.

chown
Change ownership of a file or directory.

find
Search directories recursively. For example, the command find .
-name '*alpha*' -print means: search starting in the current
directory (.) for a file whose name contains the string "alpha"
(-name '*alpha*'), and print its path and name (-print). (With
GNU find, the -print is optional.)

du Display the amount of space occupied by files or subdirectories.
For a file with "holes", this may be much less than the length
of the file.

df Display filesystem capacities, free space, and where they are
mounted.

mount
Display filesystems, where they are mounted, and the mount
flags.

ifconfig
Configure and check internet protocol (IP) network interfaces,
including Ethernet cards, SLIP links, and PLIP links.

route
Configure and check IP network routing, after the interface is
configured.

ping
Check IP network connectivity, after the interfaces and routes
are configured.

ftp
Transfer files across the Internet.

Here are some programs you may want to install:

agrep
Approximate grep searches for approximate, not exact, string
matches (also called "fuzzy string searches").

archie
Search Internet archives for files.

flip
Convert text files between Unix and DOS formats.

glimpse
Fuzzy string searches in large collection of files (uses agrep).

lynx
Text mode web browser.

Here are some Web pages related to Unix system administration:

General information <http://www.ensta.fr/internet/unix/sys_admin/> or
<http://www.sai.msu.su/sysadm.html>

There is a Unix system administration tutorial at
<http://www.iem.ac.ru/sysadm.html>

UnixWorld Online Magazine Home Page <http://www.wcmh.com/uworld/>

Internet Essentials for UNIX System Administrators Tutorial
<http://www.greatcircle.com/tutorials/ieusa.html>

Pointers to Unix goodies available on the Internet
<http://www.ensta.fr/internet/unix/>

Pointers to Unix system administration "goodies" available on the
Internet <http://www.ensta.fr/internet/unix/sys_admin/>

5. Stage 4. Emacspeak under Linux

The Slackware setup script for Emacspeak should create the needed
environment variables and install a script emacspeak that starts emacs
with emacspeak. This is your fourth option for learning Emacs. This
is the first time you will be able to actually use Emacspeak. A short
tutorial appears below. Within Emacs, you may type C-h C-e to get a
list of the commands. To search for a command, use C-h a. To get an
explanation for a key sequence, use C-h k. There is also an info file
which is part of the Emacspeak distribution. Within emacs, you may
type C-h i to open the directory to the info pages. Search for the
emacspeak menu item by typing C-s emacspeak, then two carriage returns
(one to terminate the search, and a second one to go to the info page.
If you have the standalone info program installed, you can consult the
info file with the command info Emacspeak.

5.1. Emacspeak Introduction - Speech Enabled Normal Commands

All of the normal Emacs movement commands will speak the relevant
information after moving. Here are some of the cursor movement
functions that have been speech enabled. Note that this list only
enumerates a few of these speech enabled commands; the purpose of
emacspeak is to speech-enable all of emacs and provide you spoken
feedback as you work. Thus, this list is here only as a
representative example of the kind of speech-enabling extensions
Emacspeak provides.

`C-n' or
`M-x next-line' or `down'" Moves the cursor to the next line and
speaks it.

`C-p' or
`M-x previous-line' or `up'" Moves the cursor to the previous
line and speaks it.

`M-f' or
`M-x forward-word' or" Moves the cursor to the next word and
speaks it. Places point on the first character of the next
work, rather than on the space preceding it (This is my personal
preference).

`M-b' or
`M-x backward-word'" Moves the cursor to the previous word and
speaks it.

`M-C-b' or
`M-x backward-sexp'" Moves the cursor to the previous sexp and
speaks it. If the sexp spans more than a line, only the first
line is spoken.

`M-<' or
`M-x beginning-of-buffer'" Speaks line moved to.

`M->' or
`M-x end-of-buffer'" Speaks line moved to.

`M-m' or
`M-x back-to-indentation'" Speaks entire current line. A useful
way of hearing the current line.

5.2. Emacspeak Introduction - New Commands

Emacspeak provides a number of commands for reading portions of the
current buffer, getting status information, and modifying Emacspeak's
state.

All of the commands are documented in the subsequent sections. They
can be classified into types:

The first group of commands are for listening to chunks of
information. The names of these commands all start with the common
prefix `emacspeak-'. All Emacspeak commands are bound to the keymap
EMACSPEAK-KEYMAP and are accessed with the key `Control e'. Thus, the
Emacspeak command "emacspeak-speak-line" is bound to `l' in keymap
EMACSPEAK-KEYMAP and can be accessed with the keystroke `Control-e l'.

Here are some of the commands for reading text:

`C-e c' or
`M-x emacspeak-speak-char'" Speak current character, using the
phonetic alphabet.

`C-e w' or
`M-x emacspeak-speak-word'" Speak current word.

`C-e l' or
`M-x emacspeak-speak-line'" Speak current line. With prefix `C-
u', speaks the rest of the line from point. With negative
prefix `C-u -', speaks from start of line to point. Voicifies
if voice-lock-mode is on. Indicates indentation with a tone if
audio indentation is in use. Indicates position of point with
an aural highlight if option emacspeak-show-point is turned on
--see command `M-x emacspeak-show-point'.

`C-e .' or
`M-x emacspeak-speak-sentence'" Speak the current sentence.

The second category of commands provided by Emacspeak report status of
various kinds.

`C-e k' or
`M-x emacspeak-speak-current-kill'" Speak the current kill entry
(which would be yanked by the next C-y).

`C-e =' or
`M-x emacspeak-speak-current-column'" State the column where
point is.

`C-e C-l' or
`M-x emacspeak-speak-line-number'" State the line where point
is.

`C-e m' or `M-x emacspeak-speak-line-number'
Speak the mode-line: the name of the buffer, how far point is
into the current buffer as a percentage, and the major mode.

`C-e M' or `M-x emacspeak-speak-minor-mode-line'
Speak the minor modes that are in effect.

`C-e v' or `M-x emacspeak-speak-version'
Announce the emacspeak version.

The third category of commands provided by Emacspeak manipulate the
state of the speech device. The names of these commands start with
the common prefix `dtk-'. Many of these commands take the prefix
`Control-e d'. Thus, the command "dtk-set-rate" is bound to `r' in
keymap EMACSPEAK-DTK-SUBMAP and can be executed by pressing `Control e
d r'.

`C-e s' or
`M-x dtk-stop'" Stop speech now. In addition, any command that
causes speech output will discard anything in the speech buffer.

`C-e d V' or `M-x emacspeak-dtk-speak-version'
Use this to find out which version of the Dectalk firmware you
have.

`C-e d I' or `M-x dtk-toggle-stop-immediately-while-typing'
Toggle state of variable dtk-stop-immediately-while-typing. As
the name implies, if true then speech flushes immediately as you
type.

`C-e d i' or `M-x emacspeak-toggle-audio-indentation'
Toggle state of Emacspeak audio indentation. Specifying the
method of indentation as `tone' results in the DECtalk producing
a tone whose length is a function of the line's indentation.
Specifying `speak' results in the number of initial spaces being
spoken.

`C-e d k' or `M-x emacspeak-toggle-character-echo'
Toggle state of Emacspeak character echo (that is, whether
typed characters are echoed).
`C-e d w' or `M-x emacspeak-toggle-word-echo'
Toggle state of Emacspeak word echo (initially on).

`C-e d l' or `M-x emacspeak-toggle-line-echo'
Toggle state of Emacspeak line echo (that is, whether typed
text is echoed after typing enter).

`C-e d p' or `M-x dtk-set-punctuations'
Set punctuation state. Possible values are `some', `all', or
`none'.

`C-e d q' or `M-x dtk-toggle-quiet'
Toggle state of the speech device between being quiet and
talkative. Useful if you want to continue using an emacs
session that has emacspeak loaded but wish to make the speech
shut up.

`C-e d R' or `M-x dtk-reset-state'
Restore sanity to the Dectalk. Typically used after the Dectalk
has been power cycled.

`C-e d SPC' or `M-x dtk-toggle-splitting-on-white-space'
Toggle state of emacspeak that decides if we split text purely
by clause boundaries, or also include whitespace.

`C-e d r' or `M-x dtk-set-rate'
Set speaking rate for the dectalk.

`C-e d s' or `M-x dtk-toggle-split-caps'
Toggle split caps mode. In split caps mode, a transition from
lower case to upper case is treated like the beginning of a new
word. This is useful when reading Hungarian notation in program
source code.

`C-e d v' or `M-x voice-lock-mode'
Toggle Voice Lock mode (initially off). When Voice Lock mode is
enabled, text is voiceified as you type it, as follows:

o Comments are spoken in voice-lock-comment-personality; (That is
a variable whose value should be a personality name.)

o Strings are spoken in voice-lock-string-personality.

o Documentation strings are spoken in voice-lock-doc-string-
personality.

o Function and variable names in their defining forms are spoken
in voice-lock-function-name-personality.

o Certain other expressions are spoken in other personalities
according to the value of the variable voice-lock-keywords.

5.3. Emacspeak Introduction - Using the Help System

When you press C-h to get the help index, the screen will appear, but
Emacspeak will not speak the window. The only thing spoken is "Type
one of the options listed or Space to scroll:".

Here is the menu that Emacspeak is not speaking:

-- begin quote

You have typed C-h, the help character. Type a Help option:
(Use SPC or DEL to scroll through this text. Type q to exit the Help
command.)

a command-apropos. Give a substring, and see a list of commands
(functions interactively callable) that contain
that substring. See also the apropos command.
b describe-bindings. Display table of all key bindings.
c describe-key-briefly. Type a command key sequence;
it prints the function name that sequence runs.
f describe-function. Type a function name and get documentation of
it.
C-f Info-goto-emacs-command-node. Type a function name;
it takes you to the Info node for that command.
F view-emacs-FAQ. Shows emacs frequently asked questions file.
i info. The info documentation reader.
k describe-key. Type a command key sequence;
it displays the full documentation.
C-k Info-goto-emacs-key-command-node. Type a command key sequence;
it takes you to the Info node for the command bound to that
key.
l view-lossage. Shows last 100 characters you typed.
m describe-mode. Print documentation of current major mode,
which describes the commands peculiar to it.
n view-emacs-news. Shows emacs news file.
p finder-by-keyword. Find packages matching a given topic keyword.
s describe-syntax. Display contents of syntax table, plus
explanations
t help-with-tutorial. Select the Emacs learn-by-doing tutorial.
v describe-variable. Type name of a variable;
it displays the variable's documentation and value.
w where-is. Type command name; it prints which keystrokes
invoke that command.
C-c print Emacs copying permission (General Public License).
C-d print Emacs ordering information.
C-n print news of recent Emacs changes.
C-p print information about the GNU project.
C-w print information on absence of warranty for GNU Emacs.

-- end quote

Suppose you type "a", for command-apropos.

The next spoken prompt is "Apropos command (regexp):"

Now you type some word you think is part of an emacs command, like
"visit".

The help system will display the first section of the help, but will
leave the cursor in the other window. The spoken text is "Type C-x 1
to remove help window. M-C-v to scroll the help." At this point, I
think it's more helpful to move point to the other window with C-x o,
then you can use regular navigation commands to speak the help text.
You can delete the help window with C-x 0, which will also put point
back where it was.

The complete menu displayed by help-for-help is also visible if you do
a describe function on help-for-help. In a future version of
Emacspeak, Raman plans to add a message to that effect when the user
presses C-h ?

6. Footnotes and References

6.1. JAWS

Job Access With Speech (JAWS) is a screen reader which runs under
Microsoft MSDOS. JAWS for Windows supports Windows 95, Windows 98 and
Windows NT. Both are products of Henter-Joyce, Inc., 2100 62nd Avenue
North, St. Petersburg, FL 33702, telephone: 800-336-5658. For
details, see <http://www.hj.com>.

6.2. TELIX

TELIX is a shareware terminal emulator for MSDOS. It can be obtained
by FTP from the SimTel archive [``SimTel'']. Within the SimTel
collection, look for directory msdos/telix. For example, try
<ftp://ftp.coast.net/pub/SimTel/msdos/telix>. The latest version of
the program itself is in the four files tlx322-1.zip, tlx322-2.zip,
tlx322-3.zip, and tlx322-4.zip.

6.3. COMMO

COMMO is another shareware terminal emulator for DOS. In the SimTel
archive [``SimTel''], it is in directory msdos/commprog, file
commo66.zip. For example, try
<ftp://ftp.coast.net/pub/SimTel/msdos/commprog/commo66.zip>.

6.4. SimTel

The SimTel archive is maintained by Keith Petersen [email protected].
CD-ROM copies of Simtel.Net collections are available from Walnut
Creek CDROM [``Walnut Creek'']. The primary ftp sites are
<ftp://ftp.simtel.net/pub/simtelnet>, and
<oak.oakland.edu://pub/simtelnet>. There are many mirror sites, as
listed in the following table:

o US, ALL (primary) <ftp://ftp.simtel.net/pub/simtelnet>

o US, California <ftp://ftp.cdrom.com/pub/simtelnet>

o US, California <ftp://ftp.digital.com/pub/micro/pc/simtelnet>

o US, California <ftp://ftp.lib.sonoma.edu/pub/simtelnet>

o US, Illinois
<ftp://uiarchive.cso.uiuc.edu/pub/systems/pc/simtelnet>

o US, Massachusetts <ftp://ftp.bu.edu/pub/mirrors/simtelnet>

o US, Michigan <ftp://oak.oakland.edu/pub/simtelnet>

o US, New York <ftp://ftp.rge.com/pub/systems/simtelnet>

o US, Oklahoma <ftp://ftp.ou.edu/pub/simtelnet>

o US, Oregon <ftp://ftp.orst.edu/pub/simtelnet>

o US, Pennsylvania <ftp://ftp.epix.net/pub/simtelnet>

o US, Utah <ftp://ftp.cyber-naut.com/pub/simtelnet>

o US, Virginia <ftp://mirrors.aol.com/pub/simtelnet>

o Argentina <ftp://ftp.satlink.com/pub/mirrors/simtelnet>

o Australia <ftp://ftp.iniaccess.net.au/pub/simtelnet>

o Australia <ftp://sunsite.anu.edu.au/pub/pc/simtelnet>

o Austria, Vienna <ftp://ftp.univie.ac.at/mirror/simtelnet>

o Belgium <ftp://ftp.linkline.be/mirror/simtelnet>

o Belgium <ftp://ftp.tornado.be/pub/simtelnet>

o Bulgaria <ftp://ftp.eunet.bg/pub/simtelnet>

o Brazil <ftp://ftp.iis.com.br/pub/simtelnet>

o Brazil <ftp://ftp.unicamp.br/pub/simtelnet>

o Canada, Ottawa <ftp://ftp.crc.doc.ca/systems/ibmpc/simtelnet>

o Canada, Vancouver <ftp://ftp.direct.ca/pub/simtelnet>

o Chile
<ftp://sunsite.dcc.uchile.cl/pub/Mirror/simtelnet>

o China <ftp://ftp.pku.edu.cn/pub/simtelnet>

o Czech Republic <ftp://ftp.eunet.cz/pub/simtelnet>

o Czech Republic <ftp://ftp.zcu.cz/pub/simtelnet>

o Czech Republic <ftp://pub.vse.cz/pub/simtelnet>

o Finland
<ftp://ftp.funet.fi/mirrors/ftp.simtel.net/pub/simtelnet>

o France <ftp://ftp.grolier.fr/pub/simtelnet>

o France <ftp://ftp.ibp.fr/pub/simtelnet>

o Germany <ftp://ftp.mpi-sb.mpg.de/pub/simtelnet>

o Germany <ftp://ftp.rz.ruhr-uni-bochum.de/pub/simtelnet>

o Germany <ftp://ftp.tu-chemnitz.de/pub/simtelnet>

o Germany <ftp://ftp.uni-heidelberg.de/pub/simtelnet>

o Germany <ftp://ftp.uni-
magdeburg.de/pub/mirrors/simtelnet>
o Germany <ftp://ftp.uni-paderborn.de/pub/simtelnet>

o Germany <ftp://ftp.uni-
trier.de/pub/pc/mirrors/Simtel.net>

o Germany <ftp://ftp.rz.uni-
wuerzburg.de/pub/pc/simtelnet>

o Greece <ftp://ftp.ntua.gr/pub/pc/simtelnet>

o Hong Kong <ftp://ftp.cs.cuhk.hk/pub/simtelnet>

o Hong Kong <ftp://ftp.hkstar.com/pub/simtelnet>

o Hong Kong <ftp://sunsite.ust.hk/pub/simtelnet>

o Ireland <ftp://ftp.iol.ie/pub/simtelnet>

o Israel <ftp://ftp.huji.ac.il/pub/simtelnet>

o Italy <ftp://cis.utovrm.it/simtelnet>

o Italy <ftp://ftp.flashnet.it/pub/simtelnet>

o Italy <ftp://ftp.unina.it/pub/simtelnet>

o Italy <ftp://mcftp.mclink.it/pub/simtelnet>

o Japan <ftp://ftp.iij.ad.jp/pub/simtelnet>

o Japan <ftp://ftp.riken.go.jp/pub/simtelnet>

o Japan <ftp://ftp.saitama-u.ac.jp/pub/simtelnet>

o Japan <ftp://ftp.u-aizu.ac.jp/pub/PC/simtelnet>

o Japan <ftp://ftp.web.ad.jp/pub/simtelnet>

o Japan <ftp://ring.aist.go.jp/pub/simtelnet>

o Japan <ftp://ring.asahi-net.or.jp/pub/simtelnet>

o Latvia <ftp://ftp.lanet.lv/pub/mirror/simtelnet>

o Malaysia <ftp://ftp.jaring.my/pub/simtelnet>

o Malaysia <ftp://ftp.mimos.my/pub/simtelnet>

o Mexico <ftp://ftp.gdl.iteso.mx/pub/simtelnet>

o Netherlands <ftp://ftp.euro.net/d5/simtelnet>

o Netherlands <ftp://ftp.nic.surfnet.nl/mirror-
archive/software/simtelnet>

o New Zealand <ftp://ftp.vuw.ac.nz/pub/simtelnet>

o Norway <ftp://ftp.bitcon.no/pub/simtelnet>

o Poland <ftp://ftp.cyf-kr.edu.pl/pub/mirror/Simtel.Net>

o Poland <ftp://ftp.icm.edu.pl/pub/simtelnet>

o Poland <ftp://ftp.man.poznan.pl/pub/simtelnet>

o Portugal <ftp://ftp.ip.pt/pub/simtelnet>

o Portugal <ftp://ftp.ua.pt/pub/simtelnet>

o Romania <ftp://ftp.sorostm.ro/pub/simtelnet>

o Singapore <ftp://ftp.nus.sg/pub/simtelnet>

o Slovakia <ftp://ftp.uakom.sk/pub/simtelnet>

o Slovenia <ftp://ftp.arnes.si/software/simtelnet>

o South Africa <ftp://ftp.is.co.za/pub/simtelnet>

o South Africa <ftp://ftp.sun.ac.za/pub/simtelnet>

o South Korea <ftp://ftp.nuri.net/pub/simtelnet>

o South Korea <ftp://ftp.sogang.ac.kr/pub/simtelnet>

o South Korea <ftp://sunsite.snu.ac.kr/pub/simtelnet>

o Spain <ftp://ftp.rediris.es/mirror/simtelnet>

o Sweden <ftp://ftp.sunet.se/pub/simtelnet>

o Switzerland <ftp://sunsite.cnlab-
switch.ch/mirror/simtelnet>

o Taiwan <ftp://ftp.ncu.edu.tw/Packages/simtelnet>

o Taiwan <ftp://nctuccca.edu.tw/mirror/simtelnet>

o Thailand <ftp://ftp.nectec.or.th/pub/mirrors/simtelnet>

o UK, Edinburgh <ftp://emwac.ed.ac.uk/mirrors/simtelnet>

o UK, London <ftp://ftp.demon.co.uk/pub/simtelnet>

o UK, Lancaster <ftp://micros.hensa.ac.uk/pub/simtelnet>

o UK, London <ftp://sunsite.doc.ic.ac.uk/packages/simtelnet>

6.5. InfoMagic

Simtel Ste D-InfoMagic is at 11950 N. Highway 89, Flagstaff AZ
86004, telephone 800-800-6613 or 520-526-9565, fax 520-526-9573,
email: [email protected], web: <http://www.infomagic.com>.

6.6. Walnut Creek

Walnut Creek CDROM has many useful CDROMs. They are at 4041 Pike ,
Concord, CA 94520, USA. Telephone (800) 786-9907 or (510) 674-0783,
or FAX (510) 674-0821. email: [email protected]. Web:
<http://www.cdrom.com/>

6.7. Red Hat

Red Hat Software: telephone 800-454-5502 or 203-454-5500, fax:
203-454-2582, email: [email protected]. Web: <http://www.redhat.com>.

6.8. Craftwork

CraftWork Solutions, 4320 Stevens Creek Blvd, Suite 170, San Jose CA
95129, telephone 800-985-1878, email: [email protected], web:
<http://www.craftwork.com>.

6.9. Yggdrasil

Yggdrasil Computing, 4880 Stevens Creek Blvd., Suite 205, San Jose CA
95129-1024, telephone 800-261-6630 or 408-261-6630, fax: 408-261-6631,
email: [email protected], web: <http://www.yggdrasil.com>.

6.10. Emacs for DOS

From the Emacs FAQ of November 11, 1996:

--begin quote

93: Where can I get Emacs for my PC running MS-DOS?

A pre-built binary distribution of Emacs 19.34 should be available by
the beginning of November 1996 from the Simtel archives, the main site
of which is at

<ftp://ftp.simtel.net/pub/simtelnet/gnu/djgpp/v2gnu/>

If you prefer to compile Emacs for yourself, you will need a 386 (or
better) processor, and are running MS-DOS 3.0 or later. According to
Eli Zaretskii [email protected] and Darrel Hankerson
[email protected], you will need the following:

Compiler: djgpp version 1.12 maint 1 or later. Djgpp 2.0 or later is
recommended, since 1.x is being phased out. Djgpp 2 supports long
filenames under Windows 95.

You can get the latest release of djgpp by retrieving all of the files
in

<ftp://ftp.simtel.net/pub/simtelnet/gnu/djgpp>

Gunzip and tar:

The easiest way is to use "djtar" which comes with djgpp v2.x, because
it can open gzip'ed tarfiles (i.e., those ending with ".tar.gz") in
one step. Djtar comes in "djdev201.zip", from the URL mentioned
above.

Utilities: make, mv, sed, rm.

All of these utilities are available at

<ftp://ftp.simtel.net/pub/simtelnet/gnu/djgpp/v2gnu>

16-bit utilities can be found in GNUish:

<ftp://ftp.simtel.net/pub/simtelnet/gnu/gnuish>

The file INSTALL in the top-level directory of the Emacs source
contains some additional information regarding Emacs under MS-DOS. In
addition, the file etc/MSDOS contains some information on the
differences between the Unix and MS-DOS versions of Emacs.

For the most comprehensive information on running GNU Emacs on a PC,
see the file prepared by Michael Ernst [email protected] at

<ftp://theory.lcs.mit.edu/pub/emacs/pc-emacs.gz>

For a list of other MS-DOS implementations of Emacs (and Emacs look-
alikes), consult the list of "Emacs implementations and literature,"
available at

<ftp://rtfm.mit.edu/pub/usenet/comp.emacs/>

Note that while many of these programs look similar to Emacs, they
often lack certain features, such as the Emacs Lisp extension
language.

--end quote

6.11. GNU Mirror Sites

The GNU collection at <ftp://prep.ai.mit.edu/pub/gnu> is mirrored at
many sites. Mirrors in USA include these:

o <ftp://labrea.stanford.edu/pub/gnu>

o <ftp://wuarchive.wustl.edu/systems/gnu>

o <ftp://ftp.kpc.com/pub/mirror/gnu>

o <ftp://f.ms.uky.edu/pub3/gnu>

o <ftp://jaguar.utah.edu/gnustuff>

o <ftp://ftp.hawaii.edu/mirrors/gnu>

o <ftp://uiarchive.cso.uiuc.edu/gnu>

o <ftp://uiarchive.cso.uiuc.edu/pub/gnu>

o <ftp://ftp.cs.columbia.edu/archives/gnu/prep>

o <ftp://gatekeeper.dec.com/pub/GNU>

o <ftp://ftp.uu.net/systems/gnu>

6.12. Emacspeak with Earlier Slackware Releases

If you want to install Slackware 3.0 or earlier, you will need to
prepare a full null modem cable, including modem control signals.

For two DB25 (25 pin) connectors, the required connections are:

o 1 (Frame Ground) - 1 (Frame Ground)

o 2 (Receive Data) - 3 (Transmit Data)

o 3 (Transmit Data) - 2 (Receive Data)

o 4 (Request To Send) - 5 (Clear To Send)

o 5 (Clear To Send) - 4 (Request To Send)

o 6 (Data Set Ready) - 20 (Data Terminal Ready)

o 7 (Signal Ground) - 7 (Signal Ground)

o 8 (Carrier Detect) - 20 (Data Terminal Ready)

o 20 (Data Terminal Ready) - 6 (Data Set Ready)

o 20 (Data Terminal Ready) - 8 (Carrier Detect)

For two DB9 connectors, the connections are:

o 1 (Carrier Detect) - 4 (Data Terminal Ready)

o 2 (Receive Data) - 3 (Transmit Data)

o 3 (Transmit Data) - 2 (Receive Data)

o 4 (Data Terminal Ready) - 6 (Data Set Ready)

o 4 (Data Terminal Ready) - 1 (Carrier Detect)

o 5 (Signal Ground) - 5 (Signal Ground)

o 6 (Data Set Ready) - 4 (Data Terminal Ready)

o 7 (Request To Send) - 8 (Clear To Send)

o 8 (Clear To Send) - 7 (Request To Send)

o 9 (Ring Indicator) not connected

For a DB9 (listed first) to a DB25 (second), the connections are:

o 1 (Carrier Detect) - 20 (Data Terminal Ready)

o 2 (Receive Data) - 2 (Transmit Data)

o 3 (Transmit Data) - 3 (Receive Data)

o 4 (Data Terminal Ready) - 6 (Data Set Ready)

o 4 (Data Terminal Ready) - 8 (Carrier Detect)

o 5 (Signal Ground) - 7 (Signal Ground)

o 6 (Data Set Ready) - 20(Data Terminal Ready)

o 7 (Request To Send) - 5 (Clear To Send)

o 8 (Clear To Send) - 4 (Request To Send)

o 9 (Ring Indicator) not connected

7. Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

7.1. Why does it say "space" after each character?

Your DECtalk Express has old firmware. Use the Emacspeak command `C-e
d V' to find out your version. You should be running a version no
older than 4.2bw from March 1995. If you have an earlier version, you
can find an updated version at
<http://www.ultranet.com/~rongemma/tips_upd.htm>, a WWW site
maintained by Ron Jemma of the Dectalk Group at DEC. Alternatively,
you can send email to Anne Nelson at [email protected].
The most recent version at this writing is 4.3 release AA X01 May 20
1996.

7.2. Why the high pitched tone from a DECtalk?

On occasion when reading the DECtalk will produce high pitch tones
that last for several words or more, if this happens in a buffer it
will often repeat within the same buffer.

The problem is due to remaining bugs in the Dectalk firmware. When
emacspeak produces tones, especially when split caps is on, the dtk
sometime goes into squealing mode.

If you notice this happening in particular text documents, just turn
off split caps mode locally with `C-e d s'.

7.3. Why the "No library autorevert in search path" message?

What is the significance of the message "No library autorevert in
search path" which is spoken (or at least queued for speech) when
emacspeak 7.0 starts?

It's completely insignificant. autorevert is a new minor mode provided
by emacs 20 and emacspeak looks for it and if found speech-enables it.

7.4. How do I change Emacspeak defaults?

What is the best way to change Emacspeak defaults for things such as
speech rate, default punctuation mode, etc.?

Just put the needed changes in your .emacs file. ".emacs" is a file
in your home directory that is loaded by emacs when it starts (shortly
after reading emacspeak). It is the place to do personal
modifications.

Here is an example which resets the speech rate and redefines a
function (courtesy of Greg Priest-Dorman [email protected]):

;;
(dtk-set-rate 380 1)
;;
(defun emacspeak-speak-time ()
"Speak the time. "
(interactive)
(dtk-speak (format-time-string "%A %B %e, %I %M %p"
(current-time) )))
;;

7.5. What if an error message is not spoken?

An error message was displayed on the screen, but not reported by
Emacspeak

In general, if emacs hits an error and you don't get to hear the
message because it went by too quickly, here is what you should do:

1) Switch to the *Messages* buffer and see if you see the message
there. 99% of the time it will be there.

2) If some portion of emacs or an emacs application throws an error
without leaving an appropriate message in the *Messages* buffer, then
turn on emacs' debugging facility by `M-x set-variable ret' `debug-on-
error ret' `t ret' this sets debugon-on-error to true now repeat what
caused the error you will be placed in a backtrace buffer.

Warning: do not read the entire contents of the backtrace buffer at
one shot with emacspeak. Go line by line. (courtesy of T. V. Raman
[email protected])

7.6. The terminal emulator is the most problematic portion of Emacs-
peak.

It's not an emacspeak problem-- it's a terminal problem. Getting a
terminal emulator working correctly inside emacs is not a joke-- and
eterm is an excellent piece of work, but depending on how some old app
behaves you will (or should always expect to) see some weirdness.

After all, remember all of these UNIX terminal apps work from all
kinds of terminals ranging from vt52's to new devices.

7.7. In a term buffer, the first half screen is not spoken

When starting a term buffer, no output is spoken in line mode by
Emacspeak until the cursor has made it about half way down the screen

I've not seen this-- and I am running emacs 20.

When you start term it is in character mode. When you switch to line
mode make sure the cursor is at the end of the buffer-- otherwise what
you send will never go to the shell.

Also, in general use M-x shell (comint-mode) for running things you
would run in line mode in eterm-- it's been around longer and far more
robust. M-x term specializes in its character-mode of terminal
emulation and may not always take care of everything in line mode.
(courtesy of T. V. Raman [email protected])

7.8. Term mode gets flaky after a long session.

Sometimes, after long sessions with a term buffer, I will experience
similar problems as do you with spech in the term becoming very flaky.
Output may or may not be spoken (I have not determined the pattern).

if the term becomes flaky, enter character mode and issue a reset.
the above is usually a result of running some curses based app that
leaves the terminal in a screwy state.

Many curses based apps follow slightly different conventions on where
they leave the cursor while you edit-- 60-70% of them leave the cursor
just after the character you typed with a null character after point.
Others leave a space character there which is what you hear.

Experiment between setting TERM to vt100 and eterm. Depending on
whether the app was linked against curses or ncurses (former uses
TERMCAP and latter uses TERMINFO) you will get different results.

8. Legalese

Copyright (c) 1998 by James R. Van Zandt [email protected]. This
document may be distributed under the terms set forth in the LDP
license at <http://metalab.unc.edu/LDP/COPYRIGHT.html>.

If you have questions, please contact Tim Bynum, the Linux HOWTO
coordinator, at [email protected] or linux-
[email protected].