Re: [suse-blinux] Accessibility removed
Hi Gordon, I have some good news. I called Novell and was able to talk to one of Novell's Linux Tech's and he helped me check out Suse 9.3 Professional from there Web site and we found that blinux is still a package in Suse 9.3. They have not removed it. Blinux is a package in there Hardware Package Group of Packages and called SBL. The package is not installed by default but is on the Suse 9.3 CD's and DVD's and can be installed by Yast. I went to one of my Suse computers and started up Yast and went to Software and then Install Software and then did a search in Hardware Package Groups for SBL and there it is. You can check the box and then Yast will ask for the Suse CD or DVD and it will install the package. Now I know this is not going to be easy for you because you can't point and click your way through all of this as I was able to. But the blinux Package is still in Suse and I think its an upgraded program because its SBL 2.2 . The bad news is that Novell doesn't offer support for blinux so you can't call a Novell tech for help. You will have to get help from someone who has installed and worked with this package or from a Linux users group that can help you find someone with help. I konw this is not going to be easy but there is hope that with the right kind of help that it is possible. Now that we know that it's in 9.3, I will try to help you find someone who has experience with configuring it. It would be great if you could find someone close to you who could help you install the SBL Package and then see what happens after you install and re-boot. I will see if anyone in a Linux users group around here has any experience with blimux. Don --- Gordon Smith <gordon@tft-bbs.co.uk> wrote:
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Hi. Well, I managed to get SUSE 9.3 installed this morning. Sadly, however, it seems that the commitment to making SUSE accessible right from the ground up has disappeared, along with the acquisition of the operatingg system by Novell. Unless there is something I have missed, the installation is now totally inaccessible to blind people. This, from my perspective at least, is a huge step backwards. Since, now that I have it installed, I can't do anything with it. I can't even change any settings, because I have no access to the KDE desktop. So unless this changes in some way, looks like SUSE was indeed a waste of money, and is now dead in the water for blind people. It may be useful once you get it installed with accessibility options enabled. But there doesn't seem to be any easy method of doing that. The requests for help from SUSE themselves have so far been totally ignored. In other words, I've hit a brick wall which, it seems, there's no way around. At least Redhat went out of their way to compile kernels which give accessibility from the ground up. Ah well, come back Fedora ... all's forgiven. But unless things change radically again for the better, looks like I'll just have to put SUSE down to experience, and move on.
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-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA1 Hi Don. Nobody in my area that I'm aware of uses SUSE at all. When I said it had been removed, I meant that it has been removed from the kernels. So it no longer comes up at boot time. From our point of view, this means I don't have a prayer of installing it, All the people I have spoken too on the subject, one of whom is a blind LINUX programmer, responsible for authoring the Supercast audio streaming server, tell me to ditch SUSE and go back to Fedora, for which there is a talking installation available. In fact, one of them has even gone so far as to kindly upload the images of the CD's to me. So at this point it looks like I'll reluctantly have to go that route. I need to get this project off the ground, to be honest. I don't have the time to spend hunting for stuff within SUSE. I just feel saddened that I'm coming up against a brick wall with SUSE every which way I turn. I want to thank you for your efforts to help here. I'm still very much interested if someone could come up with something to help. But the only way I could do anything with this OS would be if there is some kind of accessibility by default. Novell, in their infinite wisdom, have removed this. Thus effectively precluding the accessibility users from their product. It's all very well their talking about all the accessibility products which SUSE supports. But they don't make it possible for a visually impaired user to install the operating system without third-party help. I was planning on doing a review of SUSE for a radio station run by the American Council Of The Blind, for which I do voluntary work. However, my review will now have to be just a few lines in length. It will read something like: Good product, potentially anyway. However, accessibility by default is 0 and, as such, this LINUX distribution isn't one I can recommend. What a shame that Novell got their hands on what used to be an excellently well laid out operating system. At 19:12 09/05/2005 -0700, don gentner said: Hi Gordon, I have some good news. I called Novell and was able to talk to one of Novell's Linux Tech's and he helped me check out Suse 9.3 Professional from there Web site and we found that blinux is still a package in Suse 9.3. They have not removed it. Blinux is a package in there Hardware Package Group of Packages and called SBL. The package is not installed by default but is on the Suse 9.3 CD's and DVD's and can be installed by Yast. I went to one of my Suse computers and started up Yast and went to Software and then Install Software and then did a search in Hardware Package Groups for SBL and there it is. You can check the box and then Yast will ask for the Suse CD or DVD and it will install the package. Now I know this is not going to be easy for you because you can't point and click your way through all of this as I was able to. But the blinux Package is still in Suse and I think its an upgraded program because its SBL 2.2 . The bad news is that Novell doesn't offer support for blinux so you can't call a Novell tech for help. You will have to get help from someone who has installed and worked with this package or from a Linux users group that can help you find someone with help. I konw this is not going to be easy but there is hope that with the right kind of help that it is possible. Now that we know that it's in 9.3, I will try to help you find someone who has experience with configuring it. It would be great if you could find someone close to you who could help you install the SBL Package and then see what happens after you install and re-boot. I will see if anyone in a Linux users group around here has any experience with blimux. -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: PGP 8.1 Comment: A Member Of The TFT BBS Digital Security Initiative iQA/AwUBQoCX6T1/+g3FKWpGEQK/jQCaAkWy1P5zJ8tXS0TXNAYi3wmA0yIAn0Yx yfc7P+szOVUueHq/fnptCLxy =cRW1 -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----
Hi Gordon, Yes I guess you have to go with what works best for you right now and it sounds like Fedora is the best right now. I still feel bad about Suse or I should say Novell not loading the blinux package by default. I have installed and used both Suse and Redhat/Fedora and Fedora is very good but I have found Suse to be a little easyer and more polished than Fedora. Anyway I will still see if I can find a way around the install problem. Don --- Gordon Smith <gordon@tft-bbs.co.uk> wrote:
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Hi Don. Nobody in my area that I'm aware of uses SUSE at all. When I said it had been removed, I meant that it has been removed from the kernels. So it no longer comes up at boot time. From our point of view, this means I don't have a prayer of installing it, All the people I have spoken too on the subject, one of whom is a blind LINUX programmer, responsible for authoring the Supercast audio streaming server, tell me to ditch SUSE and go back to Fedora, for which there is a talking installation available. In fact, one of them has even gone so far as to kindly upload the images of the CD's to me. So at this point it looks like I'll reluctantly have to go that route. I need to get this project off the ground, to be honest. I don't have the time to spend hunting for stuff within SUSE. I just feel saddened that I'm coming up against a brick wall with SUSE every which way I turn. I want to thank you for your efforts to help here. I'm still very much interested if someone could come up with something to help. But the only way I could do anything with this OS would be if there is some kind of accessibility by default. Novell, in their infinite wisdom, have removed this. Thus effectively precluding the accessibility users from their product. It's all very well their talking about all the accessibility products which SUSE supports. But they don't make it possible for a visually impaired user to install the operating system without third-party help. I was planning on doing a review of SUSE for a radio station run by the American Council Of The Blind, for which I do voluntary work. However, my review will now have to be just a few lines in length. It will read something like: Good product, potentially anyway. However, accessibility by default is 0 and, as such, this LINUX distribution isn't one I can recommend. What a shame that Novell got their hands on what used to be an excellently well laid out operating system.
At 19:12 09/05/2005 -0700, don gentner said:
Hi Gordon, I have some good news. I called Novell and was able to talk to one of Novell's Linux Tech's and he helped me check out Suse 9.3 Professional from there Web site and we found that blinux is still a package in Suse 9.3.
They have not removed it.
Blinux is a package in there Hardware Package Group of Packages and called SBL. The package is not installed by default but is on the Suse 9.3 CD's and DVD's and can be installed by Yast.
I went to one of my Suse computers and started up Yast and went to Software and then Install Software and then did a search in Hardware Package Groups for SBL and there it is. You can check the box and then Yast will ask for the Suse CD or DVD and it will install the package.
Now I know this is not going to be easy for you because you can't point and click your way through all of this as I was able to. But the blinux Package is still in Suse and I think its an upgraded program because its SBL 2.2 .
The bad news is that Novell doesn't offer support for blinux so you can't call a Novell tech for help. You will have to get help from someone who has installed and worked with this package or from a Linux users group that can help you find someone with help.
I konw this is not going to be easy but there is hope that with the right kind of help that it is possible.
Now that we know that it's in 9.3, I will try to help you find someone who has experience with configuring it. It would be great if you could find someone close to you who could help you install the SBL Package and then see what happens after you install and re-boot.
I will see if anyone in a Linux users group around here has any experience with blimux.
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Hi Don. If there's a way, I'd love to hear about it. Frankly, I feel cheated that this information wasn't posted when Novell's announcement of availability was posted to this list which, as the list name implies, specialises in accessibility issues. At 17:52 10/05/2005 -0700, don gentner said:
Hi Gordon, Yes I guess you have to go with what works best for you right now and it sounds like Fedora is the best right now. I still feel bad about Suse or I should say Novell not loading the blinux package by default.
I have installed and used both Suse and Redhat/Fedora and Fedora is very good but I have found Suse to be a little easyer and more polished than Fedora.
Anyway I will still see if I can find a way around the
install problem. Don
--- Gordon Smith <gordon@tft-bbs.co.uk> wrote:
-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA1
Hi Don. Nobody in my area that I'm aware of uses SUSE at all. When I said it had been removed, I meant that it has been removed from the kernels. So it no longer comes up at boot time. From our point of view, this means I don't have a prayer of installing it, All the people I have spoken too on the subject, one of whom is a blind LINUX programmer, responsible for authoring the Supercast audio streaming server, tell me to ditch SUSE and go back to Fedora, for which there is a talking installation available. In fact, one of them has even gone so far as to kindly upload the images of the CD's to me. So at this point it looks like I'll reluctantly have to go that route. I need to get this project off the ground, to be honest. I don't have the time to spend hunting for stuff within SUSE. I just feel saddened that I'm coming up against a brick wall with SUSE every which way I turn. I want to thank you for your efforts to help here. I'm still very much interested if someone could come up with something to help. But the only way I could do anything with this OS would be if there is some kind of accessibility by default. Novell, in their infinite wisdom, have removed this. Thus effectively precluding the accessibility users from their product. It's all very well their talking about all the accessibility products which SUSE supports. But they don't make it possible for a visually impaired user to install the operating system without third-party help. I was planning on doing a review of SUSE for a radio station run by the American Council Of The Blind, for which I do voluntary work. However, my review will now have to be just a few lines in length. It will read something like: Good product, potentially anyway. However, accessibility by default is 0 and, as such, this LINUX distribution isn't one I can recommend. What a shame that Novell got their hands on what used to be an excellently well laid out operating system.
At 19:12 09/05/2005 -0700, don gentner said:
Hi Gordon, I have some good news. I called Novell and was able to talk to one of Novell's Linux Tech's and he helped me check out Suse 9.3 Professional from there Web site and we found that blinux is still a package in Suse 9.3.
They have not removed it.
Blinux is a package in there Hardware Package Group of Packages and called SBL. The package is not installed by default but is on the Suse 9.3 CD's and DVD's and can be installed by Yast.
I went to one of my Suse computers and started up Yast and went to Software and then Install Software and then did a search in Hardware Package Groups for SBL and there it is. You can check the box and then Yast will ask for the Suse CD or DVD and it will install the package.
Now I know this is not going to be easy for you because you can't point and click your way through all of this as I was able to. But the blinux Package is still in Suse and I think its an upgraded program because its SBL 2.2 .
The bad news is that Novell doesn't offer support for blinux so you can't call a Novell tech for help. You will have to get help from someone who has installed and worked with this package or from a Linux users group that can help you find someone with help.
I konw this is not going to be easy but there is hope that with the right kind of help that it is possible.
Now that we know that it's in 9.3, I will try to help you find someone who has experience with configuring it. It would be great if you could find someone close to you who could help you install the SBL Package and then see what happens after you install and re-boot.
I will see if anyone in a Linux users group around here has any experience with blimux.
-----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: PGP 8.1 Comment: A Member Of The TFT BBS Digital Security Initiative
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Hi Gordon and everybody else, I don't know what you have done in order to verify that statement but here in the officd we just checked to find out! We use SuSE Linux professional V9.3 and it still comes up wit braille supoort. If the cd boots press <esc> <enter> <f2> type: linux <enter> and the text based installation comes up and starts suse blinux right away. So I don't know what your porblem is! Solong Ginger The box said to install Nt 4.0 or better - so I installed Solaris SBS C-LAB Ginger Claassen Cooperative Computing & Communication Laboratory Phone: +49 5251 60 6144 Fuerstenallee 11 Fax.: +49 5251 60 6066 33102 Paderborn Germany Mobile: 0179 111 4492 Siemens Access Initiativ (SAI) url: www.c-lab.de/~wegge Email: claassen@c-lab.de
Hi. The problem is I was told, by Novell, that it had been removed.if not then it isn't my error, but theirs. At 11:19 18/05/2005 +0200, Claassen, Ginger B. said:
Hi Gordon and everybody else,
I don't know what you have done in order to verify that statement but here in the officd we just checked to find out! We use SuSE Linux professional V9.3 and it still comes up wit braille supoort. If the cd boots press <esc> <enter> <f2> type: linux <enter> and the text based installation comes up and starts suse blinux right away. So I don't know what your porblem is!
participants (3)
-
Claassen, Ginger B. -
don gentner -
Gordon Smith