Unable to install using Orca

[Jude DaShiell]

Deborah,

See if you can do what you did before but just before you type ubiquity 
and hit return, type script and hit return, then type ubiquity and hit 
return.  That script command will make a file of ubiquity's output for 
you.  You may need to hit control-c or control-d to exit ubiquity just do 
only one of those commands once.  then type exit and hit return.  If 
everything works you should be told script output was saved in a file 
called typescript.  That file called typescript can be checked by you 
using the command wc < typescript return.  If three numbers are written 
out all of them larger than 0 you have some output in the typescript file.



On Wed, 4 Apr 2007, Deborah Norling wrote:

> I am using both speech and Braille. I have also tried this process without
> Braille.
>
> I have tried installing using the Edgy release and the Feisty Fawn betas, a
> daily build from March 30 and another from April 4. The results are the
> same.
>
> This is a Fujitsu 1.6 MHZ laptop with 512MB of memory and a 40GB hard drive
> that seems to run the live CDS fine.
>
> I tried all the sets of instructions I could find by googling, but will keep
> this message from getting too lengthy by quoting only from the shortest
> document which is in the Ubuntu wiki.
>
>> ... insert the CD
>> In order to enable accessibility options, press F5. This
>> will cause a list of accessibility options to appear:
>
> The boot options screen does appear. The access options appear. I've had a
> sighted person confirm this.
>
> I press 3 to choose Orca from the menu.
> I press Enter, and Enter a second time to boot.
>
> After a really long wait, booting finishes, desktop loads, Orca does run.
>
>> Within a couple of minutes, Ubuntu will be loaded the assistive technology
> feature you selected. In the screen reader case, the Orca Preferences dialog
>> will be open (but will not have focus -- press Alt-Tab to give it focus).
>
> In my case the Orca preferences always has focus, it was never necessary to
> press ALT-TAB.
>
> I can alter the preferences fine, but Braille doesn't work unless I run
> gnome-terminal, and from that window type:
> sudo su
> brltty -bauto -d/dev/ttyUSB0
>
> I already know how to use brltty but nowhere do the  instructions say that
> step is necessary, and in fact the orca preferences has Braille already
> checked, so   I wonder how current these instructions really are.
>
> I play around with the preferences and the live CD. I can't get the online
> help to read, but other apps work some of the time. It is disappointing that
> Help, so crucial for a newbie like me doesn't seem to work well with Orca.
>
> Anyway, so now I have Braille and my preferences all set so I go back to the
> instructions. They read:
>> The Install icon on the desktop allows you to install Ubuntu onto your hard
> drive...
>
> but then goes on to tell me that way of installing won't work because Orca
> is somehow tied to my current account. This makes little sense to me; I've
> used brltty and speakup for several years, and never had an issue like that
> before.
> It then gives me a six-step work-around:
>
>> 1. Press Alt F2 to get into the Run Application dialogue
> Works fine.
>
>> 2. Type "gnome-terminal" and press Enter.
> Yeah that work too.
>
>> 3. In the resulting Terminal window, type "sudo su" and press Enter.
> Also works as expected.
>
>> 4. Press Insert Q to quit Orca. At this point, you will have no speech, but
> focus is still in the terminal window.
>
> Actually, you have to tab to Yes, and press spacebar or enter. but then Orca
> is gone.
>
>> 5. Type "orca --no-setup &" and press Enter. This will cause speech to
> resume, but Orca will now be running as root.
>
> That works, at least Orca doesn't pop up any preferences applet, it displays
> "welcome to orca" in Braille and speaks it aloud.
>
> But after that, Orca just  stops responding to keystrokes. The system hasn't
> crashed, I can see screen activity and there's lots of CD thrashing if I run
> another app. But Orca is silent. Unfortunately, sighted help, my husband, is
> occupied, but I can see enough to know it isn't frozen.
>
> I tried altering the instructions, since they didn't seem too trustworthy. I
> tried rebooting, then following all the same steps but running orca without
> the --no-setup and it seemed happier. It asked me a lot of questions, but
> then loaded and continued to read me the terminal screen while I tried out
> some console commands.
>
> So I went to the next step in the instructions:
>
>> 6. Type "ubiquity" and press Enter.
>
> After that Orca reads a long incomprehensible list of what appears to be
> some sort of ubiquity log output. The date repeats frequently and lines
> begin with ubiquity: etc. However I don't seem to be able to interact with
> it. When I press enter, it rereads the output, but it is some sort of
> tty-console output that is automatically scrolling, like typing Cat with the
> name of a big text file. There is an occasional $ prompt. I have no idea how
> to capture this output.
>
> At this point the system appears to be stuck. The keystrokes for flat review
> do nothing but cause the output to repeat. I can't break out of it. The
> system doesn't respond to alt-tab, or alt-f4, but Enter causes more output
> to scroll. It isn't exactly frozen but I can't switch to another task
> either.
>
> I've tried other variations, such as booting and not pressing F5, just
> letting it boot, then running Orca with Alt-f2.  Orca does talk, but the
> results are as above.
>
> I've tried skipping the gnome-terminal step and just running all the
> commands by pressing Alt-f2 before each one, and filling in the edit box. No
> luck there either.
>
> Another earlier and longer set of instructions had me running Orca in such a
> way that it automatically logged me out, then back in again, all automatic,
> and that was interesting, but it didn't make it possible for the ubiquity
> command to do anything useful.
>
> I tried skipping the brltty step which was never part of any instructions I
> read anyway.
>
> I even tried the desktop install icon, but it seemed to shush Orca as well.
>
> I would really like to see instructions with a bit more depth. Why for
> example do you kill orca, then run it again with the --no-setup option?   Is
> brltty supposed to be already active before Orca? Why are there details
> about how to set your preferences, but then the next step has you killing
> Orca, and running it in such a way that it can't use the preferences you
> just set? The instructions are trying to be user friendly but in not
> explaining why a step is necessary, they are also only useful if everything
> works as expected.
> I'm so new to this Linux-gui stuff I don't really know how to troubleshoot.
> If you can tell me how to save an activity log and submit it somewhere, I
> will.
>
> --Debee
>
>