Running Orca screenreader on Eeebuntu (with Gnome or KDE)

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Anyone have any experience with Orca Screenreader/Magnifier?
I'm having some problems with running it on my Asus EeePC 900 with the Eeebuntu Linux distro with Gnome.

Is Orca easier to run in KDE?

I'm also wanting to run Kmouth and kttmgr as well; are all KDE apps only able to run under KDE?

Thanks in advance.

I've never used Orca, but KDE apps will run fine in GNOME. They might look a bit funny, but they'll run.

On a netbook, I'd avoid KDE like the plague. Well, I avoid it like the plague regardless, but I don't think KDE will run well unless you have massively overpowered hardware, which a netbook isn't.

You can run KDE apps in Gnome. I have Kmag, it's magnifier program. There one for gnome called, Gnome-mag. It doesn't make a difference which desktop environment you run Orca in or any app. I don't really know what Orca is though.

Kmouth will just say whatever you type into it, as far as I can tell. I know you can get different robotic sounding "voices." Just make sure you install festival also.

I've never really used any screen reader. I know of two different ones, Screader and Yasr (Yet another screen reader).

It's probably best that you don't use KDE 4.2, it's really crappy. Just stick with gnome.

I've got a 64GB SSD with 2GB of RAM and a 1.6Ghz Intel Atom Processor. It isn't what you would call 'massively overpowered' at all, but it's pretty quick for its size and price.

Orca is both a screen reader and magnifier rolled into one, although you can disable either the mag part or the reader part at any time. Orca and Kmouth were discovered in the stock repositories.

I found out through some searching that my difficulty with Orca wasn't on my end, but a Jaunty/Orca development issue - and the workaround they have temporarily isn't working. (http://live.gnome.org/Orca)

Kmouth remains silent, although it seems to work otherwise.
When I start it up, the Initial Configuration demands a Command for speaking texts - anyone have any ideas where I find this command? Do I need to run the KTTSmgr in order to also run Kmouth?

Otherwise, I got some other AT to work great - Dasher and Cellwriter work fine. Is Yasr or Screader compatible with Linux (if so, can I get the repository for it so I don't have to do the tarbell workaround? Such a pain)?

In Kmouth, you can just leave the part where it asks for command for speaking texts blank. To get the voice to work, you gotta mess around with the audio. Just go to Settings > KTTSD Speech Service > then look for the audio tab. I checked off the box for ALSA - Default, it'll may be the same on yours.

I believe you'll need kttsd and festival to run Kmouth or KSayIt. I have no idea what kttsmgr is

There also KSayIt, but it's pretty much the same as Kmouth.

YASR and Screader should be in the Ubuntu repositories. Most of the program you'll need will probably be in the Ubuntu Repository.

I don't use Ubuntu, so I can't really help ya out with that Orca program. I use Debian, Orwell or Fuzzy use Ubuntu, so maybe they'll be more helpful.

Orca is a GNOME thing, not specifically Ubuntu. It's available in Debian too. (Not that there's so great a difference between Ubuntu and Debian anyways)

I've never used it, but I know Compiz Fusion also has some magnificatio plugins that might be useful.

Yes, I know it's not specifically for ubuntu. JohnnyCarcinogen says there some sort of problem with Ubuntu Jaunty and Orca. I just thought you or Fuzzy would know more about it because you two run ubuntu, I think. Doesn't Orca come with Ubuntu?

JohnnyCarcinogen, have tried to do what is suggested on Orca website? They suggest to either try to iinstall the blindness profile or if you didn't install the blindness profile to put this into the terminal

I guess you could remove it and install it from source, if you really want to.

Yeah, but I've never used Orca for anything. I've been trying out Fedora lately, but Ubuntu is what I've mostly run in the past.

I am afraid I have not looked into the assistive technologies area of ubuntu. I cannot be much help.

Yes, I've tried the workaround (and installing it from source) , but it disables all of the sound. I tried switching the audio output, but it didn't help. Turns out to be a development issue, so I guess it's just a waiting game until the developers fix it.

Good news though - I got KMouth and KTTSmgr to work perfectly! Thanks to everyone for your help!

I may try some of the other programs all of you mentioned, as I was able to get some KDE apps to work with just a little bit of tweaking.

Thanks again - I appreciate it immensely.