Orca Issues: Python Runtime Errors, Gnome Panel Crashing

[Veli-Pekka Tätilä]

Hi,
I'm running Dapper with latest updates applied under VmWare server in
Windows. The speech synth is eSpeak via speech-dispatcher and I've commented 
out the Festival module. Yesterday, I spent some time with Orca with less 
than stellar results. Here's what I'm experiencing.

If I run orca --setup or orca in a normal terminal that's not running in
Gnome, Python throws an exception about not finding the display. My COnsole
is a serial console from Linux's point of view and actually connected to
Teraterm in Windows. Here's the output:

Ubuntu 6.06.1 LTS Sandbox ttyS0

Sandbox login: vtatila
Password:
Last login: Wed Oct  4 09:55:52 2006 on :0
Linux Sandbox 2.6.15-27-386 #1 PREEMPT Sat Sep 16 01:51:59 UTC 2006 i686
GNU/Linux

The programs included with the Ubuntu system are free software;
the exact distribution terms for each program are described in the
individual files in /usr/share/doc/*/copyright.

Ubuntu comes with ABSOLUTELY NO WARRANTY, to the extent permitted by
applicable law.
vtatila at Sandbox:~$ orca --setup
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/usr/bin/orca", line 25, in ?
    import orca.orca
  File "/usr/lib/python2.4/site-packages/orca/orca.py", line 20, in ?
    import gtk
  File "/usr/lib/python2.4/site-packages/gtk-2.0/gtk/__init__.py", line 45,
in ?
    from _gtk import *
RuntimeError: could not open display
vtatila at Sandbox:~$

Additionally, I've attempted running orca in Gnome either under its terminal
or in the run box directly. In the terminal it starts but complains about an
attribute error:

vtatila at Sandbox:~$ orca --setup
GTK Accessibility Module initialized
Could not initialize connection to braille.

Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/usr/lib/python2.4/site-packages/orca/focus_tracking_presenter.py",
line
 178, in _createScript
    script = module.Script(app)
AttributeError: 'module' object has no attribute 'Script'

Here the app waits for input from stdin.
You can get out with ins+f12, though.


While Orca is running in the Gnome terminal, basic prompts and hotkeys do 
work more or less both in training and focus
tracking mode in the GUI. The one key  which does not, though, is ins+space 
for opening
the control panel. That combo speaks  nothing in training mode and results
in no on-screen activity when you are not in training mode.

Lastly, trrying to run Orca directly in the run box gives me an
error message box:

"gnome-panel has quit ... "

Gnome panel appears to Crash and probably takes Orca's GUi with
it. At least Orca's panel doesn't
appear, similarly to the above case. Sometimes if you hit restart in the
gnome panel prompt it comes up with another message:

Error
i've detected a panel already running and will now exit.

And after ok-ing it it one pops up again and again in a seemingly endless
loop.

So any ideas as to what is causing the gnome panel to crash and is there 
anything I can do
to work-around that? where are the Orca log files kept and should I post
them on the list as well? I wonder if there's a proper ORca manual in 
addition to the Wiki which lists, among other things, the basic keyboard 
commands.

The gnome panel crash I reported does actually occur with Gnopernicus,
too, But only sporadically upon executing Nautilus via the run box. I'm
baffled as to what might cause this in Gnome, and the unpredictability makes
it hard to troubleshoot.

Well thanks for any tips or advice you can give  about these issues. It is
true that Orca is usable without the panel but I'd very much like to get my
hands at its settings. Are they managable in the config files directly, by
any chance?.

-- 
With kind regards Veli-Pekka Tätilä (vtatila at mail.student.oulu.fi)
Accessibility, game music, synthesizers and programming:
http://www.student.oulu.fi/~vtatila/