New member and two questions

[Clive Menzies]

On (29/01/07 15:17), Chris Gilland wrote:
> Hello.  My name is Chris Gilland.  I'm 25 years old, and I live in 
> Charlotte, North Carolina.  I am hoping to put Ubuntu on my laptop very 
> shortly, but I have a few questions, and would very much appreciate some 
> help.  I need to stress before asking my question one thing:  All of my 
> life, I have been a Windows user, and am just now beginning to make the 
> switch to Linux.  At first, I was a bit hesitant to give it a try, being 
> that I have a bit of a slow learning disability cognitively speaking.  This 
> means that reading documentation some times helps, but I have generally 
> found that it is easier when someone step by step talks me through achieving 
> the task I am trying to accomplish.  The reason I say this, before asking my 
> questions, is because I really feel RTFM is an OK polacy, don't mistaken me, 
> but, I feel this way:  you were once where I now am:  there was a time you 
> knew almost literally nothing more than this is the power button.  Push it 
> to boot.  OK, so I'm not that bad off, Smile, point is in all this jabber: 
> I'm a newby by far, and when I say, by far, I do mean:  by far.  So keep 
> that in mind.  Another thing I should stress, is I am visually impaired and 
> thus require the use of the Orca screen reader with the Festival speech. 
> OK, now that we have that outta the way: Here are my three questions.
> 
> 1.  I have an Intel Pro Set Wireless onboard wireless chip.  (Well, ok, I 
> guess it's a chip but any who...)  I do have an Intel Pro ethernet port as 
> well, however, mobility is important for me.  I want to be able to go online 
> from any room in my house, thus I need my wireless.  I know there is a 
> program called gtk wifi but do I really need it?  I didn't ask, is it 
> suggested to get, I said, is it *needed*  Again, I wanna keep this as simple 
> as possible.  so the less I gotta install extra, the better.  Secondly, if 
> Ubuntu will automatically let me connect without any extra packages etc. 
> where do I need to go to do so.  I'd rather do this through the graffical 
> interface than through a terminal window in a configuration file if 
> possible.  If that isn't possible, then please be sure to be incredibly 
> specific on what to do as configuration files are not my thing.  i know I'll 
> have to get used to them, and I will, but remember I'm new at this.  For 
> now, i just wanna get up and running.

I'm unfamiliar with tools for the visually impaired although I did
investigate some stuff for the brother of my son's girlfriend.  This was
a while ago and things have moved on a bit.  As far as getting wireless
up and running it would make sense to get everything setup wired first
and then explore getting your wirless setup.  You will need ndiswrapper
which will 'wrap' the windows driver for your device, allowing you to
use it under Ubuntu.  I would regard getting up to speed on this as a
bit of a project and take your time; in other words setup a dual booting
windows/ubuntu installation.  There is a graphical installation with
Ubuntu (Synaptic) and a lot of the configuration is through the GUI but
wireless setup ay require some command line stuff - I've not done it in
Ubuntu, only debian.

> 2.  My second question is, As of now, I understand that Orca has no 
> accessible support for Mozilla Firefox.  Remember:  I really don't prefer 
> browsing in a terminal window.  I'd be willing to do it, if I could get 
> links that's the l, i, n, k, s, browser, to work within the braille 
> terminal.  For some reason though, I couldn't seem to get it to work when I 
> had Ubuntu on the desktop machine I'm now using, so, is there a browser in 
> the graffical interface that would actually at this time either work, or at 
> least kind a sort a work with Orca?
> 
You might want to check out Gnopernicus:
http://www.baum.ro/gnopernicus.html

It is a screen reader and magnifier and it enables users with limited
vision, or no vision, to use the Gnome 2 desktop and Gnome/GTK+2
applications effectively. By providing automated focus tracking and
fullscreen magnification, Gnopernicus aids low-vision Gnome users.

> 
> 
> 3.  My final question is, in Evolution,the program used for e-mail, I was 
> told that after hitting enter on an e-mail to open it, there was a keystroke 
> I could then hit which would allow me to then use my arrow keys below my 
> 6pack and arrow up and down without having to use my Orca review commands. 
> The person who told me about this couldn't remember though how to do it.  He 
> said all he remembered was that you only have to do it one time.  After that 
> you're in business.  Can someone tell me, as the way that I was doing it 
> before was a major pain.  I Feel there has to be an easier way.

I don't use evolution and can't help you at the moment.  There are a lot
of helpful people on this list and once you start, take one question at a
time.  Someone is likely to able be help you on individual questions and
it may help others who follow you.


> Thanks so much for your help.  Again, please, I'm a newby, so cut me some 
> slack.  I really do wanna learn but I need to take it very slow and easy.


No Problem.  We all started where you are at some point :)

Good luck

Clive

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