introduction and question

[Maurice McCarthy]

On 31 May 2010 05:01, Timothy Emmons <emmons2332 at yahoo.com> wrote:

> Hi guys, a quick introduction and a question that I'm stumped with. I am
> Timothy Emmons in Alabama. I've been using computers and adaptive technology
> for quite a while, as I am totally blind. I'm going to the linox system here
> at home and getting away from windows, I've had a lot of issue with windows.
> Since the switch to the Mac at the office I work for the library for the
> blind, and seeing what other operating systems  are out there and seeing the
> built in accessibility it has caught my attention. i used Ubuntu briefly a
> year or two ago and got away from it but have been drawn back to it and have
> it installed on a del netbook mini10. Now to my question. I can't for the
> life of me figure out how to connect wirelessly using Ubuntu. I use Orca so
> not sure of the keyboard commands to get the network manager up to find a
> wireless connection much less how to get it up and going. I'm also having
> trouble reading the documentation within ubuntu itself when I click on
> certain spots it dfoesn't seem to load and I'm a little confused. I need
> some general help and would appreciate any I can get. I want this switch to
> be a good one, who knows I may even leave the Apple products alone as well
> and go strictly to linux, I like the look of it and know it works if I can
> just get my head around it. I've done windows for quite a while, and just
> starting to get into linux and the Mac so any help here with Ubuntu and
> possibly with Orca would be greatly appreciated. I'm running Ubuntu 10.4 on
> the netbook currently. Thanks and take care.
>
>
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>
Hi Timothy

The network-manager applet should automatically connect to a DHCP server
such as your router. Its home page is
http://projects.gnome.org/NetworkManager/ However, wireless networks ought
to be encrypted to stop anyone close by reading the traffic on them and this
needs to  be set up. So you need to know what kind of encryption, whether
there is a common pass phrase? Is the router set up to allow access from any
wireless network card or does it have to know the hardware identity of your
card exactly? You may need some help from a sighted person to begin with.

If you open a terminal with Applications - Accessories - Terminal then type
in
less /usr/share/doc/network-manager/README.gz

your screen reader should give you the overview. Then type the command

nm-tool

to give you read out of what the current settings are in the
network-manager.

I think you need to be either in a terminal for most of your work or in
emacs as these are text tools and ought to make it easier for you. emacs is
not installed by default but can be used as an entire desktop on its own -
with or without a gui. It takes some time to learn.

Presumably your netbook has insufficient memory to run Windows 7. It has the
best speech recognition (controlling the computer with the voice) at the
moment, that I am aware of. So much so that DragonSoft's "Naturally
Speaking" is being phased out as a commercial product and has not been
maintained since 2008.

How deeply do you want or need to go into the operating system? Does it just
need to work? Do you want to be capable of a significant amount of computer
admin? If you do then a grml cd may be best for you. http://grml.org It is
an admin geek's distro with masses and masses of text-based tools making it
one of the best distros for the blind. Nevertheless it still has its
learning curve and problems.

To gain root access (administrative access) then type sudo -s in the
terminal. It will ask for your password but the terminal remains with
near-root privileges until you type exit. Some root commands to help:

aptitude install wajig
# Note: wajig is high level tool to use instead of dpkg, aptitude, apt-get,
etc
wajig update
wajig safe-upgrade
wajig install emacs
wajig listfiles emacs

For information the man or info commands are useful. But since you are not
used to man pages you will find them a pain in the backside. You almost have
to know already before they are of any use.

man nm-tool
man NetworkManager
wajig install lynx
lynx 192.168.1.1

The last command might give you access to the router in the old and
venerable text browser lynx. Or the address might be 192.168.0.1 You will
need to know the admin password for the router. Some routers can be accessed
with telnet.

Please let us know how you get on.
Maurice

PS
What speech output do you have? A dedicated hardware synthesiser or a
software one with speakers?
I've never used Orca but if I have time I'll try to investigate
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