Knoppix Adriane (technique)

Tags: 
knoppix
adriane
installation
usb disc
blind
visually impaired

The following modifications

  • will improve the access from Knoppix Adriane to Labdoo laptops,
  • will improve usage for blind or visually impaired users,
  • just to be used if you eant create a bootable USB stick via Knoppix Adriane and
  • are only recommended to experienced users.

However, these steps are not necessary if

  • you have performed the installation via Image Cloning [Sanitation Guide: Advanced Method] or
  • within Germany and Switzerland you can obtain 16 GB USB sticks (with pre-installed learning wikipedia) by sending a mail to Labdoo-DACH@Labdoo.org. The Labdoo clubs in Swiss and German will be happyto provide them to you

Suggested changes for Knoppix Adriane (USB Sticks) and Lubuntu

  • Compiz Settings (only Knoppix Adriane (LXDE), not required for Lubuntu)

    • Menu → Preferences → CompizConfig Settings Manager →

    • General → General Options → Desktop size → Horizontal virtual size = 1
    • Desktop, remove all hooks (Desktop Cube, Expo,Viewport Switcher, Rotate Cube)
    • Effects, remove all hooks, except the one for Windows decoration
  • Remove Aumix from the starter panel (only for Knoppix Adriane)

    • Right mouse click on the starter panel → "Application Launch Bar" Settings → click on aumix → - Remove - Close

  • Pre-Set Adriane as Boot setting within grub (only for Knoppix Adriane)

    • Open 3 files in an editor e.g. sudo nano /home/knoppix/Desktop/KNOPPIX/boot/syslinux/ and change in the line "DEFAULT" auto into adriane, then store the file:

    • syslinux.cfg
    • syslnx32.cfg
    • syslnx64.cfg

    Optional: You can change the standard screen resolution of Adriane (640x480). But you must choose a resolution supported by the computer used. And visually impaired users might need a low resolution to get large letters. And when you start Adriane if you change the graphical desktop to LXDE it will inherit the resolution of Adriane. You are able to change the screen resolution within LXDE.

  • Desktop, File manager PCMANFM settings (only Knoppix Adriane)

    • Open file manager PCmanfm → edit → Preferences → General →

    • Check to activate "Move deleted files to trash can"
    • de-activate (uncheck) "open files with single click"
    • Volume Management → add check at "Mount mountable volumes" and "Mount removable volumes"
    • Layout → Show in Places → add hook at "Trash can" and "Devices"
  • Orca settings (for Knoppix Adriane and Lubuntu)
    • open a terminal (press Alt + Ctl/Strg+ t at the same time) → type orca -s (Enter)
    • Keyboard → Laptop (or leave if run on a PC, will (de-)active number keypad)
    • mouse → activate "Preset tooltips"
    • mouse → activate "Speak objects under mouse"
  • Script to toggle screen reader Orca on/off (toggle_orca.sh)

    • The script toggle_orca.sh solves to toggle the screen reader Orca on / off by using the key combination Alt + Windows/Super + o. The script can be downloaded from here http://ftp.labdoo.org/download/install-disk/installskripts/orca_pico2wav...

  • Script toggle_orca.sh (for Knoppix Adriane)
    • Store script in the folder as /home/knoppix/.toggle_orca.sh (the leading "." in the file name will make the file hidden, invisible; to show hidden files activate in PCmanfm "show hidden files",
    • make file executable (→ Properties → Permissions → make file executable)
    • Open Compiz settings manager → General → Commands → if line empty add e.g. in Command Line 2:
      /bin/sh /home/knoppix/.toggle_orca.sh
    • click on tab "Key Bindings" → click in an empty line on button "disabled" → to switch it to "enabled" → Left mouse click on "grab key ..."
    • type the needed key combination ( here Alt + Windows/Super + o ) → confirm and close "OK".

    If everything was done correctly you are now able to switch screen reader Orca on / off by pressing the keys Alt + Windows/Super + o at the same time.

  • Script toggle_orca.sh to start the window manager Openbox (only Lubuntu)
    • Same proccedure described before, but store script in folder /usr/share/labdoo (start in a terminal sudo PCMANFM (Enter), as you need super-user rights to create this new folder and store the script)
    • make the script executable → Properties → Permissions. End and close file manager PCMANFM as super-user and start it again as labdoo user (click on icon PCmanfm).
    • open on FTP-Server the file http://ftp.labdoo.org/download/install-disk/installskripts/orca_pico2wav... and copy / paste the content (Ctrl + C)
    • activate in file manager PCMANFM → menu View → Show hidden (Ctrl + H) and open in folder /home/labdoo/.config/openbox the file lubuntu-rc.xml in an editor (right mouse click, open in an editor e.g. Leafpad)
    • Search in the editor for the text <keyboard>, next insert the copied text from clipboard between the lines <keyboard> and </keyboard>. The code from file keybinding_toggle_orca.txt will be inserted. Store and close file.
    • execute in terminal openbox --reconfigure
    • repeat these steps also for the user student, but as student is not allowed to run code in a terminal you have to go to Start → Run → type here openbox --reconfigure and press Enter.

    If everything was done correctly you are now able to switch screen reader Orca now on / off by keep the keys Alt + Windows/Super + o at the same time.

  • Set-up tool pico2wave (for Knoppix Adriane and Lubuntu)

    • pico2wave by SVOX is a complete speach synthesizer to convert German, French or English text into spoken words (sound, Wave file). For some languages special control files are available. For other languages e.g. Italian or Spanish these control files have to created first (volunteers needed).

    Install pico2wave

    To install it run in a terminal, when computer is connected to web:

    1. in terminal: sudo apt-get update (Enter)
    2. in terminal: up to 16.04 LTS: sudo apt-get install libttspico-utils sox xsel libav-tools (Enter)
    3. in terminal: from 18.04 LTS: sudo apt-get install libttspico-utils sox xsel libavcodec-extra (Enter)

    Beside the installation of pico2wave 3 more files have to be installed and adapted (for Lubuntu: in /usr/share/labdoo, in Knoppix in /home/knoppix/.). Please follow those steps described above for Orca:

    Download and store these files in the corresponding folders and make files executable for everyone.

  • Volume settings (Knoppix Adriane and Lubuntu)

    • Open in a terminal → alsamixer → (m) = Mute off, move from setting to setting by ← or →, adjust volume setting using the keys ↑ or ↓.

  • Mount the disc drive of a Labdoo laptop (/sda1) when booting (only Knoppix Adriane)

    • Helpful, if you run Knoppix Adriane on a USB Stick in combination with a Labdoo laptop, to get easier access to the educational content. Open an editor as super-user; run in a terminal sudo leafpad (Enter), navigate to the folder:

    • open file /etc/fstab and change lines:
      # Automount sda1 as sda1
      /dev/sda1 /media/sda1 ext4 defaults 0 2
      Store file.
    • Add to the end of /etc/adriane/adriane.conf:
      # Mount sda1
      sudo mkdir /media/sda1
      sudo mount -a
      Store file.

    Hint: In Adriane you can open a terminal → menu entry → Shell.

  • Adapt LXDE panel to look alike as on a Labdoo computer (only Knoppix Adriane)

    • Add needed applets for Keyboard activation/deactivation etc. to the panel.

  • Add bookmarks to elinks Browser (for Knoppix Adriane and Lubuntu)

    • Start eLinks → navigate to the start file, in most cases index.html), mark it with the cursor and press (Enter) to open it → right mouse click opens a menu, click here → Bookmark document (a) → ready.

    To open a bookmark → press two times ESC → above a menu will show up → move the cursor and mark tools , press Enter → mark bookmarks (s) → will show all known bookmarks.

    Generate a Knoppix Adriane USB disc drive

    Tags: 
    knoppix
    adriane
    copy
    usb
    disc drive
    stick

    There are several ways to get an USB-disc drive (stick) with Knoppix Adriane software and educational content for blind users:

    1. you can ask Labdoo to send out a ready installed USB-disc drive (stick) by sending a m to Labdoo-DACHqLabdoo.org (only for Austria, Germany and Switzerland). Tell us how many USB-Discs you need and your postal address. Please understand that we have to cover the costs by donations.
    2. Or you produce an USB-disc drive yourself (only recommended for advanced users!) It will NOT WORK to copy an USB-disc to another USB-disc using a file manager. Some important data like boot information (MBR) will not be copied and will not be able to boot this stick. Labdoo recommends minimum 16 GB USB 2.0 disc drives to store Knoppix Adriane, local Wikipedia for Schools and ca. 6GB free space for user data.

      3. You can get another USB disc drive

    • by copying a pre-installed USB-disc drive to another drive using Linux and the dd command (for details see below) or
    • download an image and restore it using dd command..

      Method 1: Copy one pre-installed USB-disc drive to another (only for experienced users)

      You already have got a pre-installed USB-disc drive Knoppix Adriane by Labdoo? Then buy an USB-disc drive (min. 16 GB). As only very few of the computers abroad have USB 3.0 slots we recommend to buy fast USB 2.0 disc drives. On older hardware USB 3.0 discs might not be recognized.

      You can do de copy using a Labdoo- or Linux laptop:
      Start the Labdoo-/Linux computer and log-in as user labdoo. Important: First plug-in the pre-installed origin USB-disc (which you want to copy, will usually get the name /sdb), next plug-in the USB drive you want to copy to (will get drive /sdc etc.) You are also able to copy several sticks at the same time (will become drive /sdd, /sde etc).

      Open a terminal and run lsblk -f (Enter). This will give you a list of all available drives. The drive /sda (mit den Partionen /sda1, /sda2 usw.) is the internal drive of the laptop. Never touch that! Leave it as it is!

      Next step is to run in a terminal:
      sudo dd if=/dev/sdb of=/dev/sdc status=progress Enter; this will copy all data from the origin USB drive (/sdb) to the target USB drive (/sdc etc.). This will take a while...

      Attention: the command dd is helpful, but also dangerous! Check always, if origin and target drive are correct. Otherweise you might delete your own computer's data by mistake. We recommend not to use your own computer, but a Labdoo computer since dd is available on each Linux computer.

        Method 2: Restore the image Knoppix_Adriane_dd_xx.gz using dd to an USB disc drive (only recommended for experienced users)

        Download from the Labdoo FTP-Server the images (we created them using dd): http://ftp.labdoo.org/download/install-disk/ (the images are named Knoppix_Adriane_dd_xx.gz, xx being space-holder for the language, EN = Englisch, FR = Französisch, DE = Deutsch, ES = Spanisch)

        Store the downloaded, zipped file in your home directory (/home/labdoo). You don't need to unzip it first. Next step is to connect the target USB disc drive to the computer, open a terminal and execute :

      1. lsblk -f (Enter), to check if all drives are connected (in most cases the internal disc of the computer is /sda (do not delete that one!) and the connected USB disc drive becomes /sdb, /sdc etc.
      2. sudo gunzip -c Knoppix_Adriane_dd_xx.gz | sudo dd of=/dev/sdb status=progress (Enter, xx = space-holder for the language, replace accordingly). This will unzip and copy all data of the image to the USB drive. Change drive name accordingly if needed, e.g. /sdb in /sdc etc. if copying several USB drives in parallel

      After copying all data to a new USB drive you can unmount (remove secure) and shut down the computer. To use this new USB drive with a computer we recommend to change the boot sequence in BIOS settings. The USB-(stick) should be placed (get a higher boot priority) before the internal disc drive. Otherwise you can select manually the boot media each time you boot (often press F12). But for blind users this might be difficult.

      • Internal: Create an image using Shell and dd (only recommended for experienced users!)

        • To get an image from an ready installed USB disc drive with Knoppix Adriane use dd as well. In most cases the USB disc, to copy from, has the address / drive name /sdb (might change, so please check).

          Create image by terminal (shell)
        • Open a terminal and execute sudo dd if=/dev/sdb status=progress | gzip --best >Knoppix_Adriane_dd_xx.gz (Enter, replace xx by the language code you need). This will copy a zipped image file Knoppix_Adriane_dd_xx.gz an (ca. 12 GB) to your home directory /home/labdoo.