Introduction
I switched to daily driving Linux desktop almost a month ago and in that time, I have learned a lot, so I decided to write this series of articles to detail my adventure for anyone else who might want to try.
Not everything in these articles will be the perfect solution, or use the best methods. They are just what work for me, and they may or may not work for you.
Why Linux
I switched to Linux for a few reasons. One of the big ones was quite simply because I don't like the closed nature of Windows, and how more and more things are being restricted with every update. Speaking of, the number of updates were annoying, too, though now I think about it, with the setup I have now I probably do more updates every other day than Windows ever did.
Chapter 1: The Distribution
Picking a distribution was perhaps one of the most irritating parts of this hole experience. Only some Linux distros include Orca, the Linux screen reader, out of the box in their graphical installers, and only some provide a console screen reader, most often speakup, in their console-based installers.
What not to use
I kept being told, time and time again, to try this distro called "Accessible Coconut". I was somewhat skeptical, having used Linux distributions made for the blind before (Vinux anyone?) And finding them sorely lacking and very out of date.
I did some further research, and found out that, indeed, AC is just another spin of Ubuntu, Ubuntu Mate in this case, with some extra crapware (yes, that's exactly what it is if I didn't ask for it on my system) installed.
note: Some of the applications aren't actually crap, I just didn't want them preinstalled and configured with settings I didn't set myself.
What I went with (first)
Seeing all the distributions based on Ubuntu, my first logical choice seemed to be Debian. A stable base, lots of contributors, and other distro makers relying on the Debian team not to fuck it up. It seemed perfect.
I looked up Debian installer accessibility and found this article. It reads like it's written for people who want to show an accessibility proof of concept, rather than users who want to actually use the accessibility options, but it told me what I needed to know, how to get an installer with speech.
Installing for the first time
Great. Now lets find the installer. I already knew, thanks to a friend, to avoid the Debian graphical installer, so I can't comment on its accessibility because I just never bothered with it at all. Instead, I went digging for the installer ISO that contained firmware for non-free hardware, being unsure if my laptop's wi-fi card would have drivers included in the regular installer. Besides, I was writing the installer to a 128GB USB drive, so I didn't really care how big the ISO was.
After downloading the installer, which was surprisingly easy to find, I wrote it to my USB drive and booted it.
booting the installer
I did not, as most would, use a key or key combination to enter the boot menu of my laptop to select the USB device. Instead, I took the round about approach of using REAgentC, the Windows recovery environment, to boot into an accessible boot picker where I could select the UEFI removable device option. I have provided steps for doing this below for anyone who might also want to take this approach:
- Open the Windows command prompt as an administrator: press the Windows key plus r, then type, "cmd" without the quotes, then press control plus shift plus enter. Answer "yes" to any prompt that appears.
- Type the following, without the quotes, and press enter: "reagentc.exe /boottore". This will, on next reboot, boot your system into the Windows recovery environment.
- Restart your computer, insuring your USB drive is connected.
- Wait about 10 seconds, and then press the Windows key plus control plus enter to enable narrator. If you don't hear anything, it is possible that your sound card drivers are not included in the Windows recovery environment. If this happens, Connect a USB sound card. You may have to reboot and repeat the above steps.
- Press the tab key until you reach the "use a device" button, then press enter.
- Tab until you find the "UEFI removable device" option, then press enter.
Your computer should now boot from your attached USB device.
After booting, I pressed s, as indicated in the Debian installer accessibility article linked above and... woo! An accessible text-based installer.
The actual installation
The install process was simple. Follow the prompts and answer the questions. When asked if I wanted to install additional software, I selected standard utilities, ssh server, and the Mate desktop. I chose Mate, because I had heard good things about it, and used it previously.
Finishing up
The install of Debian was really that simple. I rebooted once the installer completed and had accessibility right from the start. Or, that's what I thought.
This post is getting pretty long, so I'm going to leave it here. I'll explain the configuration of Debian in my next post, and go over a few things I could have done better.
Conclusion
As always, do your own research before trying anything. Debian seems like it could be a really great system, and for my first install experience, it was. There are probably ways I could have made it be my perfect system, but it wasn't for me in the end. Still, it was a learning experience, so I'm going to blog about it.