A Customized Version of Ubuntu
for Visually Impaired Users
Started: Dec 6, 2008 - Last updated: Jan 28, 2008
Latest release: Vibuntu 1.2 - Dec 12, 2008
Today, Tuesday 9 February 2010
Project description:
- The aim of this project is
to develop and offer a new alternate / blindfriendly
Ubuntu live-CD / installer
for persons with vision impairments
- VIbuntu (aka VINUX / Vibuntu Is Not Ubuntu but gnu/linuX)
is a remaster of the Intrepid Ibex live CD
especially customised to the needs of blind and partially sighted users!
- It is designed to boot from a live CD or USB memory stick,
log you in automatically
and then start up
the Orca screen-reader
- You can use Vibuntu as a portable operating system
or you can install it to your hard drive either alongside
or as a replacement for Windows
- In order to fit all of the accessibility settings on the CD I have had to
remove some applications including:
The GIMP graphical image manipulation program,
the F-Spot photo-manager and the Ekiga voice over IP package.
You can easily reinstall these and many more open-source applications
if you choose to install it on your hard-drive
- Full-screen magnification can be activated with a simple keystroke
- I have set up a Vibuntu Development Blog at
blogspot.com/
for anyone who is interested! I will use this to document the development of
Vibuntu and any relevant issues so that anyone who wants to create their own
accessible remix of Ubuntu, or just modify their existing installation can do
so easily. There is an RSS feed available if anyone wants to be automatically
notified of new posts. I will still post any significant announcements such
as the release of new versions and/or notable improvements on the mailing
lists and forums, as well as continuing to asking for help, advice and
suggestions and providing them when I can.
Thanks again for everyone's support, advice, suggestions and criticisms!
What's new in the latest release:
- Vibuntu 1.2 sees the resolution of the problem of Orca being unable to
read admin apps launched from the menus
- and activated USB Braille Display autoprobing
- This was achieved by simply changing the entries in the admin
menu so they launched as an ‘application in terminal’ using the sudo or gksu
command when necessary. This simply opens a terminal, asks for the admin
password if required and then runs the gui application. When you close the
application the terminal closes automatically and focus is returned to the
Orca window
- The only exception to this is remastersys gui which for some
reason does not retain focus, you have to alt+tab to move from the terminal
to the remastersys gui. (This is a problem with remastersys rather than
Orca/Gnome etc). Sighted or partially sighted users are advised to open the
admin apps using the desktop icons which will run the admin applications in
the standard way. Of course this solution only works on top of the changes
recommended on
the Orca SysAdmin page
- I feel this is a landmark release
which for the very first time provides a live linux CD with Speech,
Magnification and Braille support by default along with a full Gnome GUI
desktop. The perfect introduction to the Linux operating system for visually
impaired users who want to free themselves from a reliance on expensive
commercial products
In an ISO image:
1.3 - Latest version
1.2 - Previous version
Important:
- Inside the zip file you will find the iso image and a text file containing the
md5sum of the iso image
- I used the RemasterSys package to create Vibuntu and I have included this package on the CD in case you want to make your own customised live CD
- The default username and password is 'orca', and this will be retained even if you install it to your hard-drive, no matter what you type in during the installation process. You can change this by typing:
'sudo passwd orca'
into a terminal and then typing the new password twice
Burn it! Put it on USB! Roll your own Vibuntu:
- Burn Vibuntu on CD:
just unpack the zip-file or download the iso image and burn it on a 700M CDR/CDRW by entering:
cdrecord -v speed=-1 dev=/dev/cdrom Vibuntu-x.y.iso (where x.y = version.subversion number)
- Drop Vibuntu on an USB stick:
just cp the iso to a 1G USB pen, that's all. BE SURE YOUR BIOS IS SET TO BOOT FROM USB!
Important:
If any of you have succeeded in getting Vibuntu to boot from a USB pen, using
Unetbootin, then you may have realised by now that this is booted as a read
only image which means you cannot save any changes or documents to the
pen.
The disadvantage of this is that you can't save anything you produce during
the session to the USB pen itself, although you can access any music files
etc you have placed on the pen by inserting it as a USB memory stick during
another session.
The advantage of this however is that you can experiment as
much as you like and if it all goes pair-shaped you can simply reboot and
return to the default settings. However it would be nice to have the choice
of whether to have a persistent directory enabled or not. The USB installer
provided in Ubuntu 8.10 only seems to work with the original distro or iso,
and I have not been able to find a way around this yet. I know that this can
be done manually, but I really want to find a simple way to do this that a
novice should be able to attempt.
In the meantime I have found that a
pragmatic solution is to simply carry around 2 1Gb USB pens, one to boot from,
the other to save documents to etc. If anyone knows a way to fool the Ubuntu
USB installer into installing a customised distro please let me know
- Run Vibuntu on USB with persistent storage :
- Introduction:
I have worked out how to trick the default Ubuntu USB
installer (which is accessible with Orca) into copying the Vibuntu iso onto a
USB memory stick with persistent storage!
The process is quite straight forward:
There is a hidden folder on the Ubuntu 8.10 live CD called .disk and
this is the file the Ubuntu USB Installer looks for to verify it is the
official version. All you need to do is to mount the Vibuntu iso image, copy
this folder into the top layer and unmount the iso.
I used isomaster to do
this which is accessible but there must be a simple way to do this from the
terminal, I will try to work it out but if anyone already knows how to do
this please post the commands for everyone to use. I do not think it is worth
releasing a new version of Vibuntu just to include this but I will add the
.disk file to the next release so users can
create a bootable USB memory stick with persistence easily!
- Run Vibuntu on USB with persistent storage - Script
- Run Vibuntu on USB with persistent storage - Test-feedback
- Download Vibuntu-USB-script here
Roll your own Vibuntu in 10 easy steps!
I have posted a rough guide to how I made Vibuntu 1.2 from a default install of Ubuntu 8.10 (Intrepid Ibex) on the
Vibuntu Development Blog for anyone who is interested
Credits:
This project is
- owned / initiated by Anthony Sales
- and mirrored by the BLinuxman.net Project
Contact:
- I would of course appreciate any feedback on Vibuntu. What do you think of the name? Is it corny enough? Would Vinux be better? Post any feedback good or bad on this thread
- Contribute: if you tried this solution and you want to help this project, please contact us or have a look at our
Vibuntu Blog
- For web purposes please contact the BLinuxman.net administrator
Enjoy yourself!
drbongo
This site is supported by The BLinuxman.net
and hosted at HelderHosting.nl