What is it about?

This repository contains resources concerning unofficial Linux distribution aimed at visually impaired users. This distribution is called Vojtux. It is based on first name of the main contributor; Vojtech.

The repo currently contains Kickstart files to create a live media image with accessible environment. This image can be later used to install the system on a device. It contains kickstart files to build the distro with English or Czech language selected.

The live media is currently based on Fedora 38.

Building live media ISO

Warning! The Czech kickstart file is outdated!

This repository is currently transitioning from the state where customizations were present in the kickstart file to a state where most of customizations will be packaged as RPMs.

This is currently implemented for the English kickstart file, Czech kickstart file is not maintained right now.

In future, it will get updated or deleted entirely.

The kickstart file is inspired by the Fedora Mate spin. The Mate environment is chosen because it is lightweight and its accessibility is prety good.

Kickstart documentation can be found at https://pykickstart.readthedocs.io/en/latest/kickstart-docs.html.

Building of this image requires Fedora. It is strongly recommended to use Fedora version matching the one you are going to build. So if you are going to build a live media based on Fedora 38, it is strongly recommended to do it from Fedora 38 environment.

So how to build it?

1. sudo dnf install lorax-lmc-novirt

2. clone this repo

3. create a directory structure to store cache and tmp files (optional)

   • mkdir -p live/tmp

4. ksflatten -c <input_kickstart_file.ks> -o <output_kickstart_file.ks>

   • choose ks/vojtux_cs.ks or ks/vojtux_en.ks as an input file, based on your language choice

   • this makes sure that all includes will be handled correctly

5. sudo livemedia-creator --make-iso --no-virt --iso-only --anaconda-arg="--noselinux" --iso-name vojtux_38.iso --project vojtux --releasever 38 --ks <output_kickstart_file.ks> --tmp live/tmp

   • --make-iso creates ISO image. Note that you can create multiple things with livemedia-creator.

   • --no-virt uses local Anaconda to perform the installation without spinning up virtual machine. This is probably not mandatory, but I chose this approach because I am actually building the image within virtual machine running Fedora.

   • --iso-only - after the process finishes, delete all artifacts except for the resulting ISO image. You may omit this if you need to inspect intermediate artifacts.

   • --anaconda-arg="--noselinux" disables selinux during the installation, it was causing problems.

   • --iso-name vojtux_38.iso provides name for the resulting ISO image

   • --project vojtux project name, this is used as image label and it is visible in the boot menu

   • --releasever 38 this is also visible in the boot menu

   • --ks <output_kickstart_file.ks> use the kickstart file created in previous steps

   • --tmp live/tmp optional argument if you want to use your own defined tmp directory

Docker build

There is a simple build.sh script included to show the sequence that I used to build the image.

./dockerbuild/build.sh

Which should end in something like:

sudo find ./dockerbuild/output -name vojtux_38.iso
./dockerbuild/output/vojtux_38.iso

Your vojtux_38.iso should be listed as above.

What is actually done?

The result will be stored in the tmp directory in a folder with randomly generated name. In this folder there will be a file called according to the --iso-name parameter. The live image is based on Fedora 38 Mate spin.

Following additional changes are applied:

• added RPM Fusion free and nonfree package repositories

• added custom repository with Festival Czech voices and one specific for this distro so that we can push updates

• in case of Czech version:

  • system locale is set to Czech, keyboard to Czech qwertz, Czech and Slovak language packs are downloaded

  • the time zone is set to Europe/Prague

• Orca screenreader starts at login screen and also after login for current and also newly created users

• Orca configuration is slightly modified, see below

• QT accessibility is enabled

• accessibility of applications run with sudo is enabled

• Grub tune is added, although it does not work in every case

• LIOS OCR software is installed

• some documentation is placed within the home directory (short handout + list of keyboard shortcuts)

• some keyboard shortcuts are added, see below

• Caja audio previews are disabled

• file associations are modified so that audio files open in VLC

• Festival is enabled with Czech voice, however it behaves strangely on physical hardware

• /etc/systemd/system.conf is modified to speed up shutdown

• Selinux policiy is set to permissive

• Slick greeter is replaced with Lightdm GTK greeter because of problems with Orca not starting after login

• Tmux is configured with special keyboard shortcuts inspired by the Byobu project

• extra packages are preinstalled

  • gimagereader QT version

  • pidgin with support for Facebook and Skype Web

  • Xsane

  • various firmware and software for broader hardware support including wireless cards, printers, scanners, graphic cards

  • Audacity

  • Soundconverter

  • Tesseract OCR engine with English, Czech and Slovak data

  • Ifuse for support of Apple storage

  • jmtpfs for support of MTP

  • Git, Curl, Wget, Sed

  • VLC player

  • Qt-at-spi

  • Tmux to enhance working with consoles

  • Chromium

• Following packages were removed:

  • Exaile

  • Hexchat

  • Filezilla

  • Gnote

• there is a special script which ensures that the sound at the login screen is not muted and is at 50% of volume

• a script for toggling physical monitor is added, functionality not tested

• a sound theme is added, source

Orca modifications

• added keyboard shortcuts for modifying speech speed (Orca+up/down)

• added keyboard shortcut for modifying of speech pitch (Orca+left/right)

• added keyboard shortcut for modifying speech volume (Orca+home/end)

• added keyboard shortcuts for copying parts of flat review to clipboard (Orca+c, Orca+shift+c)

• added shortcuts for reading of last seen notifications (Orca+n...)

• disabled showing end-of-line characters on the braille display

Added shortcuts

• Alt-Super-o - restart orca

• Alt-Super-up/down - change system volume

• Alt-Super-left - mute/unmute system volume

• Alt-Super-f - Firefox

• Alt-Super-s toggle screenreader through Mate

• Alt-Super-l start the LIOS software

• ALT-Super-m - vypnutí / zapnutí monitoru