BRLTTY FAQ

Q.
I'm the impatient type. How do I install this thing?
A.

Q.
What if it works?
A.
Then tell us!!! We have no idea how many people actually use BRLTTY.

Q.
How do I select my braille display and configure BRLTTY?
A.
You should edit the Makefile and uncomment one of the BRL_TARGET lines. You may also edit the file brlconf.h wich is located in the subdirectory corresponding to the Braille target you choose. In the same subdirectory should be an additionnal README file for specific braille terminal information. Finally, although it is not necessary, you can have a look at config.h.

Q.
Can I have BRLTTY running even before I login?
A.
Sure! We recommend that you do so by starting BRLTTY from your rc.sysinit (or any script executed at boot time). Start BRLTTY as early as possible in the boot process.

Q.
How do I find out and learn which key does what?
A.
See the brlttyh*.txt file in the subdirectory containing the sources of the driver for your terminal. There is a help toggle key that will bring up that very file while you are running BRLTTY, so you can refer to it live. All you need to learn is which key brings up the help screen and which keys correspond to FWINLT and FWINRT (full window left and right respectively).

Q.
Can I look at boot time messages with BRLTTY even if they were printed on the screen before BRLTTY started?
A.
Sure! Just go through the scrollback buffer using the SHIFT+PAGEUP/SHIFT+PAGEDOWN keys. (Note that this functionality of the console driver is only available with SVGA video cards.)

Q.
Can I use BRLTTY while in single user mode?
A.
Sure you can use BRLTTY in single user mode. If you start it up as the very first thing of the very first script that init runs when booting (usually rc.sysinit), then it will be on when you get to the prompt.

Q.
Can I use BRLTTY with special video modes?
A.
Some kernel parameters allow using different video modes (provided by the BIOS), like 80x50 for instance. See /usr/src/linux/Documentation/svga.txt if you have recent kernel sources installed. BRLTTY will adapt automatically to whatever screen size you are using.

Q.
Is it possible to use DOSEmu with BRLTTY?
A.
Yes, with some restrictions. First, to get it to work, pay attention to the following two points:

Q.
What files do I have to copy to carry BRLTTY to a root disk or to another computer?
A.
See the script called "install-brltty" generated automatically when you compile BRLTTY. The components are: As an absolute minimum, you could compile BRLTTY statically (with LDFLAGS=-s -static in the Makefile) and configure any other parameters that correspond to your target system. This way you'll have a single file (brltty) to carry. Note however that compiling it statically makes it much larger.

Q.
Why does the cut & paste function leave out the beginning of some of the lines I try to cut?
A.
Currently, the cut function grabs a rectangular area from the screen, as opposed to grabbing linearly from the starting to the ending point. This has the advantage of allowing one to cut only certain columns: a quoted E-mail message for instance, or a column of a ps output... In the future, there may be both a linear and a rectangular cut function.

Q.
Is it possible to use my own braille dot translation table?
A.
Yes, if you can put it into the right format (use the -t option when invoking BRLTTY). The format of the braille translation tables is outlined in the BrailleTables/README file. The utility txt2tbl may be useful if you have an ASCII braille table. The utility convtable may be useful if you have a binary braille table in another format. Both utilities and a few others can be found along with some braille tables in the BrailleTables subdirectory.

Q.
Who do I contact if I have questions or problems?
A.
There is currently a team of three active developers. All have worked on the main BRLTTY module and each has written a driver for a particular brand of braille terminals. For general questions about the main module of BRLTTY, send your mail to any or all of us. For questions about a specific braille display device, contact the author of that driver. Here are the addresses: