BRLTTY FAQ - last modified 26 June 1998
============================================

Q. I'm the impatient type. How do I install this thing?
A.
   - Uncomment one of the BRL_TARGET lines in the Makefile.
   - Type make.
   - As root, type make install.
   - Run /sbin/brltty.
   - Optionally: run /sbin/brltty from /etc/rc.d/rc.Sysinit or equivalent.
   - That's all!

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
   corresponds to FWINLT and FWINRT (full window left and right respectively).

Q. Can I look at boot time messages with BRLTTY even if they where 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:
   - The "video" option in your /etc/dosemu.conf file must not contain the
     word "console". That keyword would make dosemu bypass the kernel console
     driver and DOS would write directly to the video card. BRLTTY would 
     show a blank screen.
   - Make sure the appropriate com port is not declared for use by DOS and
     remains in BRLTTY's control.
   Furthermore, if you use the "raw keyboard" option, then cursor movement
   keys, cursor routing and cut & paste functions will not work. This is 
   because simulating key presses must be done differently within dosemu 
   with raw keyboard mode enabled (most probably by using scan codes). 
   We have not had time yet to investigate this problem further. Any help 
   would be appreciated.

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:
   - the executable
   - the device node /dev/vcsa0 (character special 7,128)
   - the /etc/brltty subdirectory (this is recommended but optional)
   - and make sure that adequate versions of the shared libraries will
     be available.
   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 
   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 two active developers. Both 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 both of us; for questions about a specific Braille
   display device, contact the author of that driver.
   Here are the addresses:

   Nicolas Pitre: current maintainer of the BRLTTY project and author of
	the driver for the Alva series as well as the driver for the
	Eurobraille family.
     E-Mail: nico@cam.org

   Stphane Doyon: Author of the driver for the TSI displays (Navigator and
	PowerBraille). Active developper.
     E-Mail: s.doyon@videotron.ca

   Nikhil Nair: founder of the BRLTTY project and author of the
	Tieman B.V. CombiBraille driver. No longer active.
     E-Mail: nn201@cus.cam.ac.uk

