- Blind-sysadmins - lists.hodgsonfamily.org

Re: Update to Repair/Reinstall
by John G. Heim 02 Jun '25

02 Jun '25

On 6/2/25 10:18 AM, Steve Matzura wrote: > guess I've been somewhat spoiled by that magic. But then again, I > expect computers to do what they realistically cannot--behave like > toasters--but even knowing that, I still expect a few basic things to > just work, like finding my boot device, my audio device, my input > device (keyboard) and my main communications device (NIC) and just > make them work immediately. If I change any of those things, I want my > operating system to figure that out, automatically load the correct > driver, and carry on, all behind the scenes without any intervention > from yours very truly. I know that most Linux systems come packed with > lots of drivers for various hardware to get started, and these days, > most hardware has pretty well-known and standard parts--RealTek audio > devices, Broadcomm NIC's, and the like. And the operating system > usually finds them all. Just not this time. That's the puzzler. > Something's different, or missing, and I'm bound to find out what it is. > But it did recognize your network card, load a driver, and create a network interface. At this point, the odds are that you actually do have a network connection. I mentioned that you can start the debugging at the other end and assume the problem is with the router, firewall, something like that. That's what we should have done. The upside is that you learned a little about diagnosing network problems in Linux. But to go even further off the original topic, Linux systems admin is a really good career choice for a person with a visual disability. I don't mean to suggest that *Yyou* consider that. I'm just making the discussion even more general than it is after you brought up Linux itself. Where I live, In Madison, Wisconsin, a Linux sys admin can write his own ticket. Even a blind Linux sys admin will have his choice of positions to accept. This is true of everywhere technology is the main driver of the economy. So that includes every university town in the USA plus whole regions of the country like Silicon Valley, , the Charlotte research triangle, etc. And the beauty of being a blind Linux sys admin is that you are barely at a disadvantage compared to your sighted counterparts. Every once in a while, you'll hit an accessibility snag. But almost everything is done via the command line and text files. The biggest problem, of course, is access to the BIOS/EUFI. But you're not any better off being a Windows sys admin when it comes to accessing the EUFI.

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Update to Repair/Reinstall
by Steve Matzura 01 Jun '25

01 Jun '25

Apologies for not being as up on all this stuff as maybe I should be and presumably the rest of you are, but Linux isn't, nor has it ever been, an interest of mine--I only use it because I have to, and begrudgingly at that. I find the whole concept obtuse, confusing, confounding, unreasonably complicated, and not made to actually get things done in an efficient manner for the average Joe User in the world. But that doesn't mean I won't do what I have to do in order to use it, and I certainly would not spend a nanosecond bashing it--it has its uses, just not very many of them for me, except when I'm forced into it by the things I'm asked to do with computers at times. Give me OpenVMS or MS Windows any day. With that disclaimer out of the way ... John was extremely helpful--instrumental, in fact--in setting me up with a talking grml so I could turn on ssh and just get in there from another machine and copy off what I need from my old system. This didn't work out because I can't figure out how to get my network started on the target system. It doesn't look on the wired network for my Dream Machine router, which is happily sitting there, ready, willing and able to provide a network address for anyone who comes a-calling. On said target system, lspci shows the device, lsmod shows the driver, netcardconfig lets me set it up with the proper address, subnet and broadcast values, but, as I pointed out to John, even after all that, the system can't see past the end of its network nose. I've given up (for now) trying to figure out why this is. Instead, I copied the files I needed from the old system to the grml thumb drive for later usage, and am now ready to install real Debian 12--should I really try 13?--on the old internal SSD. However, here's where I've run into a Speakup/ESpeak problem. The grml-debootstrap script displays choices just like standard character-cell Linux always does, but with one exception: there's nothing I can find to figure out which of the selections is the chosen one--there are no symbols between the graphic brackets to indicate that, unlike most other character-cel interfaces that put a star ("*") or graphic symbol that looks like a square in between the brackets. I looked for a Speakup user guide, and the only one I could find is from 2010. How do I figure out which option is chosen on these menus, and where's a more up-to-date Speakup manual that would contain this info? Again, a really big thank-you to John, who spent probably far longer trying to troubleshoot me through my network problem than he have to. This stuff is supposed to just work, but when it doesn't, finding the one link in the long chain that's not behaving or doesn't exist can be daunting. Just look at some of the recent posts under the banner "I Want to Love Linux But Linux Won't Love Me Back," and if you don't already know, you'll find out how frustrating things can be when they don't work as expected.

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Question re repairing and reinstalling
by Steve Matzura 30 May '25

30 May '25

I have a Debian version 11 system that needs repairing or reinstalling, but before I do that, I need to boot something that will let me access the system disk and copy some hard-to-reconstruct configuration files from some application directories to a holding place on another drive in the same cabinet. Should I do this with a Debian Live distribution, or can it be done from the regular Debian installation disk? In either case, am I stuck with using a desktop to find the file(s) in question and copy them to the holding location, or can I get Speakup in a shell? If I'm stuck with a desktop, which ones is most accessible? I've never been a fan of the Linux desktop environment, much preferring the CLI, but you can't always get what you want from these distros, but like the song says, if you try sometimes, you just might find you get what you need. Ultimately, that's my question--which accessible live distro do I need/should I use to effect the above?

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Anyone taken an online exam with Pearson Vue?
by ultimatethesecond＠googlemail.com 28 May '25

28 May '25

HI all. Seeing if this gets through. Has anyone taken an exam online with Pearson Vue? I gather they need to have a camera on, so they can see the room. This shouldn't be a problem. How did accommodations work out? If this is possible at all, that is. I would hope we can take exams online, get extra time and use our screenreaders. I'm looking to take the Comptia Security Plus exam. If anyone else has done, is there much visual content? The practise questions I'm using have the odd diagram but everything is multiple choice. Thanks. Chris.

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experience with Learning Tree courses
by Fayre, Jason 27 May '25

27 May '25

Hello, Has anyone had any experience with Learning Tree for IT courses? They seem to have an accessibility statement, but that doesn't always mean much. I'm looking to take courses in Azure and Modern Endpoint Management. Please note: for accessibility reasons, please do not send me screenshots. Vacation alert: Jason Fayre Assistive Technology Specialist | Enterprise Endpoint Compute | Employee Technology Services | CIBC 81 Bay Street, 14th Floor Toronto ON, Canada, M5J 0E7 | Tel: (416) 412-2678 | jason.fayre(a)cibc.com<mailto:jason.fayre@cibc.com>

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Re: Anyone taken an online exam with Pearson Vue?
by Andrew Hodgson 27 May '25

27 May '25

Hi. I do have a letter from my ophthalmologist which I use. Its worth checking the Cisco exams as they may have changed. I'm not entirely sure though how they would describe all the network diagrams that were on the CCNA exam last time I tried it. Thanks. Andrew. -----Original Message----- From: ultimatethesecond(a)googlemail.com <ultimatethesecond(a)googlemail.com> Sent: 27 May 2025 12:15 To: Andrew Hodgson <andrew(a)hodgson.io> Subject: RE: [Blind-sysadmins] Anyone taken an online exam with Pearson Vue? Hi. Thanks Andrew. Good luck chasing them too. I've started the request process online and Seems I'll need to get a letter from my doctor first. The form requests for documentary evidence of diagnosis and impact. Don't think a copy of my CVI is going to cut it. I'll update the list on how it goes, if it's useful to anyone else. Good to know about Microsoft and Cisco though, disappointing on the latter. I was thinking to try Cisco certification again now you can take exams online but if they don't allow jaws... Regards Chris. -----Original Message----- From: Andrew Hodgson <andrew(a)hodgson.io> Sent: 27 May 2025 12:00 To: Mailing list for blind system administrators <blind-sysadmins(a)lists.hodgsonfamily.org> Cc: Chris T <ultimatethesecond(a)googlemail.com> Subject: RE: [Blind-sysadmins] Anyone taken an online exam with Pearson Vue? Hi. Its getting through and I think I've answered this question on the list before. The accommodations for the exam depend on the partner. So if you're taking the Microsoft exams they will work with Jaws but Cisco don't support it and not sure about Comptia. You have to go through an approval process with Pearson and this seems to be very hit and miss at the moment. For example I'm trying to renew my accommodations but they keep ignoring me and have told me it will take longer to come back due to a ransomware attack at their end. I need to get back onto them about this. My recommendation would be to try and talk to someone at Comptia or see what is available on their website as for example on the Microsoft website they state that Jaws is supported and give a practice test. In the case of the Microsoft exams images are described. Thanks. Andrew. -----Original Message----- From: Chris Turner via Blind-sysadmins <blind-sysadmins(a)lists.hodgsonfamily.org> Sent: 27 May 2025 11:45 To: blind-sysadmins(a)lists.hodgsonfamily.org Cc: ultimatethesecond(a)googlemail.com Subject: [Blind-sysadmins] Anyone taken an online exam with Pearson Vue? HI all. Seeing if this gets through. Has anyone taken an exam online with Pearson Vue? I gather they need to have a camera on, so they can see the room. This shouldn't be a problem. How did accommodations work out? If this is possible at all, that is. I would hope we can take exams online, get extra time and use our screenreaders. I'm looking to take the Comptia Security Plus exam. If anyone else has done, is there much visual content? The practise questions I'm using have the odd diagram but everything is multiple choice. Thanks. Chris. _______________________________________________ Blind-sysadmins mailing list -- blind-sysadmins(a)lists.hodgsonfamily.org To unsubscribe send an email to blind-sysadmins-leave(a)lists.hodgsonfamily.org

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azure training through Global Knowledge
by Fayre, Jason 13 May '25

13 May '25

Hello, Through my workplace, I am planning to take the Azure Fundamentals course. The provider we use for virtual and in-person training is Global Knowledge. For this course, they are using a web portal to access a virtual machine for doing a few of the course labs. The VM comes up inside the web page. Obviously this is not accessible. Has anyone experienced any courses like this, and how did you get around it? For this particular course, I don't think the labs are critical, but I expect they will become more so as I take further courses. Jason Fayre Assistive Technology Specialist | Enterprise Endpoint Compute | Employee Technology Services | CIBC 81 Bay Street, 14th Floor Toronto ON, Canada, M5J 0E7 | Tel: (416) 412-2678 | jason.fayre(a)cibc.com<mailto:jason.fayre@cibc.com>

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Keyboard shortcuts in nested RDP sessions
by Lukasz Golonka 01 May '25

01 May '25

Dear all, At work I'll soon have to work in a nested RDP session, meaning that I'll connect to a first RDP server from my laptop and then connect from there via RDP to a second PC, to which the development board I need to access is connected. I have simulated such setup and my main accessibility related worry turned out to be irrelevant, as NVDA's RDAccess works flawlessly in that configuration, with both speech and Braille. I am, however, unable to leave the second session, without leaving the entire RDP. The CTRL++ALT+pause and CTRL+ALT+HOME move me to my main desktop / to the connection bar of the first connection, even when performed in the second session. The tips from the Internet about using CTRL+SHIFG+ALT+HOME don't work;. I have also found some articles about scripting these shortcuts with AutoHotKey, however it seems folks have very limited luck with this approach. How are you handling this situation? Is there a method for switching away from the nested session I overlooked? -- Many thanks Lukasz

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Trying to get a Raspberry Pi 4 to get DHCP from my router
by Steve Nutt 01 May '25

01 May '25

Hi all, I just got a new Pi 4, in order to use it as a Fing agent, http://www.fing.com for network monitoring. We installed Bookworm to it, and even tried earlier versions like BullsEye, but it will not get DHCP from my router. Once we have installed it, we can see it using PuTTY and I can log into it. However, although it gets as far as the LAN, it doesn't get out to WAN. It goes for the local IP of 127.0.0.1. So my friend took it to his house, and from his router, provided by Plusnet, it gets DHCP, and on my Draytek router, it doesn't. The main difference between the two is that the gateway on the Plusnet router is 192.168.1.254, and the gateway IP on the Draytek is 192.168.1.1. Could anyone please tell me the easiest way to change the gateway, netmask and DNS servers it looks for? In this way, we may be able to get DHCP from the router. It appears that Bookworm doesn't use DHCPCD any more, so I have been trying without success using NMCLI commands. If anyone can help with this, I would be extremely grateful. Many thanks. All the best Steve -- To subscribe to our News and Special Offers list, go to <https://www.comproom.co.uk/subscribe> https://www.comproom.co.uk/subscribe Computer Room Services 77 Exeter Close Stevenage Hertfordshire SG1 4PW T: +44(0)1438-742286 M: +44(0)7956-334938 F: +44(0)1438-759589 E: <mailto:steve@comproom.co.uk> steve(a)comproom.co.uk W: <https://www.comproom.co.uk> https://www.comproom.co.uk

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accessibility of Peoplecert ITIL exam
by Fayre, Jason 23 Apr '25

23 Apr '25

Hi all, I'm currently in a course for ITIL 4 fundamentals. The exam is online. Does anyone know if this exam system is accessible? Please note: for accessibility reasons, please do not send me screenshots. Jason Fayre Assistive Technology Specialist | Enterprise Endpoint Compute | Employee Technology Services | CIBC 81 Bay Street, 14th Floor Toronto ON, Canada, M5J 0E7 | Tel: (416) 412-2678 | jason.fayre(a)cibc.com<mailto:jason.fayre@cibc.com>

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