running speech-dispatcher-0.7.1 in system mode

[William Hubbs]

Hello Hynek,

On Thu, Oct 07, 2010 at 09:59:18AM +0200, Hynek Hanke wrote:
> On 6.10.2010 22:58, William Hubbs wrote:
> > I'm not to the point where I can check this yet, but here is the way I'm
> > thinking it can work:
> >
> > 1.  speechd-up is started as root.  This would be the only thing that
> > would need a system startup script.
> >    
> 
> Yes, I think you are thinking in the right direction.
> You must however think in terms of user sessions,
> not just the users in system.
 
There are no user sessions when no one is logged into the system, and we
need speech before we are logged in.  I don't know how that happens in
the GUI desktops, but outside the GUI's, the only way I can see it
happen is if we have a service that starts as root then drops privileges
to some defined user.

> I think it is worth to explore whether the /dev/softsynth
> and the other related communication points (there is something
> in /proc too) could not be readable/writable by a group.
 
 The things that were in /proc have moved to /sys; there is now a
 /sys/accessibility/speakup directory and all of our settings are there.
 I believe I have seen other things that are world writeable in /sys, so
 the settings a user would want to change are world writeable, and we
 have a tool that is part of the speakup distribution now, speakupconf,
 which allows a user to save/load configurations.

Currently the permissions on /dev/softsynth are root:root 660, and that
device is the only reason speechd-up has to be root.

The suggestion given to me in the past was to change the group ownership
on the device by a udev rule.  Is that what you would suggest?  Also,
what group should I use, or should that be configurable?

Also, I am maintaining speechd-up on my own on github  since Brailcom's
page says they are not maintaining it.  Hynek, should I keep it there
for now?

William

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