Maintaining speechd-up

[Klaus Knopper]

On Mon, Jul 19, 2010 at 04:31:43PM -0400, Trevor Saunders wrote:
> Hi,
> 
> Hopefully this is clearer.  I think you are confusing
> 1. a console screen reader needs to run as root so it can read some
> file
> 2. a console screen reader needs to be root however it works.
> 
> you said that a console screen reader needs to run as root, which I
> showed you by example is false.

True, it is possible to run a screenreader in userspace. But I would
agree with Halim that it may be less comfortable and maybe even less
secure in some ways. Consider the mess of
inter-screenreader-communication if you would like to chance the
userspace screenreaders settings without restart on ALL consoles
(volume, speed, profiles), cut&pase between screens, and maybe also
interface with different devices (braille, keyboard-navigation etc.). A
common screenreader that handles all the locally used hardware is
probably much less complex than a userspace program that needs to handle
locking and task switching issues all on its own.

Both methode have advantages and disadvantages. I can only say for SBL
that it works well running as rooted system-wide service, and I did not
find a security problem yet if it is correctly configured and its config
files (and devices) have correct permissions. The system console and
ttys do not need to be user-readable, yet they can be used with
non-privileged user accounts (opened by init as root, then privileges
dropped to the user application).

Regards
-Klaus