Those Rotten VGA BIOS Setup Screens

[Linux for blind general discussion]

I've heard of a weasel card which goes in the monitor connector and then
can send output to at least a printer and maybe a serial device.  Those
choosing this route to not bother anyone can expect to pay $400.00 for
the equipment and no I don't have any contact information for any
vendor.  I read about these back in the 1990's so those may have got
discontinued by now.

On Sun, 4 Aug 2019, Linux for blind general discussion wrote:

> Date: Sun, 4 Aug 2019 08:12:22
> From: Linux for blind general discussion <blinux-list at redhat.com>
> To: blinux-list at redhat.com
> Subject: Those Rotten VGA BIOS Setup Screens
>
> 	Are there any gadgets out there that one can connect to a
> Linux box which will hook to the VGA output of a computer needing
> BIOS setup work and output text so we don't have to bother other
> people to help us tinker?
>
> 	Another possibility might be to use a LCD monitor which
> generally has much less flicker than do the old CRT-style
> monitors and then snap a picture of the screen on an iPad and use
> something like Prismo which is an OCR program that, when you can
> get it to work works well.
>
> 	The longest shot I am thinking of is to buy a device from
> Epifan which can receive VGA video and converts it in to a .uvc
> file which is the same format that web cams use.
>
> 	I will have to dive in to perl and write a program that
> can at least decode the characters on that screen.  One nice
> thing about that is that it is guaranteed to be straight and in
> focus.
>
> 	I will have to learn about the .uvc format in order to
> expand one frame of video in to the bit map.
>
> 	I'm glad nobody is waiting on this project besides me.
>
> 	Even so, this is a perfect example of how technology
> works against you when you want to do something that all the
> suits who design this stuff didn't anticipate you needing to do.
>
> 	In this case, I've got some old Dell computers which need
> to always boot from CDROM before the hard drive.
>
> 	When you set them up this way, they revert back to a
> different sequence for some unknown reason after maybe 6 months
> or a year.  As computer users who are blind, it's much better all
> around if we can solve our own problems within reason.
>
> 	Some rack-mount servers do have serial-based setup
> methods but most desktops don't.
>
> 	Besides, if you have ever been in the same room as many
> rack-mount servers, you'll notice it's like being on the runway
> when a jet is about to take off.
>
> 	They are built to be in a rack with gobs of other hot
> servers and they move a ton of air with their tiny fast-moving
> fans.
>
> Anyway, thanks for any good ideas.
>
> Martin McCormick
>
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