speakup.synth=apollo is supposed to work with grml 2009.05-rc1 which should hit 
the mirrors in those minutes... Setting status of this bugreport to resolved.

* Michael Whapples <bts@bts.grml.org> [20090408 14:28]:

> On my system it appears that the modprobe from the speakup.synth=synth_name is
> working except if this is meant to emulate the speakup kernel option (if speakup
> were built in the kernel) then synth_name differs from the module name slightly.
> I believe the difference is that the module name is the synth_name with speakup_
> prepended (eg. for the apollo synthesiser I give speakup.synth=apollo at the
> boot prompt but the module name is speakup_apollo, currently it seems like
> grml-autoconfig is using the synth_name as the module name, so in this case
> loading module apollo).

> So either this could be left as it currently is and users need to specify the
> full speakup module name (eg. speakup.synth=speakup_apollo) but I would
> recommend changing the option name to avoid confusion with the built in speakup
> standard (of course document this to make it clear) or add the speakup_ prefix
> to the synth_name given. I would prefer the latter as it then fits with the
> "usual". If doing the latter is there intention to support the other speakup
> kernel options? (eg. speakup.ser, speakup.quiet, etc)

Ah, thanks for the report! So speakup users are used to use
speakup.synth=apollo and not speakup.synth=speakup_apollo, right?
Then I'll just adjust grml-autoconfig to load speakup_$NAME instead.

regards,
-mika-

On my system it appears that the modprobe from the speakup.synth=synth_name is
working except if this is meant to emulate the speakup kernel option (if speakup
were built in the kernel) then synth_name differs from the module name slightly.
I believe the difference is that the module name is the synth_name with speakup_
prepended (eg. for the apollo synthesiser I give speakup.synth=apollo at the
boot prompt but the module name is speakup_apollo, currently it seems like
grml-autoconfig is using the synth_name as the module name, so in this case
loading module apollo).

So either this could be left as it currently is and users need to specify the
full speakup module name (eg. speakup.synth=speakup_apollo) but I would
recommend changing the option name to avoid confusion with the built in speakup
standard (of course document this to make it clear) or add the speakup_ prefix
to the synth_name given. I would prefer the latter as it then fits with the
"usual". If doing the latter is there intention to support the other speakup
kernel options? (eg. speakup.ser, speakup.quiet, etc)

Michael Prokop <mika@grml.org> has uploaded a package that may fix your bug.
Please test the package and inform the maintainer whether
version 0.8.19 of grml-autoconfig works as intended or not.

Thank you

The changelog is attached below

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
Hash: SHA1

Format: 1.8
Date: Mon, 06 Apr 2009 12:47:34 +0200
Source: grml-autoconfig
Binary: grml-autoconfig
Architecture: source all
Version: 0.8.19
Distribution: unstable
Urgency: low
Maintainer: Michael Prokop <mika@grml.org>
Changed-By: Michael Prokop <mika@grml.org>
Description: 
 grml-autoconfig - main bootup process of a grml system
Changes: 
 grml-autoconfig (0.8.19) unstable; urgency=low
 .
   * Add support for speakup.synth=... bootoption. [Testing: issue610]
     [Closes: issue620]
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Bugreport by Michael Whapples (thanks!):

I am unable to use speakup with a hardware apollo synthesiser. In
the file listing the cheat codes for GRML 2008.11 it says that the
option should be of the form speakup_synth=synthname, so I enter
the following command (it includes a brltty option for my Braille
display):

grml brltty=al speakup_synth=apollo
The Braille display works but no speech comes out.

I know that for speakup 3.0.x the options normally are of the form
speakup.synth=synthname (in the main the _ character is replaced
with the . character). So I tried booting with the following line:

grml brltty=al speakup.synth=apollo

Again Braille works but no speech. Once the system is booted if I do:
modprobe speakup_apollo
speakup will start.