GRML (pronounced “gremil”) is a Linux distribution based on Debian, designed to run from a live CD or USB flash drive. GRML is geared toward system administrators and users who prefer text-based tools. It also includes numerous accessibility features, making it especially suitable for blind or visually impaired system administrators.
After you boot into GRML,you can activate the Speakup screen reader by typing in the proper commands. Since you need to type the commands exactly and at the proper time, this can be a difficult, error prone process. This page provides modified GRML iso files that speak via software speech and the LiteTalk hardware speech synthesizer. A script is provided that will allow you to create modified ISO files of your own.
To create a modified GRML ISO file for your hardware synth, do the following:
Download a GRML ISO file from the GRML web site. GRML comes in 2 versions, small and full. It is strongly suggested that you use a full version if you are using software speech.
wget https://download.grml.org/grml-full-2025.05-amd64.iso
Download the grml4speakup script.
wget https://people.math.wisc.edu/~jheim/GRML/grml4speakup
Create a modified GRML ISO file, specifying the ISO file to start with, an optional synthesizer type, and an optional ssh password.
A list of the valid synthesizer types can be found in the Speakup Users Guide. The default synthesizer is 'soft', for software speech.
You can optionally enable an sshserver on your modified version of GRML by specifying an ssh password. If you provide an ssh password, you will be able to connect to your machine via ssh after it boots with the user name 'grml' and the password you provide. If you do not specify an ssh password, ssh will not be enabled for your modified GRML ISO.
The following example takes the GRML image downloaded in step 1, enables the LiteTalk synth (ltlk), and enables an ssh server with the password, 'password':
grml4speakup grml-full-2025.05-amd64.iso ltlk password
The above command will create an ISO file called grml-ltlk-full-2025.05-amd64.iso.
Write the modified ISO file to a CD-ROM, DVD, or USB flash drive.
Do not use the GRML utility grml2usb to write your modified file to a USB drive. Using grml2usb will destroy your modifications. Instead use the dd command. The following command will write the ISO file created in the previous step to a thumb drive identified as /dev/sda.
dd if=grml-ltlk-full-2025.05-amd64.iso of=/dev/sda bs=4096; sync
The following modified GRML images are available for download. No ssh password has been enabled for these images.
Please send an email to jheim@math.wisc.edu if you would like to request an image for hardware synth not listed above.
Questions/corrections: jheim@math.wisc.edu.