Owen: Re: Software Speech Synth with Speakup -- Help, please.

[Hugh Esco]

Chris Moore:

Thanks for the blow by blow.  Here is what happened.

At 09:43 AM 7/29/03 -0400, you wrote:
>Hugh,
>I'm not using debian, but the same techniques should apply.  Before you
>worry about the startup script, you need to get it working by hand.
>
>1.  Bot with your speakup kernel and festival driver.  I have a separate
>section in my lilo.conf so I can type in "festival" at the boot prompt to
>force speakup toload the usrdev driver.

My default kernel in the lilo boot menu is Linux_speakup4.  That's handled.

>2.  Once you log in as root, you need to make sure your soundcard is
>functioning.  Try playing a wave file or and mp3 to make sure you have
>sound enabled.

I was able to use esdplay to play a sound
from /usr/share/sounds, both as root and as hesco.

>3.  Make sure that the festival modules are in your path.  My festival was
>built in /opt directory so I used the following command to fix the PATH
>variable.
>
>export PATH=/opt/festival/bin:$PATH

I have done this both as root and as hesco.
Only my Festival path is, I believe, /usr/lib/festival.

>4.  start the festival server as a background process.
>% festival_server &

This generates "command not found" bash errors.
In /usr/bin, I have festival and festival_client.
I can sort of successfully run festival &
It gives me a process id, then at the next prompt,
a start-up message and copyright notice,
but no festival prompt.  When I hit return,
it stops the background process and returns me
to a bash prompt.

I already have festival invoked by /etc/init.d/, however,
so this may not be an issue.  In fact, ps aux | grep festival
says I have three processes running:
         244     /usr/bin/festival --server
         1895    festival
         1898    grep festival

>5. If you don't get any error messages, your're probably ready to run
>middleware.
>
>% cd /path/to/middleware
>% ./middleware &

That would be:
         cd /usr/src/speakup-1.5/middleware
         ./middleware &

I get a process id (1902) and a message printed
at the next bash prompt that it:
         Failed to open file:  No such device

Hitting return gives me an Exit message.
ps aux | grep middleware shows only one line:
         1905    grep middleware

>If all goes well you should hear some speech.  Give us a report.
>
>Chris

And no speech.  What device is it that middleware is unable to open?
Might this be a permission problem?  I've run this as root.
Should I try it as hesco?  That gives me the same result.

And this is where I was stuck last time?
I'm very close, but not yet there.
All clues are appreciated.  Thanks.

-- Hugh Esco