software speech on Slackware, Debian, and others?

[Thomas Stivers]

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I am using Debian so I will try to address some of your questions from
that perspective.

On Thu, Nov 11, 2004 at 11:43:44 AM -0500, David Bruzos wrote:
> 1. I use the "mkinitrd" command to put the "sftsyn" module into the kernel
> at boot time.  The command was:
> "mkinitrd -v /boot/initrd-2.6.x.img 2.6.x --with=speakup_sftsyn
> --with=pcspkr"
> 
>     A. Can this be applied to other distros?

I don't think so. Debian has a mkinitrd command, but the syntax is
different. Perhaps someone who knows more about Debian's mkinitrd
command can properly translate the above.

>     D. Do other distros have the PC speaker (pcspkr) compiled as a module?

I don't believe there are packages of kernel 2.6.x with speakup on
Debian, but the kernel images available for Debian have pcspkr compiled
as a module.

> 2. I created a /dev/softsynth device using the "mknod" command.  The
> command was:
> "mknod /dev/softsynth c 10 26".
> 
>     A. Is this ok for other distros?

Yes.

>     B. Is the syntax the same?

Yes, but on some systems the use of devfs and udev for the /dev
filesystem may make this step unnecessary.

> 3. Festival was already instaled and working in Fedora.
>     A. Any problems getting Festival for other distros?

There are festival packages for debian, no problem.

> 4. Flite was not installed in Fedora.  I had to download RPMS, because it
> would not compile properly...
>     A. Other distros?

Debian also has flite packages, but I don't recall if they use the 16k
(better sounding) voices.

> 5. I downloaded speech-dispatcher, compiled it, and installed it without
> any problems.
>     A. Anyone have problems doing this?

There are speech-dispatch er packages in Debian, but if you want the
newest cvs versions you will have to get them directly from freebsoft.
The version 0.5 in Debian will work with speakup.

> 6.  speechd_up compiled and installed without problems also...
>     A. ...?

Debian doesn't have a speechd-up package, so you will need to download
and compile. The instructions for this will likely be about the same for
Debian and Fedora.

> 7. Just ran:
>     A. # speech-dispatcher
>     B. # speechd_up
> I had software speech working at this point...

My system is set up differently and uses a doubletalk by default, but I
believe if the sftsyn module is in the initrd then it will work as you
say.

> I have repeated these steps on three different machines and they have all
> worked without a problem.  The only thing I have not been able to do is
> compile flite from source.  However, the flite RPMS work very well...

It seems that compiling flite from source is one of those black arts
known only to a few. Unfortunately I am not among them.

> Thanx IA!

Your welcome. Hope it helps.

- -- 
"Debugging is twice as hard as writing the code in the first place.
Therefore, if you write the code as cleverly as possible, you are,
by definition, not smart enough to debug it." - Brian W. Kernighan

Thomas Stivers	e-mail: stivers_t at tomass.dyndns.org
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