software speech on Slackware, Debian, and others?

[Sean McMahon]

>From what I gather mkinitrd is what you use if speakup is compiled as a module I
mean modules.  If you have speakup built-in to the kernel, add the command for
your synth to the line with the kernel in menu.lst for grub.  The mkinitrd does
not work the same way in debian.  Do a goole on mkinitrd, and you should see
results for the different man pages.  The  pcspkr is a 2.6 specific option.  For
the 2.4 kernel immages of speakup for debian, speakup is built-in but the
software modules are not and not loadable using modconf, commands for creating
the softsynth device/modules would be applicable but may not be the same.  I
can't answer that question.  For sound to work on debian, the user must be a
member of the audio group as well as any proper sound configuration.  They must
also have a mixer to hear sound at a reasonable level.  Sound questions are of
course not really specific, but you may want to refer some to the sound howto
and put a few basic tips for those getting this started.hth
Sean
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "David Bruzos" <david at bruzos.org>
To: <speakup at braille.uwo.ca>
Sent: Thursday, November 11, 2004 9:43 AM
Subject: software speech on Slackware, Debian, and others?


Hello Everyone:
This message is kind of long, so you might not want to include the entire
thing when you respond!
I have some questions about software speech and distributions other than
Fedora.  I started writing some stuff down and retesting some of the
things I did before (to make sure they work again) and I plan to have a
draft of the software howto written soon.  However, I like to include
whatever I can about other distributions like Debian and Slackware...
Below, I will write the basic steps that I perform to get it configured on
Fedora.  Can users of other distros send me their distro-specific details?

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?
    B. Does "mkinitrd" act different (how) in other distros?
    C. Should I use another (more portable) approach?
    D. Do other distros have the PC speaker (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?
    B. Is the syntax the same?

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

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

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

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

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

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...

Thanx IA!

David Bruzos



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