speechd-up questions

[Sean McMahon]

    After installing the right version of automake and the appropriate glib2
packages, I was able to install speechd-up.  My question is what exactly is
supposed to happen when you run speechd_up -s ?  When I tried running as a
normal user, It told me I didn't have access to the /var/run/speechd_up
directory.  Sinse I didn't know what kind of group/user permissions this
directory should have, I ran it as root.  It didn't give me any errors but
didn't say anything either to speakup or to the soundcard.  When I do modprobe
speakup_sftsyn, something happens because my braillelite stops speaking, but
there is no voice.  Following Thomas's howto, I created the softsynth device and
I did install flite.  What am I missing here?  What should I do to get speakup
working with speechd-up?  Right now, I'm not trying to make it work at bootup,
just want it working if I want to change synths to flite.  My kernel is acustom
2.4.27 with speakup cvs version from Dec 28, 2004.  Speakup is compiled directly
into the kernel and all modules which are synths are builtin except for the
sftsyn module