IBMTTS on slackware

Mon Jun 2 18:47:07 EDT 2008

By the way I'd expect less support than you get with ttsynth if you go with 
voxin *grin*.
Before I baut Voxin I sent an email asking if there was any differences 
between ttsynth and voxin besides the name and the price and I got a email 
back with a single line saying I should ask on the speakup list *lol*.
I guess when something is $5 you shouldn't expect people to really put their 
hearts in to selling it to you but I don't think it would have taken long to 
send a message back with a couple of differences between the two.
Any how in case you want to know the main differenses between voxin and 
ttsynth are
voxin came in a tar file with an install script that installed the files 
stored in a incrypted image and included debian and ubuntu .deb packages for 
installing the speech-dispatcher module and gnome speech drivers but they 
were already out of date by the time I had gotten them.
Voxin did not come with the libs and header files from the IBMTTS SDK 
included which are needed for installing the ttsynth-say, 
spk-connect-ttsynth and the gnome speech driver so I had to download and 
install them manualy.
ttsynth comes in boath rpm and deb files, includes the files from the SDK 
needed for compiling ttsynth-say spk-connect-ttsynth and the gnome speech 
driver and the install files wern't incrypted so you can use alien just to 
convert and install on slackware.
*grin* that did not take long to write at all.
I went ahead and got voxin anyway as I guessed that it would be the same 
product rebranded and thought it would install better beeing in a tar ball 
rather than ttsynth's rpm and deb packages.
I was quite rong how ever I didn't know that the install files were stored 
in an incrypted image that was mounted using the install script and I didn't 
know that it would be missing the SDK which I think should have been 
included in with the voxin package instead of a bunch of outdated binarys 
stored in debian packages.
I was able to make voxin work with slackware after a while but I'd say that 
ttsynth had the better packages and I should have payed the extra $35 to get 
it as it would have saved me lots of trouble.
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Michael Whapples" <mwhapples at aim.com>
To: "Speakup is a screen review system for Linux." <speakup at braille.uwo.ca>
Sent: Monday, June 02, 2008 4:09 PM
Subject: Re: IBMTTS on slackware


>I am happy enough recompiling the kernel, but I have just checked the
> slackware 12.1 configuration and it appears this is already done,
> cryptoloop is a module and aes options seem to be compiled in.
>
> I think my next step is to contact voxin and get a copy.
>
> Michael Whapples
> On Mon, 2008-06-02 at 11:39 -0400, Alex Snow wrote:
>> Voxin requires a kernel recompile to build the cryptoloop and aes
>> modules.
>> On Mon, Jun 02, 2008 at 01:42:05PM +0100, Michael Whapples
>> wrote:
>> > Good to hear that it is possible. Can I ask why you say voxin will be
>> > more of a problem? Considering the significant difference in price I
>> > would prefer to get voxin if possible. Its the high price of TTSynth
>> > which had made me question so much whether it would be worth the money,
>> > the question wasn't so high for voxin until you said that it might be
>> > more difficult on slackware. Might it be less painful if I were to use
>> > GRML for certain parts of voxin's install?
>> >
>> > I may discuss things with the voxin people to see if I could get them 
>> > to
>> > help me sort out a slackware version of voxin.
>> >
>> > Michael Whapples
>> > On Sun, 2008-06-01 at 18:01 -0400, Nick Stockton wrote:
>> > > I know it's doable because I helped a friend set up their copy of 
>> > > ttsynth on
>> > > their slackware box a while back.
>> > > I forget if it was slackware version 11 or 12 but I think the process 
>> > > would
>> > > be the same for eather one.
>> > > I've not ever seen any instructions on the speakup list on how to do 
>> > > it so
>> > > I'll write down what I did here.
>> > > Lucky for you I saved the commands I enterd to a text file so I'd 
>> > > know how
>> > > it was done although I'm using voxin which I got for $5 and am 
>> > > running it
>> > > under debian.
>> > > Note: this is for ttsynth under slackware. Voxin would be quite alot 
>> > > harder
>> > > to get working under slackware so you better get ttsynth.
>> > > I've also prepended the commands with '$ ' in case my email client 
>> > > tries to
>> > > wrap commands to the next line. So you'll be able to see where each 
>> > > line
>> > > begins.
>> > > You will need to run all the commands as root. You also need to have 
>> > > alien
>> > > installed.
>> > > If you don't want to find, download, compile and install alien and 
>> > > all the
>> > > dependencies from source to your copy of slackware then you might 
>> > > want to
>> > > download GRML and use it only to run the alien commands.
>> > > --------------------
>> > > $ wget
>> > > http://http.us.debian.org/debian/pool/main/g/gcc-2.95/libstdc++2.10-glibc2.2_2.95.4-27_i386.deb
>> > > $ alien -t -c -k libstdc++2.10-glibc2.2_2.95.4-27_i386.deb
>> > > $ installpkg libstdc++2.10-glibc2.2-2.95.4.tgz
>> > > $ ldconfig
>> > > $ alien -t -c -k ttsynthcore-1.0-i386.deb
>> > > $ installpkg ttsynthcore-1.0.tgz
>> > > $ ln -s /opt/IBM/ibmtts/lib/enu50.so /usr/lib/enu50.so
>> > > $ ln -s /opt/IBM/ibmtts/lib/enumfilt.so /usr/lib/enumfilt.so
>> > > $ ln -s /opt/IBM/ibmtts/lib/ssmlfilter.so /usr/lib/ssmlfilter.so
>> > > $ cp /opt/IBM/ibmtts/inc/* /usr/include/
>> > > $ ldconfig
>> > > $ I know it's doable because I helped a friend set up their copy of 
>> > > ttsynth
>> > > on their slackware box.
>> > > I forget if it was slackware version 11 or 12 but I think the process 
>> > > would
>> > > be the same for eather one.
>> > > I've not ever seen any instructions on the speakup list on how to do 
>> > > it so
>> > > I'll write down what I did here.
>> > > Lucky for you I saved the commands I enterd to a text file so I'd 
>> > > know how
>> > > it was done although I'm using voxin which I got for $5 and am 
>> > > running it
>> > > under debian.
>> > > Note: this is for ttsynth under slackware. Voxin would be quite alot 
>> > > harder
>> > > to get working under slackware so you better get ttsynth.
>> > > I've also prepended the commands with '$ ' in case my email client 
>> > > tries to
>> > > wrap commands to the next line. So you'll be able to see where each 
>> > > line
>> > > begins.
>> > > You will need to run all the commands as root. You also need to have 
>> > > alien
>> > > installed.
>> > > If you don't want to find, download, compile and install alien and 
>> > > all the
>> > > dependencies from source to your copy of slackware then you might 
>> > > want to
>> > > download GRML and use it to run the alien commands.
>> > > --------------------
>> > > $ wget
>> > > http://http.us.debian.org/debian/pool/main/g/gcc-2.95/libstdc++2.10-glibc2.2_2.95.4-27_i386.deb
>> > > $ alien -t -c -k libstdc++2.10-glibc2.2_2.95.4-27_i386.deb
>> > > $ installpkg libstdc++2.10-glibc2.2-2.95.4.tgz
>> > > $ ldconfig
>> > > $ alien -t -c -k ttsynthcore-1.0-i386.deb
>> > > $ installpkg ttsynthcore-1.0.tgz
>> > > $ ln -s /opt/IBM/ibmtts/lib/enu50.so /usr/lib/enu50.so
>> > > $ ln -s /opt/IBM/ibmtts/lib/enumfilt.so /usr/lib/enumfilt.so
>> > > $ ln -s /opt/IBM/ibmtts/lib/ssmlfilter.so /usr/lib/ssmlfilter.so
>> > > $ cp /opt/IBM/ibmtts/inc/* /usr/include/
>> > > $ ldconfig
>> > > $ mknod /dev/softsynth c 10 26
>> > > --------------------
>> > > Hope this helps.
>> > > ----- Original Message ----- 
>> > > From: "Michael Whapples" <mwhapples at aim.com>
>> > > To: <speakup at braille.uwo.ca>
>> > > Sent: Sunday, June 01, 2008 3:33 PM
>> > > Subject: IBMTTS on slackware
>> > >
>> > >
>> > >
>> > > > Hello,
>> > > > I know this has come up before, but I can't remember any actual 
>> > > > final
>> > > > conclusion.
>> > > >
>> > > > Whilst I thought espeak was fast enough, I found I had to use a 
>> > > > windows
>> > > > machine last week, and it reminded me how I do actually use 
>> > > > eloquence in
>> > > > windows faster than I have espeak. This has got me thinking whether 
>> > > > I
>> > > > should get IBMTTS for linux, but I have a few questions.
>> > > >
>> > > > I know that IBMTTS requires an old compatibility library, which I 
>> > > > am
>> > > > unsure is provided in slackware. So how could I go about trying to 
>> > > > get
>> > > > this library? Does anyone know of a suitable slackware package for 
>> > > > it?
>> > > > If not how might I go about providing this myself from source (I 
>> > > > had a
>> > > > look around for the source code I might need, but all libstdc++ 
>> > > > seems to
>> > > > have numbers such as 6.0.x etc much highrt than what the TTSynth 
>> > > > site
>> > > > suggests, 2.9.6 or 2.9.5). Could it be possible to use a package 
>> > > > from a
>> > > > different distribution, eg. I remember back in the days when I used
>> > > > trplayer, I could use rpm2tgz to convert the realplayer 8 package 
>> > > > into a
>> > > > slackware package and it worked fine, but I suspect that for 
>> > > > libstdc++
>> > > > compatibility libraries things may not be so simple.
>> > > >
>> > > > This brings me on to another question, whether to use voxin or 
>> > > > ttsynth?
>> > > > The ttsynth website says there won't be any support provided, so I 
>> > > > guess
>> > > > this means if I buy ttsynth and can't get it working then I am on 
>> > > > my own
>> > > > and may have wasted money on it. Might things be better with voxin,
>> > > > their website says that voxin includes the libstdc++ compatibility
>> > > > library (I guess for debian or ubuntu as those are the distros
>> > > > mentioned).
>> > > >
>> > > > Alternatively I am wondering whether it would be best save the 
>> > > > money and
>> > > > stick with espeak as it is good and works, where as ibmtts sounds 
>> > > > like I
>> > > > may hit all sorts of compatibility issues and potentially have no
>> > > > support from the seller.
>> > > >
>> > > > Michael Whapples
>> > > >
>> > > > _______________________________________________
>> > > > Speakup mailing list
>> > > > Speakup at braille.uwo.ca
>> > > > http://speech.braille.uwo.ca/mailman/listinfo/speakup
>> > >
>> > >
>> > >
>> >
>> > _______________________________________________
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>>
>
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