IBMTTS on slackware

Fri Jun 6 20:46:46 EDT 2008

*nods* I remember trying that but it didn't seem to work.
it was making the sound start out speaking a few words very fast then it 
would freez and not speak at all.
I kind of wonder if it was because I have my USB sound card set to output 
44,100HZ in /etc/asound.comf and viavoice would be using 22,000HZ.
When ever I get a faster computer I'll probbely try running gnome-speech 
again but at the momentgnome speech is not very responcive on my computer 
and speech-dispatcher is quite a bit more responcive.
I kind of wonder what is causing it to spell some words but not others 
though... Very strange.
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Michael Whapples" <mwhapples at aim.com>
To: "Speakup is a screen review system for Linux." <speakup at braille.uwo.ca>
Sent: Friday, June 06, 2008 3:36 PM
Subject: Re: IBMTTS on slackware


> Hello,
> I think (going from memory and not looking back at messages on the orca
> list) some of the problems regarding speech-dispatcher and orca come
> from is that the orca team and speech-dispatcher teams have slightly
> different oppinions on what should do what. Gnome-speech is the main
> supported output for speech in orca, I think the speech-dispatcher one
> isn't officially supported.
>
> As far as getting gnome-speech to use alsa, you will need to edit a file
> (for viavoice it
> is /usr/lib/bonobo/severs/GNOME_Speech_SynthesisDriver_Viavoice.server)
> and edit the location attribute (I can't remember which XML tag it
> belongs to, but that element also has an attribute type="exe") and
> modify the value to include aoss (eg.
> aoss /usr/bin/viavoice-synthesis-driver). NOTE: this also works for
> espeak in gnome-speech.
>
> Michael Whapples
> On Fri, 2008-06-06 at 00:26 -0400, Nick Stockton wrote:
>> Funny that you should menchen that because I've noticed speech-dispatcher
>> spelling stuff sometimes.
>> I still use it though because on my old desktop gnome-speech has alot 
>> more
>> lag than speech-dispatcher and I couldnt get the IBMTTS gnome-speech 
>> server
>> to use alsa.
>> I was thinking that maybe I hadn't played around with it enough as I had
>> just set it up to try gnome and see what it was like as I use speakup for
>> most stuff apart from web browsing, audio editing and voice chat.
>> ----- Original Message ----- 
>> From: "Michael Whapples" <mwhapples at aim.com>
>> To: "Speakup is a screen review system for Linux." 
>> <speakup at braille.uwo.ca>
>> Sent: Wednesday, June 04, 2008 5:33 PM
>> Subject: Re: IBMTTS on slackware
>>
>>
>>
>> > Well your experience seems slightly diffeent with the voxin people, I
>> > got a version of it sent to me which had the encrypted partition 
>> > removed
>> > when I had contacted them with the problem of the pass phrase not
>> > working.
>> >
>> > Yes it would have been nice to have had the packages up to date, but as
>> > I am using slackware I expected to need to compile the supporting
>> > applications anyway for either TTSynth or voxin. There are a couple of
>> > things I am noticing between the different drivers. the
>> > speech-dispatcher one seems to very quickly decide to spell things,
>> > where as the gnome-speech one seems to work a lot more naturally (eg. I
>> > have the list set to digest mode and it comes from
>> > speakup-request at braille.uwo.ca, with speech-dispatcher it spells out 
>> > the
>> > request word, where as gnome-speech says each word). Thinking about
>> > gnome-speech, when I recompiled it to include IBMTTS I noticed it also
>> > has a driver for eloquence. Why has viavoice become most talked about 
>> > on
>> > linux, and which is most up to date with current libraries (as up to
>> > date as they may be, which uses the least obsolete), what are the
>> > differences, etc?
>> >
>> > From
>> > Michael Whapples
>> > On Tue, 2008-06-03 at 20:27 -0400, Nick Stockton wrote:
>> >> Well the file can be extracted with debian and ubuntu so what you 
>> >> could
>> >> do
>> >> is edit the install script and see what commands it is using to mount 
>> >> the
>> >> image.
>> >> Then you can mount that file under Ubuntu or Maybe GRML I think it 
>> >> should
>> >> work too.
>> >> then copy the stuff in the mounted dir to a tempory folder and then
>> >> umount
>> >> and delete the image.
>> >> After that copy the extracted files back to the place where the image 
>> >> had
>> >> been mounted I think it's the mnt dir in the voxin directory.
>> >> then edit the installer script and remove the mount and umount 
>> >> commands.
>> >> After that I think it would then copy the files from the dir with out
>> >> mounting anything and you can just make a tar ball of that package and
>> >> just
>> >> use that one if you ever have to install again and junk the one you 
>> >> got
>> >> from
>> >> voxin's site.
>> >> I think ttsynth is the better package but I guess when buying cheep I 
>> >> got
>> >> what I payed for but at least it does work on my debian system now 
>> >> that
>> >> I've
>> >> stopped using slackware.
>> >> I think slackware is the most stable of all the gnu/linux flavors but 
>> >> I
>> >> got
>> >> tired of having to google for packages and then googling all the 
>> >> packages
>> >> they needed to run and compiling/installing/configuring them so I use
>> >> debian
>> >> now.
>> >> ----- Original Message ----- 
>> >> From: "Michael Whapples" <mwhapples at aim.com>
>> >> To: "Speakup is a screen review system for Linux."
>> >> <speakup at braille.uwo.ca>
>> >> Sent: Tuesday, June 03, 2008 6:36 PM
>> >> Subject: Re: IBMTTS on slackware
>> >>
>> >>
>> >>
>> >> > On Mon, 2008-06-02 at 18:47 -0400, Nick Stockton wrote:
>> >> >> By the way I'd expect less support than you get with ttsynth if you 
>> >> >> go
>> >> >> with
>> >> >> voxin *grin*.
>> >> > I had come to the conclusion before that I couldn't get less support
>> >> > than ttsynth has, as on the ttsynth site it says that no personal
>> >> > support for the product will be given. So I came to the decission 
>> >> > that
>> >> > it is best to pay less and chance support than pay more (much more) 
>> >> > and
>> >> > know that there won't be personal support for it.
>> >> >> 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*.
>> >> > One thing I think might be different between the two is that ttsynth
>> >> > provides the speakup connector (by the sound of it, it provides it
>> >> > directly rather than working through speech-dispatcher, is that true
>> >> > and
>> >> > how does it compare to going through speech-dispatcher).
>> >> >> 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.
>> >> > That encryption part is now getting me, I keep trying to enter the
>> >> > passphrase and it keeps saying its wrong. I am sure slackware is
>> >> > providing all the encryption stuff (cryptoloop as a module and aes
>> >> > compiled in (although I have recompiled a kernel with it as a module 
>> >> > as
>> >> > well)) and I have tried installing it in GRML and get the same. I 
>> >> > have
>> >> > contacted oralux for support on this, lets see what my response is.
>> >> >> *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.
>> >> > May be I should have followed your advice, but I made the same
>> >> > conclusions you had (with the extra one that surely the encryption
>> >> > won't
>> >> > be a problem) and I spent my $5 (actually 4.29 euro) on voxin. Could
>> >> > you
>> >> > enlighten me on the encryption problem?
>> >> >
>> >> >
>> >> > _______________________________________________
>> >> > Speakup mailing list
>> >> > Speakup at braille.uwo.ca
>> >> > http://speech.braille.uwo.ca/mailman/listinfo/speakup
>> >> >
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>> >> >
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>> >> >
>> >> >
>> >>
>> >>
>> >>
>> >
>> > _______________________________________________
>> > Speakup mailing list
>> > Speakup at braille.uwo.ca
>> > http://speech.braille.uwo.ca/mailman/listinfo/speakup
>> >
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>> > signature database 3156 (20080603) __________
>> >
>> > The message was checked by ESET Smart Security.
>> >
>> > http://www.eset.com
>> >
>> >
>>
>>
>>
>
> _______________________________________________
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> Speakup at braille.uwo.ca
> http://speech.braille.uwo.ca/mailman/listinfo/speakup
>
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> signature database 3156 (20080603) __________
>
> The message was checked by ESET Smart Security.
>
> http://www.eset.com
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