speech-dispatcher and espeak

[Christopher Moore]

Kyle and Steve,

I'd still like to get this pulseaudio working because they have it working in ubuntu.  

I currently have a pulse server running and get the following output from spd-conf

Do you want to test the Espeak synthesizer now? [yes] :
>yes
Testing whether Espeak works
ALSA lib pcm.c:2211:(snd_pcm_open_noupdate) Unknown PCM cards.pcm.rear
ALSA lib pcm.c:2211:(snd_pcm_open_noupdate) Unknown PCM cards.pcm.center_lfe
ALSA lib pcm.c:2211:(snd_pcm_open_noupdate) Unknown PCM cards.pcm.side
ALSA lib setup.c:344:(snd_config_get_ctl_elem_value) bad value type
ALSA lib pcm.c:2211:(snd_pcm_open_noupdate) Unknown PCM cards.pcm.hdmi
ALSA lib pcm.c:2211:(snd_pcm_open_noupdate) Unknown PCM cards.pcm.hdmi
ALSA lib pcm.c:2211:(snd_pcm_open_noupdate) Unknown PCM cards.pcm.modem
ALSA lib pcm.c:2211:(snd_pcm_open_noupdate) Unknown PCM cards.pcm.modem
ALSA lib pcm.c:2211:(snd_pcm_open_noupdate) Unknown PCM cards.pcm.phoneline
ALSA lib pcm.c:2211:(snd_pcm_open_noupdate) Unknown PCM cards.pcm.phoneline
ALSA lib pcm_dmix.c:957:(snd_pcm_dmix_open) The dmix plugin supports only playba
Espeak is installed
Do you want to test the ALSA sound system now? [yes] :
>yes
Testing ALSA sound output
Playing WAVE '/usr/share/sounds/speech-dispatcher/test.wav' : Signed 16 bit Litt
Did you hear the sound? [yes] :
>
Audio output 'alsa' works
Do you want to test the Pulse Audio sound system now? [yes] :
>
Testing PULSE sound output
Did you hear the sound? [yes] :
>
Audio output 'pulse' works
Testing whether Python Speech Dispatcher library is in path and importable


Diagnostics results:
Speech Dispatcher not working through spd-say
Synthesizers that were tested and seem to work: ['espeak']
Audio systems that were tested and seem to work: ['alsa', 'pulse']
Python Speech Dispatcher module is importable
End of diagnostics results

The lines beginning with "ALSA lib" may be coming from spd-say (but I'm not certain of this).

If you take a look at the arch wiki pulseaudio page, they tell you how to run pulseaudio.  The idea is to get all your apps to funnel output into 
pulseaudio server.  In the case of alsa, you install a /etc/alsa.conf which essentially reroutes all alsa output to pulse.
So if your alsa apps such as espeakup are coded correctly, 
you should hear output whether your pulse server is running or not.
Currently, with my pulse server running I get no speech from espeakup and tons of error messages.  
However, by installing the portaudio-git package, I get speech output from the espeak command.

Kyle, do you have orca and gnome running?  If so, how do you get apps like rhythmbox to work without pulseaudio?

Chris M