Debian stretch - No speech after installation

[Øyvind Lode]

Hi:

On 2 February 2016 at 02:30, Samuel Thibault
<samuel.thibault at ens-lyon.org> wrote:
> Hello,
>
> So the differences with the installer case are the CD level which is 0,
> you could try to raise it (gods know why it could matter, but well), and
> the Capture level, which is 8 but was 0 in the installer, you could try
> to lower it to 0, in case that matters.
I did that but still no speech.
I even rebooted to start from scratch.

> Apart from that, I'm out of ideas.
Me too!
However, I solved it! :)

I installed brltty via ssh and passed the display to the VM to be able
to read the console.

I logged in on the console and ran a sound test:

$ sound-test -c 2

I could indeed hear sound.

So, this tells me that sound channels is unmuted by the installer or a script.
I actually ran the test just after a reboot without doing anything with amixer.

Ok, I could hear sound but no speech.

What the heck?

So, I thought why don't I just try to restart espeakup?

$ systemctl restart espeakup

Wolla!

Speakup started talking!

I ran apt-get update and apt-get upgrade just to pull in new packages
(I'm running sid after all).

I got updates to some alsa packages.
Since this is a VM and a test machine I simply hit Y and enter.

I lost speech after the upgrade of alsa packages.
I'm not sure to blame the alsa upgrades because I believe there also
were some sound libraries upgraded.

I restarted espeakup again and speech was back.

I have now put the systemctl restart espeakup command in /etc/rc.local.

I have rebooted a couple of times for testing and I get speech every time.

Speakup/eSpeakup starts reading when the login prompt is displayed.

This makes sense since rc.local is started very late in the process.

Thanks!