Help with serial synths in 4.X kernels

[Tony Baechler]

On 2/23/2016 6:31 AM, John G Heim wrote:
> You should check the syslog. There are almost certainly messages in there
> reporting what is happening. I'll try to compile 4.3 kernels for ubuntu and
> debian over the next few days. I had planned to automate the process. Every
> time my ubuntu machines download a new kernel, generate a new patched kernel
> package. I never got around to it though. I was using a sed command to
> comment out the line that caused serial synths to not work so that
> automation was possible. Part of the problem here is that I have kind of
> given up on serial synths myself. I have been depending more and more on the
> combination of a braille display and software speech.  It seems to me that
> using a hardware speech synth is going against the grain these days.


As Karen and others have pointed out, we all have our own personal speech 
preferences. In my case, I have multiple reasons for wanting serial speech 
to work. I find it easier to hear and understand for one thing. There are 
some bugs in the DECtalk Express module which might be easily fixed, but the 
last unpatched kernel I know of that actually worked was 2.6.32 which is no 
longer supported. Anyway, as requested, here is the dmesg output. I don't 
see anything helpful. I did the following:

service espeakup stop
rmmod speakup_soft
modprobe speakup_dectlk
rmmod speakup_dectlk
rmmod speakup
modprobe speakup_soft
espeakup

[   11.336314] r8169 0000:02:00.0 eth0: link up
[   11.336325] IPv6: ADDRCONF(NETDEV_CHANGE): eth0: link becomes ready
[   27.013903] releasing synth soft
[   27.013975] unregistered /dev/softsynth
[   32.824006] speakup: unregistering synth device /dev/synth
[   56.630004] speakup: module is from the staging directory, the quality is 
unknown, you have been warned.
[   56.630896] input: Speakup as /devices/virtual/input/input7
[   56.631031] initialized device: /dev/synth, node (MAJOR 10, MINOR 25)
[   56.631055] speakup 3.1.6: initialized
[   56.631057] synth name on entry is: dectlk
[   56.639855] speakup_dectlk: module is from the staging directory, the 
quality is unknown, you have been warned.
[   56.640036] synth probe
[   56.640039] Ports not available, trying to steal them
[   56.640042] Unable to allocate port at 3f8, errno -16
[   56.640044] Dectalk Express: not found
[   56.640045] dectlk: device probe failed
[   67.012005] speakup: unregistering synth device /dev/synth
[   70.985966] speakup: module is from the staging directory, the quality is 
unknown, you have been warned.
[   70.986851] input: Speakup as /devices/virtual/input/input8
[   70.986983] initialized device: /dev/synth, node (MAJOR 10, MINOR 25)
[   70.987006] speakup 3.1.6: initialized
[   70.987008] synth name on entry is: dectlk
[   70.987055] speakup_soft: module is from the staging directory, the 
quality is unknown, you have been warned.
[   70.987193] synth probe
[   70.987230] initialized device: /dev/softsynth, node (MAJOR 10, MINOR 26)