Espeakup and Speech-Dispatcher-git--Fighting again?

Sat Mar 23 18:49:06 EDT 2019

Hi Again, Didier:

Speaking of late Saturday, I suspect it's Sunday for you by now! <grin>

I think you're correct that I've been misunderstanding libao. In any
case having the plughw:1 in the alsa stanza wasn't harming anything.

I'm currently booted with speech-dispatcher using also, so that
directive may actually be working. It's also possible, of course, that
it's just the next available card, because espeakup is definitely using
plughw:0, so :0 is locked up tight for espeak's use. That makes :1 the
next available card.

In my /etc/asound.conf I have the default set for hw:2, because linphone
is no longer allowing me to specify the particular alsa device that is
my headset.

Best,

Janina

Didier Spaier writes:
> Hi Janina
> 
> Setting these two directives like this in speechd.conf won't ever work,
> I think:
> AudioOutputMethod "libao"
> AudioALSADevice "plughw:1"
> 
> In the first one you tell to use the libao audio output, but
> the second one is only used if you use the alsa audio output instead
> if I understand well.
> 
> If initially the card # 1 used with speech-dispatcher thte is because
> of some other setting, I think. I don't know which one, you will
> need to a look ayour Arch configuration and sercice files to
> find oouT.
> 
> So if you use the libao output (libao using in turn its alsa backend,
> I assume), you will have to find another way to set the card to use
> for speech managed by speech-dispatcher, than to do this setting in
> speechd.conf.
> 
> One of the possibility would be a setting in /etc/asound.conf or
> in ~/.asoundrc
> 
> Oh, and you can't take the config file I sent you as is and hope
> it will work in Arch, as the settings in it have to be read by
> some script managing espeakup. This is the case in Slint but
> not in Arch. So if you want to use these settings in Arch you
> will have to find out by why script they should be used,
> and maybe modify it to read them.
> 
> I can't resist to suggest that you try Slint instead <smile>.
> 
> Best,
> 
> Didier
> 
> PS I received the answer from Cris while typing. But I don't
> think our answers contradict each other, fortunately. 	
> 
> On 23/03/2019 20:20, Janina Sajka wrote:
> > Hi, Didier:
> > 
> > Once again you're providing some very helpful guidance. Thank you so
> > very much for that.
> > 
> > Yes, I'm using arch, but I'm the other way around from what you're
> > saying. I'm using speech-dispatcher-git, but only the espeakup release
> > at the moment. The reason is that the current speech-dispatcher relase
> > isn't correctly accepting an alsa card designation, i.e. it won't honor
> > these two directives in speechd.conf:
> > 
> 
> > 
> > I am now going to put your espeakup script in place on my machine and
> > try a reboot. I will report.
> > 
> > Thank you for this script. I wasn't aware all these directives could be
> > included. This should solve my problem, I hope! <grin>
> > 
> > Janina
> > 
> > Didier Spaier writes:
> >> Hi Janina,
> >>
> >> IIRC you are running Arch. Right?
> >>
> >> If yes, looking at the PKGBUILD I see that it grabs a snapshot from
> >> git at the commit d25ed10d dated 22 nov. 2018:
> >> https://github.com/brailcom/speechd/commit/d25ed10d5ede8c0f747211928fbd5f742d753556
> >>
> >> So I am puzzled that you just get it, knowing the PKGBUILD was last updated
> >> on 24. Nov. 2018...
> >>
> >> So, I can't see a reason for speech-dispatcher be in concern for an issue
> >> occurring this week.
> >>
> >> And espeakup-git (if that's what you use) was last updated on
> >> 2019-01-03 18:14.
> >>
> >> So I am puzzled. I don't know what happened recently, but this issue should be
> >> reported to your distribution rather than to upstream IMHO.
> >>
> >> Also, a tip: you can set ALSA_CARD before starting espeakup, it will
> >> honor this setting. This how we now do in Slint, cf. attached file
> >> /etc/espeakup.conf.
> >>
> >> To know which files are involved in Arch, have a look at the bottom
> >> of https://aur.archlinux.org/cgit/aur.git/tree/PKGBUILD?h=espeakup-git
> >>
> >> Sorry I can't provide further guidance, not running Arch.
> >>
> >> Best,
> >>
> >> Didier
> >>
> >>
> >> On 22/03/2019 15:43, Janina Sajka wrote:
> >>> I tend to update globally about once a week, usually on Fridays. With
> >>> today's update of Speech-Dispatcher-git Espeakup is broken.
> >>>
> >>> 1.)	I boot to a console login. Works as expected. Speakup speaks
> >>> with Espeak on hw:0. Yes, I'm using alsa, not pulse.
> >>>
> >>> 2.)	I launch the graphical desktop with startx and Orca comes up
> >>> over Speech-Dispatcher using libao on hw:1 as specified in speechd.conf.
> >>>
> >>> 3.)	Switching back to any console, speech is gone. Doing a systemctl
> >>> restart espeakup puts speech on hw:2.
> >>>
> >>> This is bonkers.
> >>>
> >>> PS: Isn't it time we could control what device the soft synth driver
> >>> speaks to with a configuration option? Perhaps an additional parameter
> >>> in /etc/conf.d/espeakup?
> >>>
> >>> Or is it supposed to be in /etc/speakup/espeakup?
> >>>
> >>> Both those configs say basically the same thing, but they're not
> >>> symlinked. Why?
> >>>
> > 

-- 

Janina Sajka

Linux Foundation Fellow
Executive Chair, Accessibility Workgroup:	http://a11y.org

The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI)
Chair, Accessible Platform Architectures	http://www.w3.org/wai/apa