speech dispatcher not connecting to alsa

[Rob Hill]

Hello Mitchell,

Thanks for your help.

Alsa-oss has been installed all along, and my user account is a member
of the audio group.  I haven't tried ssh'ing from another machine, but
I have tried using spd-say from a console, via emacspeak or typing
blind without emacs running, and it doesn't work.

Back to the drawing-board.

Regards,

Rob



Mitchell Smith writes:
 > Hi,
 > 
 > I suspect gnome-speech is trying to use OSS and tying up your sound card. 
 > Make sure you have installed the alsa-oss package which might help resolve 
 > this matter.
 > 
 > If you have a second system available, try quitting Orca entirely and then 
 > ssh in from another box and run spd-say from the command prompt.
 > 
 > Also, make sure your user is a member of the audio group in /etc/group.
 > 
 > I hope this helps.
 > 
 > Cheers,
 > 
 > Mitch
 > 
 > 
 > ----- Original Message ----- 
 > From: "Rob Hill" <robhill at es.co.nz>
 > To: < speechd at lists.freebsoft.org>
 > Sent: Tuesday, January 13, 2009 12:12 PM
 > Subject: speech dispatcher not connecting to alsa
 > 
 > 
 > > Hello list,
 > >
 > > I've as yet been unable to get orca working with speech dispatcher  on 
 > > Intrepid.
 > > I've tried permutations of system and user setup, different output
 > > modules etc to no avail.  A typical output of the
 > > var/log/speech-dispatcher/espeak.log file is:
 > >
 > > Tue Jan 13 14:49:13 2009 [528318] ALSA: Opening ALSA sound output
 > > Tue Jan 13 14:49:13 2009 [528379] ALSA: Opening ALSA device
 > > ALSA lib pcm.c:2196:(snd_pcm_open_noupdate) Unknown PCM pcm.dmixer
 > > Tue Jan 13 14:49:13 2009 [531909] ALSA ERROR: Cannot open audio device 
 > > pcm.dmixer (No such file or directory)
 > > Tue Jan 13 14:49:13 2009 [531937] ALSA ERROR: Cannot initialize Alsa 
 > > device 'pcm.dmixer': Can't open.
 > >
 > >
 > > I usually hear the dummy module message.  My setup is as follows:
 > >
 > > I have disabled pulseaudio according to the method given at:
 > >
 > > http://idyllictux.wordpress.com/2008/10/29/alsa-instead-of-pulseaudio-for-ubuntu-810-intrepid-a-non-destructive-way/
 > >
 > > with all tabs in preferences-sounds-devices set to alsa, and all
 > > system sounds disabled.  I use emacspeak from a console, with voxin
 > > (ibmtts) and flite, which work perfectly.  When I use orca, it is via
 > > espeak, which at the moment is very sluggish, but which does work via
 > > gnome speech.  I use a .asoundrc file taken from the emacspeak
 > > distribution, but removing it has no effect on whether speech
 > > dispatcher works.
 > >
 > > I tried to install speech-dispatcher by installing the speech-dispatcher
 > > and python-speechd packages, then using spd-conf.
 > >
 > > So the problem seems to be getting speech dispatcher to connect to
 > > alsa.  All other audio on my system works fine, though.
 > >
 > > any help appreciated.
 > >
 > > Thanks,
 > >
 > > Rob
 > >
 > > _______________________________________________
 > > Speechd mailing list
 > > Speechd at lists.freebsoft.org
 > > http://lists.freebsoft.org/mailman/listinfo/speechd
 > > 
 > 
 > 
 > 
 >