Is it possible to get Via Voice talking on a Debian System with alsa?

Is it possible to get Via Voice talking on a Debian System with alsa?

[gena-j]

Hi

Well the subject line says it all.

Is it possible to get Via Voice talking on a Debian System with alsa?

I used alien to convert the rpm's to deb's.  I needed to get an old
debian package to provide a library.  The package required was:
 
libstdc++2.9-glibc2.1_2.91.66-4.deb

Having done this and ammended the /etc/profile file accordingly, I still
get the following error:

Could not create ECI handle. Check installation.
Possible causes:
        IBM ViaVoice TTS RTK has not been installed on this machine.
        no exported ECIINI variable in /etc/profile.
        eci.ini file not in path referenced by ECIINI, nor in current
directory.        eci.ini corrupted.
        library /usr/lib/libibmeci50.so corrupted or missing.
        language files referenced in eci.ini file corrupted or missing.
Re-install IBM ViaVoice TTS RTK.
magnolia:/usr/lib/ViaVoiceTTS/samples/cmdlinespeak#

Any ideas?

Cheers

Gena

__________________________________________________________
Using the freedom of Debian GNU Linux

Re: Is it possible to get Via Voice talking on a Debian System with alsa?

[Jacob Schmude]

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Hi
You need to generate the eci.ini file. This can be done with the inigen program included with the ViaVoice RTK. The command would look something like 
this:
/usr/lib/ViaVoiceOutlout/bin/inigen /usr/lib/enu50.so /home/user/eci.ini
where user is the name of the user which will use ViaVoice. Then, in that user's .bash_profile, put something like:
export ECIINI=/home/user/eci.ini
Note that an absolute path must be used, $HOME will not work for whatever reason. The reason you want to put the eci.ini file in the user's home directory 
is that ViaVoice needs to write to it. That'll clear up that particular error message.
However, ViaVoice and ALSA don't tend to get along.  I've never been able to make it work, I think it depends on what kind of card you have, your kernel 
version and other things depending on your system. If you're lucky, you'll be one of the few who makes it work with alsa. If it doesn't, short of using either an 
OSS/Free or a commercial OSS driver, there's not much you can do about it. IBM has discontinued it and no longer updates it, and it's riddled with bugs. 
One of the main bugs is that it seems to segfault after using it for around 20 minutes or so. My advise is either get used to the sound of one of the free 
software synths or buy the linux software dectalk, which runs fine under alsa and is compatible with emacspeak, yasr and gnopernicus. Only disadvantage 
of that is, of course, that you have to pay for it.
Speakup developers, any plans to include a software dectalk driver?
On Thu, 31 Jul 2003 17:42:32 +0100, gena-j@ntlworld.com wrote:

>Hi

>Well the subject line says it all.

>Is it possible to get Via Voice talking on a Debian System with alsa?



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Re: Is it possible to get Via Voice talking on a Debian System with alsa?

[Vortek, Eater of Souls!]

hey,
I'm just wondering where everyone is even getting the via voice rpms.
I tried searching for hours and hit nothing but dead ends.
If anyone can send them to me, I'd appriciate it.

Jim


Jacob Schmude wrote:

>  Hi
> You need to generate the eci.ini file. This can be done with the
> inigen program included with the ViaVoice RTK. The command would look
> something like this:
> /usr/lib/ViaVoiceOutlout/bin/inigen /usr/lib/enu50.so
> /home/user/eci.ini
> where user is the name of the user which will use ViaVoice. Then, in
> that user's .bash_profile, put something like:
> export ECIINI=/home/user/eci.ini
> Note that an absolute path must be used, $HOME will not work for
> whatever reason. The reason you want to put the eci.ini file in the
> user's home directory is that ViaVoice needs to write to it. That'll
> clear up that particular error message.
> However, ViaVoice and ALSA don't tend to get along. I've never been
> able to make it work, I think it depends on what kind of card you
> have, your kernel version and other things depending on your system.
> If you're lucky, you'll be one of the few who makes it work with alsa.
> If it doesn't, short of using either an OSS/Free or a commercial OSS
> driver, there's not much you can do about it. IBM has discontinued it
> and no longer updates it, and it's riddled with bugs. One of the main
> bugs is that it seems to segfault after using it for around 20 minutes
> or so. My advise is either get used to the sound of one of the free
> software synths or buy the linux software dectalk, which runs fine
> under alsa and is compatible with emacspeak, yasr and gnopernicus.
> Only disadvantage of that is, of course, that you have to pay for it.
> Speakup developers, any plans to include a software dectalk driver?
> On Thu, 31 Jul 2003 17:42:32 +0100, gena-j@ntlworld.com wrote:
>
> >Hi
> >
> >Well the subject line says it all.
> >
> >Is it possible to get Via Voice talking on a Debian System with alsa?
>
> >

Re: Is it possible to get Via Voice talking on a Debian System with alsa?

[Christopher Moore]

Jim,
Send money!

IBM took them off the net because it isn't being supported.  But many
people have copies floating around.

Chris

Re: Is it possible to get Via Voice talking on a Debian System with alsa?

[Christopher Moore]

Gena,
I don't like to be the bearer or bad news, but ViaVoice doesn't work on
many systems especially when using alsa.  Before spending time debugging
your problem it would be a good idea to find someone with the same
soundcard who is successfully using viavoice.  For example, if you have an
SBLive card, viavoice works with the emu10k1 driver distributed with the
kernel but does not work with alsa.  

If you're looking for software speech, you'd be safer with festival, flite
or the software dectalk from fonix.com.

Chris

Re: Is it possible to get Via Voice talking on a Debian System with alsa?

[gena-j]

Hi

Thanks to all of you who offered your views on my request.  I'd
purchased Dectalk rt for  linux and I wanted to see if I could get
ViaVoice to work.  I didn't realise how buggy it had been for those who
had managed to over the old libraries etc.  Nor did I suspect that
anyone had tried with the latest alsa version.  Afterall, some of the
bugs were not down to ViaVoice but to alsa.

I'd still like to try to see if it'll work on this system that's
currently using alsa 0.9.5 to drive a Sound Blaster Live but it'll have
to wait.

Cheers.

Gena

>Hi
>
>Well the subject line says it all.
>
>Is it possible to get Via Voice talking on a Debian System with alsa?
>
>I used alien to convert the rpm's to deb's.  I needed to get an old
>debian package to provide a library.  The package required was:
> 
>libstdc++2.9-glibc2.1_2.91.66-4.deb
>
>Having done this and ammended the /etc/profile file accordingly, I still
>get the following error:
>
>Could not create ECI handle. Check installation.
>Possible causes:
>        IBM ViaVoice TTS RTK has not been installed on this machine.
>        no exported ECIINI variable in /etc/profile.
>        eci.ini file not in path referenced by ECIINI, nor in current
>directory.        eci.ini corrupted.
>        library /usr/lib/libibmeci50.so corrupted or missing.
>        language files referenced in eci.ini file corrupted or missing.
>Re-install IBM ViaVoice TTS RTK.
>magnolia:/usr/lib/ViaVoiceTTS/samples/cmdlinespeak#
>
>Any ideas?
>
>Cheers
>
>Gena
>
>__________________________________________________________
>Using the freedom of Debian GNU Linux
>
>_______________________________________________
>Speakup mailing list
>Speakup@braille.uwo.ca
>http://speech.braille.uwo.ca/mailman/listinfo/speakup