Speech dispatcher, speechd-up and DECtalk.

Speech dispatcher, speechd-up and DECtalk.

[Luke Yelavich]

Hi all.
I am using DECtalk software with speech dispatcher, speechd-up and speakup.
it works fine, but for one small problem.

I am unable to load everything from one script, I.E speech-dispatcher gets
loaded first, then speakup, and then speechd_up. When run from a script, DECtalk
does not speak, however when loaded by hand, it comes up talking with no
apparent problems.

I have tried adding small sleep periods and large ones, to what seems like no
avail.

Suggestions welcome.

Thanks

Luke

Re: Speech dispatcher, speechd-up and DECtalk.

[Chuck Hallenbeck]

Luke,
If the script in which it does not work is run prior to your normal
login, make sure the path is not the problem. Some of those utilities
are located in /usr/local/bin, and sometimes bootup scripts do not have
access to that directory. To be sure, include the explicit path to the
utilities in the script and not just the utility names.

Chuck




-- 
The Moon is Waning Gibbous (88% of Full)
Home page at http://www.mhcable.com/~chuckh
Speakfreely address 24.105.197.112:2074

Re: Speech dispatcher, speechd-up and DECtalk.

[Luke Yelavich]

On Sat, Oct 02, 2004 at 10:18:28AM EST, Chuck Hallenbeck wrote:
> Luke,
> If the script in which it does not work is run prior to your normal
> login, make sure the path is not the problem. Some of those utilities
> are located in /usr/local/bin, and sometimes bootup scripts do not have
> access to that directory. To be sure, include the explicit path to the
> utilities in the script and not just the utility names.

No, it is run after login, and I am aware of the path issues. Everything loads
with no problem it seems, but DECtalk simply doesn't speak.

Luke

Re: Speech dispatcher, speechd-up and DECtalk.

[Janina Sajka]

Hi, Luke:

I don't know about how to get this all into one script.

But, you have been successful where I haven't. Do you mind sharing your
DEC Talk configuration? the file under /usr/local/etc?

Also, are you using speech-dispatcher-0.5?

Luke Yelavich writes:
> Hi all.
> I am using DECtalk software with speech dispatcher, speechd-up and speakup.
> it works fine, but for one small problem.
> 
> I am unable to load everything from one script, I.E speech-dispatcher gets
> loaded first, then speakup, and then speechd_up. When run from a script, DECtalk
> does not speak, however when loaded by hand, it comes up talking with no
> apparent problems.
> 
> I have tried adding small sleep periods and large ones, to what seems like no
> avail.
> 
> Suggestions welcome.
> 
> Thanks
> 
> Luke
> 
> _______________________________________________
> Speakup mailing list
> Speakup@braille.uwo.ca
> http://speech.braille.uwo.ca/mailman/listinfo/speakup

-- 
	
				Janina Sajka, Chair
				Accessibility Workgroup
				Free Standards Group (FSG)

janina@freestandards.org	Phone: +1 202.494.7040

Re: Speech dispatcher, speechd-up and DECtalk.

[Luke Yelavich]

On Sun, Oct 03, 2004 at 12:15:47AM EST, Janina Sajka wrote:
> Hi, Luke:
> 
> I don't know about how to get this all into one script.
> 
> But, you have been successful where I haven't. Do you mind sharing your
> DEC Talk configuration? the file under /usr/local/etc?

Ok, here is a quick step by step procedure that I followed when setting up
DECtalk with speech-dispatcher and speakup. This assumes that you have your
sound card set up and working properly.

1. Install the DECtalk software and ensure it is functioning. If you are
installing DECtalk 5, there is a slight problem at the end of the install
script, so as root, run ldconfig. The say utility that comes with DECtalk is
the best way of testing it. Simply run Say, and type something. You should hear
DECtalk speak.
2. If you haven't already, get speech-dispatcher from whereever is best, or
check whether your distro has it packaged. I know Debian has it.
3. Find the speechd.conf file. If you built speech-dispatcher from source,
you are likely to find it in /usr/local/etc/speech-dispatcher, if you didn't
give the configuration any other options. If you installed a distro package,
then this will be found in /etc/speech-dispatcher.
4. Load up the configuration file in your favourite editor, and locate the
several lines that start with AddModule, which are all grouped together.
5. Add the following line under the others:
AddModule "dtk-generic"  "sd_generic"   "dtk-generic.conf"
6. Locate the line DefaultModule. It should have flite after it, as
speech-dispatcher needs flite to be built, and uses flite by default.
7. Remove the word flite, and put dtk-generic in it's place.
8. Now you will have to obtain speechd-up from the freebsoft CVS server, as
there are no tarball relesaes at this time. You must firstly install cvs before
this can be carried out. Just about all distros carry cvs, so grab it, and
install it.
9. Find somewhere to store the speechd-up, for example your home directory, and
type the following:
cvs -d:pserver:anonymous@cvs.freebsoft.org:/var/lib/cvs login
When asked for the password, just press enter. If this is the first time using
CVS, you will get an error message about .cvspass not existing in your home
directory, but this is fine. To get the source, type the following:
cvs -d:pserver:anonymous@cvs.freebsoft.org:/var/lib/cvs -z3 co speechd-up
You should notice a stream of filenames as the source code is downloaded. Once
this has finished, you will have a new directory, speechd-up.
10. To perform the next step, you will need to make sure you have both autoconf
and automake installed. Most distros have these, if not all of them, so go and
install it if they aren't on your system. You will also need gcc if you haven't
got it installed already.
11. Go into the speechd-up directory and type ./build.sh. This will create
the necessary files needed to actually build the source. You will know if this
has worked, as you should get the following message:
You can continue configuring and compiling speechd-up with
./configure && make all && make install
If this doesn't work however, it can depend on several things. Feel free to
email the speakup list if you want help.
12. Run ./configure, make, and then as root, make install. If this works, you
now have speechd-up on your system.
13. Load speech-dispatcher. This can be done simply by running
speech-dispatcher. YOu then need to either load and change, or change Speakup
to use the speakup_sftsyn driver. Once this is done, type speechd-up. If all
went well, you should hear DECtalk speaking to you.

Thisi is certainly not complete in terms of scenarios for configuration and
building etc, but it is basically what one has to do to get all this stuff
working. If people are interested, I may even write a HOWTO on how to do this,
with other info like changing the Speakup driver, etc.

> 
> Also, are you using speech-dispatcher-0.5?

I am using speech-dispatcher 0.4.1, although I can see 0.5 is in the rc stage,
which is a good thing I guess.

Luke

Re: Speech dispatcher, speechd-up and DECtalk.

[Hynek Hanke]

On Fri, Oct 01, 2004 at 08:18:28PM -0400, Chuck Hallenbeck wrote:
> Luke,
> If the script in which it does not work is run prior to your normal
> login, make sure the path is not the problem. Some of those utilities
> are located in /usr/local/bin, and sometimes bootup scripts do not have
> access to that directory. To be sure, include the explicit path to the
> utilities in the script and not just the utility names.

Also, get sure that the soundcard is already up and running.
Try to insert some play something.wav to the beginning of the
script.

With Regards,
Hynek Hanke

Re: Speech dispatcher, speechd-up and DECtalk.

[Chuck Hallenbeck]

Hynek,

Also, if speechdispatcher is run in a bootup script with the explicit
path specified to it, there may still be a path problem. The
dtk-generic file invokes "say" without a path specification, so once
again a potential path problem arises. Two solutions occur to me:

1. modify dtk-generic to include the path to "say" at the invocation
point; or

2. in the top level script which invokes speechdispatcher, include
something like this

PATH=$PATH:/usr/local/bin
so that wherever speechdispatcher might have been installed, it will
know how to find "say" even if it appears by name only.

Chuck

On Sun, 3 Oct 2004, Hynek Hanke wrote:

> On Fri, Oct 01, 2004 at 08:18:28PM -0400, Chuck Hallenbeck wrote:
>> Luke,
>> If the script in which it does not work is run prior to your normal
>> login, make sure the path is not the problem. Some of those utilities
>> are located in /usr/local/bin, and sometimes bootup scripts do not have
>> access to that directory. To be sure, include the explicit path to the
>> utilities in the script and not just the utility names.
>
> Also, get sure that the soundcard is already up and running.
> Try to insert some play something.wav to the beginning of the
> script.
>
> With Regards,
> Hynek Hanke
>
> _______________________________________________
> Speakup mailing list
> Speakup@braille.uwo.ca
> http://speech.braille.uwo.ca/mailman/listinfo/speakup
>

-- 
The Moon is Waning Gibbous (77% of Full)
Home page at http://www.mhcable.com/~chuckh
Speakfreely address 24.105.197.112:2074

Re: Speech dispatcher, speechd-up and DECtalk.

[Luke Yelavich]

On Sun, Oct 03, 2004 at 07:48:47PM EST, Chuck Hallenbeck wrote:
> Hynek,
> 
> Also, if speechdispatcher is run in a bootup script with the explicit
> path specified to it, there may still be a path problem. The
> dtk-generic file invokes "say" without a path specification, so once
> again a potential path problem arises. Two solutions occur to me:
> 
> 1. modify dtk-generic to include the path to "say" at the invocation
> point; or

Good idea.

> 2. in the top level script which invokes speechdispatcher, include
> something like this
> 
> PATH=$PATH:/usr/local/bin
> so that wherever speechdispatcher might have been installed, it will
> know how to find "say" even if it appears by name only.

I might add these modification myself, and see if that makes a difference.

Luke

Re: Speech dispatcher, speechd-up and DECtalk.

[Luke Yelavich]

On Sun, Oct 03, 2004 at 07:36:06PM EST, Hynek Hanke wrote:
> On Fri, Oct 01, 2004 at 08:18:28PM -0400, Chuck Hallenbeck wrote:
> > Luke,
> > If the script in which it does not work is run prior to your normal
> > login, make sure the path is not the problem. Some of those utilities
> > are located in /usr/local/bin, and sometimes bootup scripts do not have
> > access to that directory. To be sure, include the explicit path to the
> > utilities in the script and not just the utility names.
> 
> Also, get sure that the soundcard is already up and running.
> Try to insert some play something.wav to the beginning of the
> script.

I usually run my speakup script by hand, as I have some site so I can see what
is going on, however this problem still occurs.

Luke