Hi Will. If you are doing things in the correct order, then the sftsyn keyword should work. First of all, you should have created the the softsynth device with major number 10 and minor number 26. Next, as you said, you need to have speech dispatcher up and running, and configured for the synthesizer you wish to use. Thirdly, you echo the sftsyn keyword to the /proc/speakup/synth_name proc system entry. Finally, the last thing to do is run speechd_up. At this point the synthesizer should start talking, provided your sound card is working properly. If you've done all these things, and still get no results, then look in /var/log/speech-dispatcher to see the messages in the speech-dispatcher log file, and in /var/log/speechd-up to see the messages in the speechd-up log file. These two logs should give you a clue about what is going on. Gene >On 20/06/05, Gene Collins <collins at gene3.ait.iastate.edu> wrote: >> Hi. Try reading the Speakup User's Guide from the Speakup site at >> http://linux-speakup.org. It's the third link down on the page. >>=20 >> Gene >Been there done that. Is there anything specific in the guide that >seems amiss? I believe that I've used the guide properly to conform to >my kernel.