Hi, As far as errors on the desktop, try logging in as your regular user from a console, and doing: export DISPLAY=:0 orca If there are any errors, you should be able to see them. HTH, KJ4UFX {.i doi .tcikoritys. mi cuxna ba'e do} On Wed, Feb 01, 2012 at 11:54:11AM -0500, Janina Sajka wrote: > Hi, Marcel: > > Marcel Oats writes: > > Speakup is working fine so far, but even with a USB soundcard also > > connected, when gnome starts, I am unable to even start Orca ( for > > some reason) so how can I tell it to use a different soundcard? > > > > You actually can do quite a bit, though you still might need sighted > assistance if there's some issue on your graphical desktop. > > First, you want to make sure alsa sees both sound cards: > aplay -l > > Both should be listed. Next, make sure you can play audio to the second > card (assuming it's ID is 1): > aplay -D plughw:1 [some-audio.wav] > > I actually keep a wav file in my home directory exactly for testing like > this. It's the only file in my home directory that starts with a > capital G in order to make it possible for me to use tab completion on > the command. > > The next step, imho, or should I say in my experience, is to insure your > audio devices are consistently identified, i.e. which is hw:0, which is > hw:1, which is hw:2, etc. So far I've not needed to learn to write UID > rules, though that's the surest way. Rather, on my Fedora, I open > /etc/modprobe.d/local.conf and put: > > alias snd-card-0 snd-hda-intel > options snd-card-0 index=0 > options snd-hda-intel index=0 > alias snd-card-1 snd-usb-audio > options snd-card-1 index=1 > options snd-usb-audio index=1 > alias snd-card-2 snd-usb-audio > options snd-card-2 index=2 > options snd-usb-audio index=2 > alias snd-card-3 snd-indigo > options snd-card-3 index=3 > options snd-indigo index=3 > alias snd-card-4 snd-pcsp > options snd-card-4 index=4 > options snd-pcsp index=4 > > My 0 device, my Intel 810 is the built in audio device on my Thinkpad. I > have two USB devices. I don't distinguish between them further, because > they reliably load the same each time. If they didn't, I'd have to put > more directives in. My third device is a PCM card. Lastly, I find it > useful to assign the speaker device to a particular ID. Believe it or > not, I've found the speaker loaded as my default audio device on some > boots. Go figure! > > So, this helps keep things consistent, and that's important for reliable > performance. > > For more on what you can put here look at: > http://www.alsa-project.org/main/index.php/Matrix:Module-usb-audio > > BTW: To insure beeps from the speaker you might need to do, as I do on > Fedora, open /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist.conf and comment out the black > listing of the speaker. Here's what's in my file: > > # sound drivers > # #Who cares to do things Fedora's cheap way > #blacklist snd-pcsp > > Now, you start preparing for speech-dispatcher, without pulseaudio, for > Orca. So, you need to get rid of pulseaudio. Best not to uninstall it, > as something will just install it again. It may be overkill, but I do > two things: > > 1.) In /etc/asound.conf I comment out the call to pulse: > #"/etc/alsa/pulse-default.conf" > > > 2.) Next, I trash the pulseaudio binary as follows after becoming > root on my system: > > rm -f /usr/bin/pulseaudio > touch /usr/bin/pulseaudio > chmod 400 /usr/bin/pulseaudio > > Next, you tell Speech Dispatcher to use alsa, and to use the particular > sound device you want Orca speaking through. In your > /etc/speech-dispatcher/speechd.conf, you have two edits to make: > > 1.) Find the part that reads something like: > > # ----- AUDIO CONFIGURATION ----------- > > # -- AUDIO OUTPUT -- > > # Chooses between the possible sound output systems: > # "pulse" - PulseAudio > # "alsa" - Advanced Linux Sound System > # "oss" - Open Sound System > # "nas" - Network Audio System > # "libao" - A cross platform audio library > # Pulse audio is the default and recommended sound server. OSS and ALSA > # are only provided for compatibility with architectures that do not > # include Pulse Audio. NAS provides network transparency, but is not > # very well tested. libao is a cross platform library with plugins for > # different sound systems and provides alternative output for Pulse > # Audio > # and ALSA as well as for other backends. > > AudioOutputMethod "alsa" > > Note that I changed "pulseaudio" to "alsa" in the directive above. > > 2.) Tell which device to use. Find: > > # Audio device for ALSA output > AudioALSADevice "plughw:1,0" > > Note the 1 in hw:1,0 is something I put there. Put the correct ID for > your device at that location. > > Finally, finally, you're ready to configure orca. With your desktop > started, and yourself logged in, do Alt-F2 and type: > > orca -s > > hth > > Janina > > > > > Marcel > > > > > > _______________________________________________ > > Speakup mailing list > > Speakup at braille.uwo.ca > > http://speech.braille.uwo.ca/mailman/listinfo/speakup > > -- > > Janina Sajka, Phone: +1.443.300.2200 > sip:janina at asterisk.rednote.net > > Chair, Open Accessibility janina at a11y.org > Linux Foundation http://a11y.org > > Chair, Protocols & Formats > Web Accessibility Initiative http://www.w3.org/wai/pf > World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) > > _______________________________________________ > Speakup mailing list > Speakup at braille.uwo.ca > http://speech.braille.uwo.ca/mailman/listinfo/speakup