I believe Bill's found the source of the problem at least for Fedora users: https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=799137 As I read this bug Fedora hard-locked pulseaudio in order to keep the Fedora Live image within limits for a CD ROM. Unfortunately, we weren't tracking this bug so didn't speak up on behalf of Speakup users. Of course, there's no gurantee it would have mattered. However, my reading of the comments in this bug suggests that it is possible to compile Espeak to support all the "backend" options. So, I guess we need to have a Speakup Modified compile of Espeak. PS: My reading of the comments tends also to confirm my assertion that this builtin "backend" support is indeed a design flaw in Espeak. Though, as Willem has pointed out, not necessarily easily fixed. Janina Willem van der Walt writes: > The idea is that one of the options allow to build espeak so that it > will use pulse if it is running, but if not, fall back on alsa. > The way espeak is written, it might not be that easy to make this > configurable at runtime. > Under Vinux which is a derivitive of Ubuntu, I ripped out > pulseaudio and still have a talking orca, but as I normally live at > the console, it has not seen much testing. > > On Tue, 24 Jul 2012, Janina Sajka wrote: > > >Thanks, Willem, this is helpful info. > > > >However, isn't this a design flaw? Why is there an "always" about this > >in the first place? At the very least, shouldn't this be a run time > >configuration option and not a builtin? > > > >In the screen reader world we're in the position of wanting alsa for > >speakup, but pulseaudio for speech-dispatcher and orca these days. As > >best as I can figure, from having poked around on this issue recently, > >it should be possible to do this. Am I wrong? Isn't that what the > >pulseaudio utility pasuspender is all about? > > > >Janina > > > >Willem van der Walt writes: > >>Hi, > >>Last time I looked, this was configurable in the make file. > >>You can compile espeak such that it would always use alsa. > >>HTH, Willem > >> > >> > >>On Mon, 23 Jul 2012, Janina Sajka wrote: > >> > >>>The latest Espeak I have, version 1.46.02, appears to insist on using > >>>pulse audio if it finds pulse installed on the system. In other words, > >>>commands like: > >>> > >>>pasuspender espeak hello > >>> > >>>do not have the intended effect. > >>> > >>>This is wrong, very wrong. And, it wreaks havoc between Speakup and > >>>Orca. Where to direct audio output should at least be a configurable > >>>option, but most certainly not the result of some inbuilt huristic. > >>> > >>>Janina > >>> > >>>_______________________________________________ > >>>Speakup mailing list > >>>Speakup at braille.uwo.ca > >>>http://speech.braille.uwo.ca/mailman/listinfo/speakup > >>> > >>>-- > >>>This message is subject to the CSIR's copyright terms and conditions, e-mail legal notice, and implemented Open Document Format (ODF) standard. > >>>The full disclaimer details can be found at http://www.csir.co.za/disclaimer.html. > >>> > >>>This message has been scanned for viruses and dangerous content by MailScanner, > >>>and is believed to be clean. > >>> > >>>Please consider the environment before printing this email. > >>> > >>> > >>_______________________________________________ > >>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 > > Email: janina at rednote.net > > > >The Linux Foundation > >Chair, Open Accessibility: http://a11y.org > > > >The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI) > >Chair, Protocols & Formats http://www.w3.org/wai/pf > > Indie UI http://www.w3.org/WAI/IndieUI/ > > > >_______________________________________________ > >Speakup mailing list > >Speakup at braille.uwo.ca > >http://speech.braille.uwo.ca/mailman/listinfo/speakup > > > >-- > >This message is subject to the CSIR's copyright terms and conditions, e-mail legal notice, and implemented Open Document Format (ODF) standard. > >The full disclaimer details can be found at http://www.csir.co.za/disclaimer.html. > > > >This message has been scanned for viruses and dangerous content by MailScanner, > >and is believed to be clean. > > > >Please consider the environment before printing this email. > > > > > _______________________________________________ > 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 Email: janina at rednote.net The Linux Foundation Chair, Open Accessibility: http://a11y.org The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI) Chair, Protocols & Formats http://www.w3.org/wai/pf Indie UI http://www.w3.org/WAI/IndieUI/
