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#1 2022-11-30 11:27:45

D3vil0p3r
Member
Registered: 2022-11-05
Posts: 167

orca - how to install and configure correctly in Arch Linux

Hello,
I'm using a clean Arch Linux (latest) with GNOME as DE and I'm trying to test orca for its useful features for accessibility to people with some sight defects.

When I installed Arch Linux with GNOME, the speech-dispatcher and orca come already with it.

The problem is that, when I run orca by terminal (with no sudo), I listen a voice saying "it seems your speech dispatcher is working, but none of it sound [inaudible] except me. Please check out your log file to see what is the problem is." and then asks me to check the log file located at "/run/user/1000/speech-dispatcher/log/speech-dispatcher.log" that has the following content:

[Wed Nov 30 10:42:27 2022 : 944084] speechd:   Speech Dispatcher Logging to file /run/user/1000/speech-dispatcher/log//speech-dispatcher.log
[Wed Nov 30 10:42:27 2022 : 944190] speechd:  Configuration has been read from "/etc/speech-dispatcher/speechd.conf"
[Wed Nov 30 10:42:27 2022 : 944240] speechd:   couldn't open directory /home/athena/.local/share/../libexec/speech-dispatcher-modules because of error No such file or directory

[Wed Nov 30 10:42:28 2022 : 133230] speechd:   couldn't open directory /usr/lib/speech-dispatcher-modules because of error No such file or directory

[Wed Nov 30 10:42:28 2022 : 133274] speechd:  Initializing output module festival with binary /usr/lib/speech-dispatcher/speech-dispatcher-modules/sd_festival and configuration /etc/speech-dispatcher/modules/festival.conf
[Wed Nov 30 10:42:28 2022 : 133280] speechd:   Output module is logging to file /run/user/1000/speech-dispatcher/log//festival.log
[Wed Nov 30 10:42:28 2022 : 134726] speechd:  Module festival loaded.
[Wed Nov 30 10:42:28 2022 : 138949] speechd: ERROR: Module festival failed to initialize. Reason: 
---------------
Communicating with Festival through a socket. Can't connect to Festival server. Check your configuration in etc/speech-dispatcher/modules/festival.conf for the specified host and port and check if Festival is really running there, e.g. with telnet. Please see documentation for more info.
---------------

[Wed Nov 30 10:42:28 2022 : 139063] speechd:  Initializing output module espeak-ng-mbrola with binary /usr/lib/speech-dispatcher/speech-dispatcher-modules/sd_espeak-ng-mbrola and configuration /etc/speech-dispatcher/modules/espeak-ng-mbrola.conf
[Wed Nov 30 10:42:28 2022 : 139071] speechd:   Output module is logging to file /run/user/1000/speech-dispatcher/log//espeak-ng-mbrola.log
[Wed Nov 30 10:42:28 2022 : 139506] speechd:  Module espeak-ng-mbrola loaded.
[Wed Nov 30 10:42:28 2022 : 142080] speechd: ERROR: Bad syntax from output module espeak-ng-mbrola 1
[Wed Nov 30 10:42:28 2022 : 142126] speechd:  Initializing output module espeak-ng with binary /usr/lib/speech-dispatcher/speech-dispatcher-modules/sd_espeak-ng and configuration /etc/speech-dispatcher/modules/espeak-ng.conf
[Wed Nov 30 10:42:28 2022 : 142131] speechd:   Output module is logging to file /run/user/1000/speech-dispatcher/log//espeak-ng.log
[Wed Nov 30 10:42:28 2022 : 142743] speechd:  Module espeak-ng loaded.
[Wed Nov 30 10:42:28 2022 : 208195] speechd:   Speech Dispatcher Logging to file /run/user/1000/speech-dispatcher/log//speech-dispatcher.log
[Wed Nov 30 10:42:28 2022 : 208270] speechd:  Configuration has been read from "/etc/speech-dispatcher/speechd.conf"
[Wed Nov 30 10:42:28 2022 : 208313] speechd:   couldn't open directory /home/athena/.local/share/../libexec/speech-dispatcher-modules because of error No such file or directory

[Wed Nov 30 10:42:28 2022 : 233749] speechd:   couldn't open directory /usr/lib/speech-dispatcher-modules because of error No such file or directory

[Wed Nov 30 10:42:28 2022 : 233788] speechd:  Initializing output module festival with binary /usr/lib/speech-dispatcher/speech-dispatcher-modules/sd_festival and configuration /etc/speech-dispatcher/modules/festival.conf
[Wed Nov 30 10:42:28 2022 : 233792] speechd:   Output module is logging to file /run/user/1000/speech-dispatcher/log//festival.log
[Wed Nov 30 10:42:28 2022 : 234398] speechd:  Module festival loaded.
[Wed Nov 30 10:42:28 2022 : 235657] speechd: ERROR: Module festival failed to initialize. Reason: 
---------------
Communicating with Festival through a socket. Can't connect to Festival server. Check your configuration in etc/speech-dispatcher/modules/festival.conf for the specified host and port and check if Festival is really running there, e.g. with telnet. Please see documentation for more info.
---------------

[Wed Nov 30 10:42:28 2022 : 235697] speechd:  Initializing output module espeak-ng-mbrola with binary /usr/lib/speech-dispatcher/speech-dispatcher-modules/sd_espeak-ng-mbrola and configuration /etc/speech-dispatcher/modules/espeak-ng-mbrola.conf
[Wed Nov 30 10:42:28 2022 : 235705] speechd:   Output module is logging to file /run/user/1000/speech-dispatcher/log//espeak-ng-mbrola.log
[Wed Nov 30 10:42:28 2022 : 236643] speechd:  ERROR: Can't load output module espeak-ng-mbrola with binary /usr/lib/speech-dispatcher/speech-dispatcher-modules/sd_espeak-ng-mbrola. Bad filename in configuration?
[Wed Nov 30 10:42:28 2022 : 236716] speechd:  Initializing output module espeak-ng with binary /usr/lib/speech-dispatcher/speech-dispatcher-modules/sd_espeak-ng and configuration /etc/speech-dispatcher/modules/espeak-ng.conf
[Wed Nov 30 10:42:28 2022 : 236721] speechd:   Output module is logging to file /run/user/1000/speech-dispatcher/log//espeak-ng.log
[Wed Nov 30 10:42:28 2022 : 237220] speechd:  Module espeak-ng loaded.
[Wed Nov 30 10:42:28 2022 : 237391] speechd: ERROR: Bad syntax from output module espeak-ng 1
[Wed Nov 30 10:42:28 2022 : 237452] speechd:  Initializing output module dummy with binary /usr/lib/speech-dispatcher/speech-dispatcher-modules/sd_dummy and configuration /etc/speech-dispatcher/modules/dummy.conf
[Wed Nov 30 10:42:28 2022 : 237457] speechd:   Output module is logging to file /run/user/1000/speech-dispatcher/log//dummy.log
[Wed Nov 30 10:42:28 2022 : 238793] speechd:  Module dummy loaded.
[Wed Nov 30 10:42:28 2022 : 240469] speechd:  Module dummy started successfully with message: 
---------------
Everything ok so far.
---------------

[Wed Nov 30 10:42:28 2022 : 240929] speechd:  Error: Module reported error in request from speechd (code 3xx): 300-Opening sound device failed. Reason: Cannot open plugin server. error: file not found. 
300 MODULE ERROR
.
[Wed Nov 30 10:42:28 2022 : 350472] speechd: LINE here:|200-dummy	en	none|
[Wed Nov 30 10:42:28 2022 : 350481] speechd: LINE here:|200 OK VOICE LIST SENT|
[Wed Nov 30 10:42:28 2022 : 350503] speechd:   Speech Dispatcher Logging to file /run/user/1000/speech-dispatcher/log//speech-dispatcher.log
[Wed Nov 30 10:42:28 2022 : 350511] speechd:   Speech Dispatcher started with 1 output module
[Wed Nov 30 10:42:28 2022 : 351376] speechd: Speech Dispatcher started and waiting for clients ...
[Wed Nov 30 10:42:28 2022 : 515880] speechd: Failed to open file '/usr/share/speech-dispatcher/locale/en_US/gender-neutral.dic': No such file or directory
[Wed Nov 30 10:42:28 2022 : 599415] speechd: Failed to open file '/usr/share/speech-dispatcher/locale/en/gender-neutral.dic': No such file or directory
[Wed Nov 30 10:42:28 2022 : 599455] speechd: Failed to load symbols 'gender-neutral.dic' for locale 'en_US'
[Wed Nov 30 10:42:28 2022 : 599507] speechd: Failed to open file '/usr/share/speech-dispatcher/locale/en_US/font-variants.dic': No such file or directory
[Wed Nov 30 10:42:28 2022 : 599812] speechd: Failed to open file '/usr/share/speech-dispatcher/locale/en/font-variants.dic': No such file or directory
[Wed Nov 30 10:42:28 2022 : 599839] speechd: Failed to load symbols 'font-variants.dic' for locale 'en_US'
[Wed Nov 30 10:42:28 2022 : 599875] speechd: Failed to open file '/usr/share/speech-dispatcher/locale/en_US/symbols.dic': No such file or directory
[Wed Nov 30 10:42:28 2022 : 635621] speechd: Loading NUL byte entry is not yet supported
[Wed Nov 30 10:42:28 2022 : 635631] speechd: Invalid line in file /usr/share/speech-dispatcher/locale/en/symbols.dic: \0	blank	char	# null
[Wed Nov 30 10:42:28 2022 : 668620] speechd: Loading NUL byte entry is not yet supported
[Wed Nov 30 10:42:28 2022 : 668635] speechd: Invalid line in file /usr/share/speech-dispatcher/locale/base/symbols.dic: \0	blank	char	# null
[Wed Nov 30 10:42:28 2022 : 670127] speechd: Failed to open file '/usr/share/speech-dispatcher/locale/en_US/emojis.dic': No such file or directory
[Wed Nov 30 10:42:28 2022 : 738631] speechd: Failed to open file '/usr/share/speech-dispatcher/locale/base/emojis.dic': No such file or directory
[Wed Nov 30 10:42:28 2022 : 746077] speechd: Failed to open file '/usr/share/speech-dispatcher/locale/en_US/orca.dic': No such file or directory
[Wed Nov 30 10:42:28 2022 : 746098] speechd: Failed to open file '/usr/share/speech-dispatcher/locale/en/orca.dic': No such file or directory
[Wed Nov 30 10:42:28 2022 : 746105] speechd: Failed to load symbols 'orca.dic' for locale 'en_US'
[Wed Nov 30 10:42:28 2022 : 746113] speechd: Failed to open file '/usr/share/speech-dispatcher/locale/en_US/orca-chars.dic': No such file or directory
[Wed Nov 30 10:42:28 2022 : 746123] speechd: Failed to open file '/usr/share/speech-dispatcher/locale/en/orca-chars.dic': No such file or directory
[Wed Nov 30 10:42:28 2022 : 746126] speechd: Failed to load symbols 'orca-chars.dic' for locale 'en_US'

If I try to face the errors in a separate manner, let's start from the first one:

[Wed Nov 30 10:42:27 2022 : 944240] speechd:   couldn't open directory /home/athena/.local/share/../libexec/speech-dispatcher-modules because of error No such file or directory

In my system I don't have any "speech-dispatcher-modules" file or directory in the user subdirs. How can I get it?

[Wed Nov 30 10:42:28 2022 : 133230] speechd:   couldn't open directory /usr/lib/speech-dispatcher-modules because of error No such file or directory

I don't have "/usr/lib/speech-dispatcher-modules" but I have "/usr/lib/speech-dispatcher/speech-dispatcher-modules". But I don't know how to force it to search in this last correct directory. I tried to search for some variable in /etc/speech-dispatcher/speechd.conf with no success.

[Wed Nov 30 10:42:28 2022 : 138949] speechd: ERROR: Module festival failed to initialize. Reason: 
---------------
Communicating with Festival through a socket. Can't connect to Festival server. Check your configuration in etc/speech-dispatcher/modules/festival.conf for the specified host and port and check if Festival is really running there, e.g. with telnet. Please see documentation for more info.
---------------

For managing this error, I tried to install festival by "sudo pacman -S festival", and then I run "festival --server" and I get:

WARNING
No default voice found in ("/usr/share/festival/voices/")
either no voices unpacked or voice-path is wrong
Scheme interpreter will work, but there is no voice to speak with.
WARNING

server    Wed Nov 30 11:07:15 2022 : Festival server started on port 1314

I don't know how to solve this WARNING above.

However, with the festival server run, and by running orca again, the error above about festival remains the same...

Let's proceed to the next error in the log file at the beginning of the post:

[Wed Nov 30 10:42:28 2022 : 142080] speechd: ERROR: Bad syntax from output module espeak-ng-mbrola 1

and

[Wed Nov 30 10:42:28 2022 : 236643] speechd:  ERROR: Can't load output module espeak-ng-mbrola with binary /usr/lib/speech-dispatcher/speech-dispatcher-modules/sd_espeak-ng-mbrola. Bad filename in configuration?

No idea.

Then:

[Wed Nov 30 10:42:28 2022 : 240929] speechd:  Error: Module reported error in request from speechd (code 3xx): 300-Opening sound device failed. Reason: Cannot open plugin server. error: file not found. 
300 MODULE ERROR

I have pulseaudio installed, and I don't know if it refers to its presence on the system. pulseaudio deamon is running btw.

At the end, a series of errors related to locale:

[Wed Nov 30 10:42:28 2022 : 515880] speechd: Failed to open file '/usr/share/speech-dispatcher/locale/en_US/gender-neutral.dic': No such file or directory
[Wed Nov 30 10:42:28 2022 : 599415] speechd: Failed to open file '/usr/share/speech-dispatcher/locale/en/gender-neutral.dic': No such file or directory
[Wed Nov 30 10:42:28 2022 : 599455] speechd: Failed to load symbols 'gender-neutral.dic' for locale 'en_US'
[Wed Nov 30 10:42:28 2022 : 599507] speechd: Failed to open file '/usr/share/speech-dispatcher/locale/en_US/font-variants.dic': No such file or directory
[Wed Nov 30 10:42:28 2022 : 599812] speechd: Failed to open file '/usr/share/speech-dispatcher/locale/en/font-variants.dic': No such file or directory
[Wed Nov 30 10:42:28 2022 : 599839] speechd: Failed to load symbols 'font-variants.dic' for locale 'en_US'
[Wed Nov 30 10:42:28 2022 : 599875] speechd: Failed to open file '/usr/share/speech-dispatcher/locale/en_US/symbols.dic': No such file or directory
[Wed Nov 30 10:42:28 2022 : 635621] speechd: Loading NUL byte entry is not yet supported
[Wed Nov 30 10:42:28 2022 : 635631] speechd: Invalid line in file /usr/share/speech-dispatcher/locale/en/symbols.dic: \0	blank	char	# null
[Wed Nov 30 10:42:28 2022 : 668620] speechd: Loading NUL byte entry is not yet supported
[Wed Nov 30 10:42:28 2022 : 668635] speechd: Invalid line in file /usr/share/speech-dispatcher/locale/base/symbols.dic: \0	blank	char	# null
[Wed Nov 30 10:42:28 2022 : 670127] speechd: Failed to open file '/usr/share/speech-dispatcher/locale/en_US/emojis.dic': No such file or directory
[Wed Nov 30 10:42:28 2022 : 738631] speechd: Failed to open file '/usr/share/speech-dispatcher/locale/base/emojis.dic': No such file or directory
[Wed Nov 30 10:42:28 2022 : 746077] speechd: Failed to open file '/usr/share/speech-dispatcher/locale/en_US/orca.dic': No such file or directory
[Wed Nov 30 10:42:28 2022 : 746098] speechd: Failed to open file '/usr/share/speech-dispatcher/locale/en/orca.dic': No such file or directory
[Wed Nov 30 10:42:28 2022 : 746105] speechd: Failed to load symbols 'orca.dic' for locale 'en_US'
[Wed Nov 30 10:42:28 2022 : 746113] speechd: Failed to open file '/usr/share/speech-dispatcher/locale/en_US/orca-chars.dic': No such file or directory
[Wed Nov 30 10:42:28 2022 : 746123] speechd: Failed to open file '/usr/share/speech-dispatcher/locale/en/orca-chars.dic': No such file or directory
[Wed Nov 30 10:42:28 2022 : 746126] speechd: Failed to load symbols 'orca-chars.dic' for locale 'en_US'

I don' have "en_US" folder in "/usr/share/speech-dispatcher/locale/", I don't know why.

Is it possible that the configuration of orca in order to work well in Arch is so weird, mostly if the targets are people that need more accessibility? I don't understand why the missing files/directories shown in the log file above are not created and managed directly by speech-dispatcher or orca package..

Is there a way to solve all these issues in order to make it working?

Thank you in advance.

Last edited by D3vil0p3r (2022-11-30 11:38:59)

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#2 2022-11-30 18:01:22

twelveeighty
Member
From: Alberta, Canada
Registered: 2011-09-04
Posts: 1,096

Re: orca - how to install and configure correctly in Arch Linux

D3vil0p3r wrote:
[Wed Nov 30 10:42:28 2022 : 133230] speechd:   couldn't open directory /usr/lib/speech-dispatcher-modules because of error No such file or directory

How did you install Arch? Your other post suggest you weren't using Arch, did you start over with an actual Arch install using the official install guide? As far as I can tell, gnome brings in orca, which brings in speech-dispatcher, which packages /usr/lib/speech-dispatcher/speech-dispatcher-modules, not /usr/lib/speech-dispatcher-modules, so it's either a packaging problem or you're running a different build of orca and/or speech-dispatcher.

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#3 2022-11-30 18:25:33

Raynman
Member
Registered: 2011-10-22
Posts: 1,539

Re: orca - how to install and configure correctly in Arch Linux

This "try[ing] to face the errors in a separate manner" doesn't seem helpful in that case. Multiple directories are tried (at both user and system level) and in the end it does find the correct one for the Arch package.

For festival you have two helpful error messages: you need to install a voice (such as festival-english) and you need to make sure speech-dispatcher can connect to a running festival server (using the correct socket/port), which may require editing the config file mentioned in the error (I kinda would expect the defaults to work, but you said something about the error remaining the same after starting the festival server, so ...).

The espeak-ng errors are less clear. Did you also install espeak-ng? Maybe look at the corresponding log ("Output module is logging to file ...") or focus on festival first.

[Note: I've never used this stuff; I'm just looking at your logs and the package descriptions.]

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#4 2022-11-30 23:30:58

D3vil0p3r
Member
Registered: 2022-11-05
Posts: 167

Re: orca - how to install and configure correctly in Arch Linux

twelveeighty wrote:
D3vil0p3r wrote:
[Wed Nov 30 10:42:28 2022 : 133230] speechd:   couldn't open directory /usr/lib/speech-dispatcher-modules because of error No such file or directory

How did you install Arch? Your other post suggest you weren't using Arch, did you start over with an actual Arch install using the official install guide? As far as I can tell, gnome brings in orca, which brings in speech-dispatcher, which packages /usr/lib/speech-dispatcher/speech-dispatcher-modules, not /usr/lib/speech-dispatcher-modules, so it's either a packaging problem or you're running a different build of orca and/or speech-dispatcher.

My tests are always done on clean Arch Linux environment, mostly when I specify it on the starting post. I installed the system by using archinstall.


@Raynman I solved the issue by installing espeakup package and enabling its service. The issue related to the usage of orca is that I'm noting cannot be used for those applications running as root. Is there no way to use orca for reading applications running by sudo?

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#5 2022-12-01 02:07:06

cfr
Member
From: Cymru
Registered: 2011-11-27
Posts: 7,130

Re: orca - how to install and configure correctly in Arch Linux

D3vil0p3r wrote:

@Raynman I solved the issue by installing espeakup package and enabling its service. The issue related to the usage of orca is that I'm noting cannot be used for those applications running as root. Is there no way to use orca for reading applications running by sudo?

Why and what applications are you running with sudo? To a very close approximation, the frequency with which you should be doing this is never.


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#6 2022-12-01 19:18:49

D3vil0p3r
Member
Registered: 2022-11-05
Posts: 167

Re: orca - how to install and configure correctly in Arch Linux

cfr wrote:

Why and what applications are you running with sudo? To a very close approximation, the frequency with which you should be doing this is never.

Hey. Thank you for the answer. "never" does never exist in this field. By the way, an example of application could be BTRFS Assistant. I'm sure could be more. If I think, maybe also gparted.

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#7 2022-12-02 16:02:31

twelveeighty
Member
From: Alberta, Canada
Registered: 2011-09-04
Posts: 1,096

Re: orca - how to install and configure correctly in Arch Linux

@cfr's comment is about running graphical applications as root, which should be done as close to never as possible.

Do espeakup and/or orca not work for console/cli applications?

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