Aplay terminates Fonix DECtalk, sometimes Orca
Affects | Status | Importance | Assigned to | Milestone | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
gnome-orca (Ubuntu) |
Fix Released
|
Undecided
|
Unassigned |
Bug Description
If Orca is running using Fonix DECtalk, and aplay plays two sounds, speech
stops. Sometimes Orca terminates.
Steps to reproduce:
1. Launch Orca from GNOME terminal
2. In a different terminal window execute aplay /usr/share/
3. Repeat step 2
Actual results:
The first time, the sound is played; the second time it's played but Orca stops
speaking.
Expected results:
The sound would be played and Orca would continue to speak.
Does this happen every time?
Yes
Other information:
While I can reproduce this 100% of the time, it seems to be the result of a
very specific combination:
1. I can only reproduce it on my laptop which has the following:
Ubuntu 6.06, current (as of this moment) Orca from CVS
ATI Technologies Inc
IXP SB400 AC'97 Audio Controller
I cannot reproduce this problem on either of my desktop computers (each of
which has a dedicated sound card rather than onboard sound)
2. It only occurs with Fonix DECtalk; not festival
Sometimes I get the following output from Orca:
---
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "/usr/lib/
in __speak
return speaker.say(text)
File "/usr/lib/
i n say
return self.gnome_
COMM_FAILURE
Restarting speech...
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "/usr/lib/
in __speak
return speaker.say(text)
File "/usr/lib/
i n say
return self.gnome_
COMM_FAILURE
Restarting speech...
Something looks wrong with speech. Aborting.
---
I had originally filed this at GNOME: http://
It was closed out as not GNOME.
This is unfortunately something that is not really solvable with the current GNOME/esd/ALSA architecture for sound.
I suggest you try turning off esd, and see what happens. The two sounds play, because you are using aplay to play a sound file, which is using ALSA. However, Software DECtalk still only uses OSS, so it can only get exclusive access to the sound device, whereas ALSA apps are quite happy to have their output mixed together, because of the way they talk to
ALSA.
To turn off esd, do the following:
1. Go to the System menu, Preferences, and choose Sound.
2. Uncheck the "Enable software sound mixing (ESD)" checkbox.
3. Log out and back in again.