diff -Nru espeakup-0.80/debian/changelog espeakup-0.80/debian/changelog
--- espeakup-0.80/debian/changelog	2019-03-29 16:03:23.000000000 +0000
+++ espeakup-0.80/debian/changelog	2019-05-18 14:37:19.000000000 +0000
@@ -1,3 +1,9 @@
+espeakup (1:0.80-15) unstable; urgency=medium
+
+  * debian/espeakup-udeb.start: Wait longer for sound cards...
+
+ -- Samuel Thibault <sthibault@debian.org>  Sat, 18 May 2019 16:37:19 +0200
+
 espeakup (1:0.80-14) unstable; urgency=medium
 
   * rules: Restart espeakup after upgrade (Closes: Bug#925973).
diff -Nru espeakup-0.80/debian/espeakup-udeb.start espeakup-0.80/debian/espeakup-udeb.start
--- espeakup-0.80/debian/espeakup-udeb.start	2019-03-29 16:03:23.000000000 +0000
+++ espeakup-0.80/debian/espeakup-udeb.start	2019-05-18 14:35:42.000000000 +0000
@@ -7,14 +7,39 @@
 
 if lsmod | grep -q speakup_soft; then
 	# Give drivers some time to detect boards :/
-	sleep 2
-	IDS=$(echo $BASE/card*/id)
-	N=$(echo $IDS | wc -w)
-	case $N in
-		0)
-			echo No sound card detected, can not do software speech synthesis... Press enter to continue anyway.
-			read
-			;;
+	sleep 1
+	S=1
+	while true
+	do
+		IDS=$(echo $BASE/card*/id)
+		if [ "$IDS" = "$BASE/card*/id" ]; then
+			if [ "$S" -ge 3 ]; then
+				echo "No sound card detected after $S seconds..."
+			fi
+			if [ "$S" -lt 30 ]; then
+				# We have seen cards taking as much as 12s to get initialized...
+				sleep 1
+				S=$((S+1))
+				continue
+			else
+				echo "Can not do software speech synthesis... Press enter to continue anyway."
+				read
+				break
+			fi
+		fi
+
+		# Sleep again as much, in case more cards are to come :/
+		echo "Waiting for $S more seconds for any other card..."
+		sleep $S
+
+		. /usr/share/alsa/utils.sh
+		preinit_levels all
+		sanify_levels all
+
+		IDS=$(echo $BASE/card*/id)
+		N=$(echo $IDS | wc -w)
+
+		case $N in
 		1)
 			# Just one card, can not be wrong
 			echo $(strip $IDS) > /var/run/espeakup.card
@@ -51,5 +76,8 @@
 			done
 			echo "$CARD" > /var/run/espeakup.card
 			ALSA_CARD=$(cat /sys/class/sound/card$CARD/id) /usr/bin/espeakup -V en >> /var/log/espeakup.log 2>&1
-	esac
+		esac
+
+		break
+	done
 fi