Re: mbrola documentation and speech-dispatcher

Carles Pina i Estany <[email protected]> Tue, 16 Dec 2025 21:36:13 +0000

Newsgroups	gmane.linux.debian.devel.accessibility
Message-ID	<[email protected]>

Hi Samuel,

On 16 Dec 2025 at 10:37:54, Samuel Thibault wrote:
> Carles Pina i Estany, le mar. 16 déc. 2025 08:04:38 +0000, a ecrit:
> > I am not a user of Orca, but I'm helping some people to set it up. This
> > is how I ended writing now https://wiki.debian.org/Orca#Orca_voices
> 
> Thanks for your contribution!

Also thanks for the feedback / improvements.

> I have fixed it a bit (speech-dispatcher only needs a SIGHUP, i.e. a
> reload, to see new voices)
> 
> > Also, I have a quick question. In the file
> > /usr/share/doc/mbrola/README.Debian it says:
> > 
> > """
> > To make use of mbrola along espeak in speech-dispatcher, enable the
> > espeak-mbrola-generic module by uncommenting the corresponding line in
> > /etc/speech-dispatcher/speechd.conf
> > """
> 
> Ah, that's outdated, now that speech-dispatcher's native espeak module
> supports mbrola voices. I have fixed them for the next upload.

cool!

I have a question, since you maintain many of that pacakges (and even
mbrola-en1).

As a user, I found it confusing that I had to do the "systemctl --user
reload speech-dispatcher" in order to be able to use the voices in Orca.

I wonder if there is any way that this could be made easier?

I haven't used triggers in packages, but I don't know if there is any
system that mbrola-LANG packages could notify that is installed; and
that speech-dispatcher would display via a debconf template "if you just
installed a new language that could be used in speech-dispatcher you
might need to do systemctl --user ..."

I know that the mbrola-LANG could show a deconf message saying "if this
voice is going to be used in a running speech-dispatcher you need to
do systemctl --user..." but I guess that this is not the business of the
mbrola-LANG to inform of that...

(I am willing to try and experiment around that; when time permits; if
something would a possible improvement)

Cheers,

-- 
Carles Pina i Estany
https://carles.pina.cat | [email protected] | [email protected]

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