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I want to use espeak on my server, so I can scare my girlfriend from work :)

ubuntu 11.04 server.

sudo espeak -v en "Hello i am espeak"

Error:

ALSA lib pcm.c:2212:(snd_pcm_open_noupdate) Unknown PCM cards.pcm.rear
ALSA lib pcm.c:2212:(snd_pcm_open_noupdate) Unknown PCM cards.pcm.center_lfe
ALSA lib pcm.c:2212:(snd_pcm_open_noupdate) Unknown PCM cards.pcm.side
ALSA lib pcm_dmix.c:957:(snd_pcm_dmix_open) The dmix plugin supports only playback stream
Cannot connect to server socket err = No such file or directory
Cannot connect to server socket
jack server is not running or cannot be started
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2 Answers 2

Reset to default
3

even if you are using the ubuntu server install, you might have the sound server running. This will default to surround alsa emulation which espeak isn't capable to handle.

Use: espeak -v en "Hello i am espeak" --stdout|paplay instead.

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3
  • I get "The program 'paplay' is currently not installed. You can install it by typing: sudo apt-get install pulseaudio-utils"
    – user25389
    Nov 25, 2011 at 15:34
  • 2
    Then just do so.
    – aquaherd
    Nov 26, 2011 at 9:53
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    I get a pa_context_connect() failed: Connection refused error message when I do this.
    – Jakob Weisblat
    Jul 13, 2012 at 20:24
1

I had exakt the same problem on a Raspberry Pi. For me it worked fine with:

espeak -v en "Hello i am espeak" --stdout | aplay

(aplay instead of paplay)

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