In Mate-Terminal or virtual console run this command notice the "O" is a capital O.
spd-say -O
You should have some output modules.
Say you probably have espeak-ng, we will configure that.
As user, enter this command:
spd-conf
Your terminal will print this:
Speech Dispatcher configuration tool
Do you want to setup a completely new configuration? [yes] :
Just press ENTER.
Your computer will print:
Do you want to create/setup a 'user' or 'system' configuration? [user] :
Again just press ENTER.
Your computer may or may not answer this the way mine does, but you want to rewrite your configuration no matter what.
User configuration already exists.
Do you want to rewrite it with a new one? [no] :
ENTER yes.
The terminal will tell you that it is writing a configuration in ~/.config/speech-dispatcher
At this line enter:
espeak-ng
Press ENTER, then terminal will ask you to enter the language:
Default language (two/three-letter iso language code like "en" or "cs", possibly with a region qualification.) [en-US] :
So enter as it says en with small letters then - then US in capital letters and press ENTER.
en-US
For the next one just press ENTER it willl ask you for the default audiio output module.
I don't know if this is where the error is, if it says "dummy output module" then enter alsa that is a l s a.
My Debian system uses pulse, so I enter pulse, since it's default, I just press ENTER.
Default audio output method [pulse] :
Press ENTER three times to go through the speed and tone adjustments, you can do this later to have the speech do things the way you want.
Next the terminal will print:
Do you want to have Speech Dispatcher automatically started from ~/.config/autostart ?
This is usually not necessary, most applications will start Speech Dispatcher automatically. [no]
Just press ENTER
Then terminal prints:
Basic configuration now complete. You might still need to fine tune it by
manually editing the configuration file above. Especially if you need to
use special audio settings, non-standard synthesizer ports etc.
Do you want to start/restart Speech Dispatcher now and run some tests? [yes] :
Press ENTER and you should hear a voice.
If you hear the voice, answer yes to the next question about more tests, if no voice, answer no and continue through the tests.
Best wishes,
David
yes