Re: Orca Does Not Use Voxin Voices
On Mon, Jul 07, 2025 at 12:52:56PM -0500, K0LNY ?? wrote:
> Hello,
> I'm using Debian Bullseye, the raspberrypi version, so I can set it up for folks who only use Windows.
The Raspberry Pi folks did create an x86 version of their Desktop a while ago.
It's not well supported and was very much a side project for them.
I checked with Peter Green - who helps build Raspbian for Debian and also
does some work with Raspberry Pi Foundation - it's a dead end.
Do NOT use this as a basis for accessibility / speech output and so on
because you will have no support.
> I gave up on the Ubuntu, I could not get it to change desktops and I could not get it to speak in the log in window to change desktops.
So this is one fewer rabbit hole to go down :)
> So, this Debian is going well except for one thing.
> I have installed three different Voxin voices, one of them the IBM one.
> They are all Voxin 3.4
> They install okay, and the IBM one spoke after the install was finished.
> They do not show up in Orca's voice settings.
As far as I can tell, IBM are not developing Voxin voices particularly any
more:they've been kind enough to license Oralux to "sell" premium voices
at low cost as a nominal fee. Ask Oralux? Their website suggests
that it is at least tested on Debian Trixie.
> I did sudo apt reinstall orca
> but that didn't help.
> The only two choices in the voice tab are default and espeak.
> I ran spd-conf and selected voxin and alsa and it kills orca's audio, and I can toggle orca off and back on and I can then hear it.
> But it is still using espeak.
It's still using espeak or a default voice that espeak uses? Similarly, the
speech installer uses a default voice.
> I have never installed espeak or espeak-ng, and they are not installed, yet whatever comes with Orca as espeak works.
> Does anyone have any ideas why the voxins don't make themselves available, even though they go through the install okay?
> Thanks for any help.
>
Ask people who know?
> Glenn
>
> It used to be wine, women, and song,
> Now it's beer, the old lady, and TV.
>
> Glenn K0LNY & WSAT439
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