I had that trouble with Ubuntu also, that is why I tried this Raspbian X86. I contacted the Raspbberry PI foundation and asked them to please keep supporting this X86 project. Ubuntu was always my go to distro. Now what?
----- Original Message ----- From: "Andrew M.A. Cater" <[email protected]> To: <[email protected]> Sent: Friday, July 11, 2025 5:00 AM Subject: 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
