[pulseaudio-discuss] [orca-list] lightdm and the desktop don't speak early if pulseaudio is not started system wide. (fwd)

Thu Nov 30 20:51:12 UTC 2017

-- 

---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Thu, 30 Nov 2017 13:07:31
From: Didier Spaier <didier at slint.fr>
To: Peter V?gner <pvdeejay at gmail.com>
Cc: orca-list <orca-list at gnome.org>
Subject: Re: [orca-list] lightdm and the desktop don't speak early if pulseaudio
      is not started system wide.

Hello,

Le 29/11/2017 ? 15:32, Peter V?gner a ?crit :
> I think the chain is as follows:
> Lightdm-gtk-greeter spawns orca
> - Orca spawns speech-dispatcher if it's not running via python-speechdo 
> - Speech-dispatcher is configured to output its audio through its
> pulseaudio output module. That module is linked against libpulse.

Well, as speech-dispatcher can be configured to output its audio
to libao instead of libpulse, I tried that. Here is the configure
summary building it that way:
cut here
configure: output modules to be built are cicero dummy festival generic espeak-ng
configure: audio methods to be built are  libao
configure: Default audio method is libao
cut here

I didn't expect lightdm to still need pulse as now  speech-dispatcher
uses libao, and I have also rebuilt libao without the pulse driver.

However this didn't change anything: still the same speech delays occur,
unless pulseaudio be started system wide.

I also tried to edit /etc/pulse/client.conf to have:
autospawn = no
This gave two results:
1) No sound at all in lightdm.
2) Sound in the display manager with no delay: I hear "screen reader on"
as soon as it is started.
Of course 2 is good but 1 is bad.

I also tried to leave autospawn = yes in /etc/pulse/client.conf but to
copy it in ~/.config/pulse and then, edit ~/.config/pulse/client.conf to
have "autospawn = no", in the hope that I would get speech in lightdm.
I did, with still a delayed speech at startup and no "screen reader
on" announced, but I has still the same speech delay in the desktop.
Which puzzles me as "man pulse-client.conf" says that
~/.config/pulse/client.conf has priority over /etc/pulse/client.conf.

> When libpulse is asked to play sound, it tries to spawn pulseaudio if
> it's not yet running. Pulseaudio examines if it's configured to
> autospawn in its config file /etc/pulse/daemon.conf and if yes it will
> launch.

As stated above, her autospawn is set in /etc/pulse/client.conf

> So the delays are expected in a setup like this I would say.
> On other distros pulseaudio is typically activated via socket activation of
> systemd thus it's started early and killed late similar to how at-spi bus
> is handled.
> In order to hackaround that you might like to consider managing pulseaudio
> launching and killing via lightdm scripts such as setupscript, pre session
> and post session script. However I would call that just a workaround not a
> proper solution.

I also tried that, to no avail.

> I don't know if there are more possible options within systemd less
> distro like Slint is.

I am at a loss for finding even a functionally acceptable workaround, so
unless I have or hopefully I be given a bright idea soon, I will leave
things as they are.

After all a blind user will still have several possibilities to start a
graphical environment in Slint:
1) Accept the speech delays.
2) Run pulseaudio system wide (in that case there is no delay).
3) Start on a console, in other words in text mode, then type startx
to launch a graphical environment.

In any case the scripts session-chooser as well as xwmconfig now allow
to choose a graphical environment among those installed, and dm-chooser
will allow to choose to log in tty1 then use startx when needed, or to
log in a display manager chosen among those installed (by default lxdm,
lightdm or kdm).

Greetings,

Didier

> It would be difficult to find out if this is a bug and which part is
> responsible.
> 
> Greetings
> 
> Peter
> 
> D?a 29. 11. 2017 15:10 pou??vate? "Didier Spaier" <didier at slint.fr> nap?sal:
> 
>> Upgraded to pulseaudio-11.1 to no avail.
>>
>> Le 29/11/2017 ? 12:35, Didier Spaier a ?crit :
>>> Hello,
>>>
>>> In Slint64-14.2.1RC3.iso, puleeaudio is not started system wide,
>>> as espeak is built with portaudio as back end, and orca is enabled at
>>> the user level with a small script orca-on.
>>>
>>> We start espeakup during the startup sequence.
>>>
>>> When lightdm is used, after startup it doesn't say "screen reader on"
>>> and it seems to take a few seconds before it begins to speak, for
>>> instance if if quickly begin to type the password it doesn't say
>>> "bullet" when typing the first characters.
>>>
>>> However, after I close a session (going back to the greeter) it speaks
>>> normally.
>>>
>>> Also, at the beginning of a desktop session orca don't say "screen
>>> reader on" either, and there is a delay if 10 or 15 seconds before I get
>>> speech.
>>>
>>> However if I start pulseaudio system wide during the startup
>>> sequence (chmod 755 /etc/rc.d/rc.pulseaudio) I have speech instantly in
>>> both lightdm and the desktop.
>>>
>>> Also, if I use another display manager like lxdm, I have of course no
>>> speech in it but I get speech in the desktop instantly regardless of the
>>> way pulseaudio is started (system wide or per user). This is also the
>>> case if I use startx to start a desktop from a console instead of using
>>> a display manager.
>>>
>>> We have lightdm-1.24.0, lightdm-gtk-greeter-2.0.3, orca-3.26.0,
>>> pulseaudio-9.0
>>>
>>> Did anyone observe a similar behavior?
>>>
>>> Should I file an issue in some bug tracker, and then which one?
>>>
>>> If one wants to test, the iso is here:
>>> http://slackware.uk/slint/x86_64/slint-testing/iso/
>>>
>>> Greetings,
>>> Didier
>>> _______________________________________________
>>> orca-list mailing list
>>> orca-list at gnome.org
>>> https://mail.gnome.org/mailman/listinfo/orca-list
>>> Orca wiki: https://wiki.gnome.org/Projects/Orca
>>> Orca documentation: https://help.gnome.org/users/orca/stable/
>>> GNOME Universal Access guide: https://help.gnome.org/users/
>> gnome-help/stable/a11y.html
>>> Log bugs and feature requests at http://bugzilla.gnome.org
>>>
>> _______________________________________________
>> orca-list mailing list
>> orca-list at gnome.org
>> https://mail.gnome.org/mailman/listinfo/orca-list
>> Orca wiki: https://wiki.gnome.org/Projects/Orca
>> Orca documentation: https://help.gnome.org/users/orca/stable/
>> GNOME Universal Access guide: https://help.gnome.org/users/
>> gnome-help/stable/a11y.html
>> Log bugs and feature requests at http://bugzilla.gnome.org
>

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