If I downloading these modules, Orca and Espeak speaks correct my two machines, but another user writing this letter with Orca mailing list yesterday: "I tested alpha 3 too a few days ago. i had no sound too. no system or other sounds. tried it on a computer with a sb live 5.1 player sound card and on a laptop with a conexant chipset." Why need the snd-pcm-oss and snd-mixer-oss modules? Sunday, I read this letter with Orca mailing list: "Hi Everyone For those wishing to install Ubuntu 9.04 alpha 3, I've encountered the following problem and workaround. This, for me, was preventing the boot-up accessibility option from working. Problem: Portaudio, on which espeak depends, is compiled to use OSS by default and, via padsp, is wrapped to using Pulseaudio. However, the snd-pcm-oss and snd-mixer-oss modules required for oss output are not loaded, rendering espeak unable to speak. I'm unsure if this happens on all systems, but I've verified it on mine, and this issue is still present as of the most recent lived build. While padsp does wrap espeak to use pulse, it needs to be able to communicate with the oss device for it to do so, hense these modules need to be loaded. Solution: Once the livecd is booted up (note, these alpha builds do not seem to play a login sound) open gnome-terminal (alt+f2 followed by gnome-terminal). Issue the following command: sudo modprobe snd-mixer-oss snd-pcm-oss Now, to test, issue the command: espeak hello Espeak should say hello. Now, run orca and go through the setup. When it asks you to log out, say no as this isn't working properly on the livecd, at least not for me. To log out manually, do the following (note: ctrl-alt-backspace is disabled so this shortcut won't work anymore to kill the X session): alt+f1, left arrow, down arrow, l, alt+l. The disk should spin and you should then get the drum sound, indicating that you are at the login prompt. Login with the username "ubuntu" without the quotes. press enter twice as this user has no password. From here on out, it is exactly like installing Ubuntu 8.10: envoke gnome-terminal, sudo su, start orca with --no-setup and run ubiquity. I hope this helps someone out. I'm unsure if all systems encounter this issue, but if you do encounter it hopefully this helps you get around the bug." I seeing another problem, but I don't know what the metter: When loading these modules, the espeak speech-sinthesizer and Orca screen reader (using gnome-speech espeak driver) very slow my machines (for example writing apple word, very later beginning spokening the letters (two or free seconds later, but apple word already written). Oldest Ubuntu versions (Hardy and Intrepid tested) not produces this simptoms. The success login sound is not played my machines. Another problem this workaround: When Orca is running, my desktop machine produces following cpu usages: I have got an Athhlon64 X2 3800 Mhz cpu and 2 GB ram, the first cpu usage is 28%, the second cpu usage is 17%, I think this is not good. If you would like test this problem, do following steps: 1. Download the current dayly live cd and try boot. After pressing enter key your preferred language, press f5 key, and choosing screen reader option. What happen if you not loading this two modules? If your machine producing my problems, Orca not speaking. And what happen if loaded and rerun Orca? My machine Orca is speaking this workaround, but producing wroted simptoms. Have any ydeas? Attila