Festival TTS starts 'paused' for blocks of text

[mikey]

Binary package hint: festival

1) Ubuntu 11.04
2) festival: Installed: 1:2.0.95~beta-5.1ubuntu2
3) When starting festival in TTS mode, for example by running 'festival --tts /usr/share/doc/syslinux/usbkey.txt', festival should read the file then exit with no user input.
4) Instead, Festival starts a tiny fraction of speech then displays to the terminal '=== PAUSE === ', but with no user input it cannot be unpaused so has to be exited with ^C

*NB:* This is a regression as I have been regularly using festival in this way up until upgrading (from a fresh 10.10 install) to 11.04. Also THIS ONLY HAPPENS WHEN FESTIVAL IS ASKED TO READ LARGE AMOUNTS OF TEXT. So, when testing please try it with large blocks of text, it will not occur for only a small paragraph.

[hatori (noltemedia)]

+1 affected person

[Verdi R-D (azend)]

+1 affected person

[Kalon Gerber (kalongerber)]

+1 affected person

[Peter Drysdale (drysdalepete)]

This bugs seems to be similar to Debian bugs #638691 and #638369.
Ubuntu 11.04 shipped with alsa-utils 1.0.24 which introduced the pause functionality to
aplay (part of alsa-utils). This is consistent with the version of alsa-utils also breaking festival in Debian.
Upstream alsa project has a patch in their master to fix this change in aplay.
I have tested this patch on a broken festival Debian system and it restored the functionality.
Would an affected person be able to test this on Ubuntu?

I attach the patch which was added at the upstream alsa project by Takashi Iwai.
His discussion can be found at

http://permalink.gmane.org/gmane.linux.alsa.devel/85332

very best regards,
Peter
(Co-Uploader for festival on Debian as of last week)

[Kalon Gerber (kalongerber)]

@Peter Drysdale: I had tried fixing the problem by downgrading festival to one from the lucid repository. After reading your post I downgraded the alsa-utils package which fixed the problem. Wish I had tried that earlier. I've not tried your mentioned patch because my knowledge of how to do so is not sufficient.

[Ubuntu Foundations Team Bug Bot (crichton)]

The attachment "Potential patch requires testing on ubuntu 11.04 alsa-utils" of this bug report has been identified as being a patch. The ubuntu-reviewers team has been subscribed to the bug report so that they can review the patch. In the event that this is in fact not a patch you can resolve this situation by removing the tag 'patch' from the bug report and editing the attachment so that it is not flagged as a patch. Additionally, if you are member of the ubuntu-sponsors please also unsubscribe the team from this bug report.

[This is an automated message performed by a Launchpad user owned by Brian Murray. Please contact him regarding any issues with the action taken in this bug report.]

[Peter Drysdale (drysdalepete)]

Dear Ubuntu-reviewers team,

Please note the patch referred to earlier in this bug has made it into Deban
unstable (sid)
and testing (wheezy) as part of the lastest alsa-utils . If you are cherry
picking into Ubuntu
I recommend you use the form applied there. My presentation of the patch was
before
it entered into Debian while we were still investigating. This bug is now
closed in Debian in both alsa-utils and festival packages after the release
of the latest alsa-utils.
Please see the changelog of alsa-utils in testing or sid for details.

Please contact me if you have any questions,
best regards,
Peter
(Uploader for Debian festival package).

On Sun, Sep 25, 2011 at 2:09 AM, Ubuntu QA's Bug Bot <
<email address hidden>> wrote:

> The attachment "Potential patch requires testing on ubuntu 11.04 alsa-
> utils" of this bug report has been identified as being a patch. The
> ubuntu-reviewers team has been subscribed to the bug report so that they
> can review the patch. In the event that this is in fact not a patch you
> can resolve this situation by removing the tag 'patch' from the bug
> report and editing the attachment so that it is not flagged as a patch.
> Additionally, if you are member of the ubuntu-sponsors please also
> unsubscribe the team from this bug report.
>
> [This is an automated message performed by a Launchpad user owned by
> Brian Murray. Please contact him regarding any issues with the action
> taken in this bug report.]
>
> ** Tags added: patch
>
> --
> You received this bug notification because you are subscribed to the bug
> report.
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/778619
>
> Title:
> Festival TTS starts 'paused' for blocks of text
>
> Status in “festival” package in Ubuntu:
> Confirmed
>
> Bug description:
> Binary package hint: festival
>
> 1) Ubuntu 11.04
> 2) festival: Installed: 1:2.0.95~beta-5.1ubuntu2
> 3) When starting festival in TTS mode, for example by running 'festival
> --tts /usr/share/doc/syslinux/usbkey.txt', festival should read the file
> then exit with no user input.
> 4) Instead, Festival starts a tiny fraction of speech then displays to the
> terminal '=== PAUSE === ', but with no user input it cannot be unpaused so
> has to be exited with ^C
>
> *NB:* This is a regression as I have been regularly using festival in
> this way up until upgrading (from a fresh 10.10 install) to 11.04.
> Also THIS ONLY HAPPENS WHEN FESTIVAL IS ASKED TO READ LARGE AMOUNTS OF
> TEXT. So, when testing please try it with large blocks of text, it
> will not occur for only a small paragraph.
>
> To manage notifications about this bug go to:
>
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/festival/+bug/778619/+subscriptions
>

[Ralph Green (severian)]

Bug still exists in Ubuntu 11.10. I am running xubuntu 11.10 and I have applied all fixes available up to this day.

[Peter Drysdale (drysdalepete)]

Dear Ralph Green,

Please reply with the version number of alsa-utils in Ubuntu 11.10 you are
running.

best regards,
Peter

On Tue, Nov 1, 2011 at 12:23 AM, Ralph Green <email address hidden> wrote:

> Bug still exists in Ubuntu 11.10. I am running xubuntu 11.10 and I have
> applied all fixes available up to this day.
>
> --
> You received this bug notification because you are subscribed to the bug
> report.
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/778619
>
> Title:
> Festival TTS starts 'paused' for blocks of text
>
> Status in “festival” package in Ubuntu:
> Confirmed
>
> Bug description:
> Binary package hint: festival
>
> 1) Ubuntu 11.04
> 2) festival: Installed: 1:2.0.95~beta-5.1ubuntu2
> 3) When starting festival in TTS mode, for example by running 'festival
> --tts /usr/share/doc/syslinux/usbkey.txt', festival should read the file
> then exit with no user input.
> 4) Instead, Festival starts a tiny fraction of speech then displays to
> the terminal '=== PAUSE === ', but with no user input it cannot be unpaused
> so has to be exited with ^C
>
> *NB:* This is a regression as I have been regularly using festival in
> this way up until upgrading (from a fresh 10.10 install) to 11.04.
> Also THIS ONLY HAPPENS WHEN FESTIVAL IS ASKED TO READ LARGE AMOUNTS OF
> TEXT. So, when testing please try it with large blocks of text, it
> will not occur for only a small paragraph.
>
> To manage notifications about this bug go to:
>
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/festival/+bug/778619/+subscriptions
>

[Peter Drysdale (drysdalepete)]

Dear Ralph,

I checked alsa-utils_1.0.24.2-0ubuntu8 and Ubuntu has so far not
implemented the
alsa-interactive patch which is applied in Debian testing/sid alsautils
1.0.24.2-2 onward.
This is a bug known upstream and is present in alsa-utils. It appears this
is a case
where Ubuntu does not synchronize patching with Debian so the bug continues
to be still present in Ubuntu.

As a Debian uploader for festival I cannot assist you as I have no
privileges with Ubuntu.
Maybe you can draw it to the attention of the relevant alsa-utils Ubuntu
maintainer.
Alternatively you can apply the Debian "aplay interactive" patch directly
and build the package
yourself.
Upstream itself had the patch in master but that wont be released till
likely the end of the year.

best regards,
Peter

On Tue, Nov 1, 2011 at 7:22 AM, Peter Drysdale <email address hidden>wrote:

> Dear Ralph Green,
>
> Please reply with the version number of alsa-utils in Ubuntu 11.10 you are
> running.
>
> best regards,
> Peter
>
>
> On Tue, Nov 1, 2011 at 12:23 AM, Ralph Green <email address hidden> wrote:
>
>> Bug still exists in Ubuntu 11.10. I am running xubuntu 11.10 and I have
>> applied all fixes available up to this day.
>>
>> --
>> You received this bug notification because you are subscribed to the bug
>> report.
>> https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/778619
>>
>> Title:
>> Festival TTS starts 'paused' for blocks of text
>>
>> Status in “festival” package in Ubuntu:
>> Confirmed
>>
>> Bug description:
>> Binary package hint: festival
>>
>> 1) Ubuntu 11.04
>> 2) festival: Installed: 1:2.0.95~beta-5.1ubuntu2
>> 3) When starting festival in TTS mode, for example by running 'festival
>> --tts /usr/share/doc/syslinux/usbkey.txt', festival should read the file
>> then exit with no user input.
>> 4) Instead, Festival starts a tiny fraction of speech then displays to
>> the terminal '=== PAUSE === ', but with no user input it cannot be unpaused
>> so has to be exited with ^C
>>
>> *NB:* This is a regression as I have been regularly using festival in
>> this way up until upgrading (from a fresh 10.10 install) to 11.04.
>> Also THIS ONLY HAPPENS WHEN FESTIVAL IS ASKED TO READ LARGE AMOUNTS OF
>> TEXT. So, when testing please try it with large blocks of text, it
>> will not occur for only a small paragraph.
>>
>> To manage notifications about this bug go to:
>>
>> https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/festival/+bug/778619/+subscriptions
>>
>
>

[Kevin Lucas (yu210148)]

This bug appears to be present in the alsa-utils 1.0.24.2-0ubuntu8.1 package I've got installed on kubuntu 11.10 here.

[Kevin Lucas (yu210148)]

Compiled and installed alsa-utils-1.0.24.2 from source this morning with the patch here applied and all is good.

When I got home from work I saw that alsa-utils-1.0.25 had been released which according to the release notes includes an option for interactive mode (http://www.alsa-project.org/main/index.php/Changes_v1.0.24_v1.0.25#aplay.2Farecord). I'm going to attempt to compile and install this new version on my laptop which is running Sabayon Linux (this same issue was present on that machine).

I'll post back if this new version resolves the issue.

[Kevin Lucas (yu210148)]

Success! It's fixed in alsa-utils-1.0.25. Now this version just needs to be pushed to the update repository. Anyone got any idea how to get that done?

[Sergio Oller (zeehio)]

Ubuntu 11.04 and Ubuntu 11.10 reached End Of Life, and the bug is fixed on 12.04, so I close this bug.

Thanks to everyone who helped fixing it! :-)