Comment 0 for bug 1866880

Modern web browsers, by spec, are supposed to support Speech Synthesis. Although Firefox does indeed support it, it doesn't work in Kubuntu 19.10.

On this very page, you should be able to have Firefox read it aloud by typing shift-ctrl-I and then entering this code-line into the console (and pressing enter):

speechSynthesis.speak(new SpeechSynthesisUtterance(document.getElementsByTagName("body")[0].innerText));

Something shorter, that you could type into the console (for testing) is:

speechSynthesis.speak(new SpeechSynthesisUtterance("testing 1, 2, 3");

You should be able to hear the browser say "testing 1, 2, 3" after doing this, but it doesn't working Kubuntu 19.10.

This works in Ubuntu 19.10 and Windows 10, but doesn't work in Kubuntu 19.10. I'm reporting this in hopes that it gets fixed before Kubuntu 20.04.

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 19.10
Package: firefox 73.0.1+build1-0ubuntu0.19.10.1
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 5.3.0-40.32-generic 5.3.18
Uname: Linux 5.3.0-40-generic x86_64
NonfreeKernelModules: nvidia_modeset nvidia
AddonCompatCheckDisabled: False
ApportVersion: 2.20.11-0ubuntu8.5
Architecture: amd64
AudioDevicesInUse:
 USER PID ACCESS COMMAND
 /dev/snd/controlC1: lonnie 1850 F.... pulseaudio
 /dev/snd/controlC0: lonnie 1850 F.... pulseaudio
BuildID: 20200217142647
Channel: Unavailable
CurrentDesktop: KDE
Date: Tue Mar 10 13:25:31 2020
ForcedLayersAccel: False
InstallationDate: Installed on 2020-02-03 (36 days ago)
InstallationMedia: Kubuntu 19.10 "Eoan Ermine" - Release amd64 (20191017)
NoProfiles: True
ProcEnviron:
 TERM=xterm-256color
 PATH=(custom, no user)
 XDG_RUNTIME_DIR=<set>
 LANG=en_US.UTF-8
 SHELL=/bin/bash
RunningIncompatibleAddons: False
SourcePackage: firefox
UpgradeStatus: No upgrade log present (probably fresh install)
dmi.bios.date: 12/12/2017
dmi.bios.vendor: American Megatrends Inc.
dmi.bios.version: 1.05.04RSA5
dmi.board.asset.tag: Tag 12345
dmi.board.name: Bonobo WS
dmi.board.vendor: System76
dmi.board.version: bonw13
dmi.chassis.asset.tag: No Asset Tag
dmi.chassis.type: 10
dmi.chassis.vendor: System76
dmi.chassis.version: N/A
dmi.modalias: dmi:bvnAmericanMegatrendsInc.:bvr1.05.04RSA5:bd12/12/2017:svnSystem76:pnBonoboWS:pvrbonw13:rvnSystem76:rnBonoboWS:rvrbonw13:cvnSystem76:ct10:cvrN/A:
dmi.product.family: Not Applicable
dmi.product.name: Bonobo WS
dmi.product.sku: Not Applicable
dmi.product.version: bonw13
dmi.sys.vendor: System76