eSpeak NG user guide

June 9, 2024 ยท View on GitHub

Installation

Linux

To install precompiled package of eSpeak NG on Linux, use standard package manager of your distribution. (Probably is very high, eSpeak NG will be included in package repository).

E.g. for Debian-like distribution (e.g. Ubuntu, Mint, etc.) execute command:

sudo apt-get install espeak-ng

For RedHat-like distribution (e.g. CentOS, Fedora, etc.) execute command:

sudo yum install espeak-ng

Windows

To install precompiled binaries of eSpeak NG on Windows:

  1. open (https://github.com/espeak-ng/espeak-ng/releases) and click on Latest release and then appropriate *.msi file, e.g. espeak-ng-20191129-b702b03-x64.msi

  2. Execute downloaded installer package.

Error solutions

Problems with pcaudiolib

if espeak-ng is compiled and installed without pcaudiolib compiled and installed before, then calling it simply

espeak-ng hello

doesn't produce any sound. Then usual workaround with sending data standard output and piping it to aplay (Lubuntu) or paplay (Ubuntu) works:

espeak-ng hello --stdout|aplay

But, when pcaudiolib is compiled and installed and espeak-ng is reconfigured, recompiled and reinstalled again, simple call works properly.

If espeak-ng is built from source code, ensure that libpulse-dev package is installed, or pcaudiolib built and installed and, when do ./configure command, check that status says:

PulseAudio support:            yes

Then recompile and install espeak-ng again.

Problems with pulseaudio

If Linux distribution doesn't support pulseaudio sound system (or it doesn't work):

  1. Remove pulseaudio package install alsa:

    sudo apt purge pulseaudio
sudo apt autoremove
sudo apt install --reinstall alsa

  2. Reboot

    sudo reboot

  3. Recompile espeak-ng with --with-pulseaudio=no support:

    ./autogen.sh
./configure --prefix=/usr --with-pulseaudio=no
make -B
sudo make install