espeak - alsa and hdmi environment

Overview: Speech synthesis has become nearly trivial, but a typical ALSA setup relies on sound card definitions from the config files ~/.asoundrc or /usr/share/alsa/alsa.conf (I typically delete the former and modify the latter). A complex hardware situation will almost always require some modifications to the config file. Installing espeak into such an environment often requires yet further config file modifications. I often wish OSS were still developed. Note: espeak uses the PortAudio library, specifically relying upon libportaudio. Verify installation in Arch with $ pacman -Ss portaudio.

symptom

Attempted espeak statements provide pcm error messages and no audio. Environment: Two sound "cards" -- one Intel MB chip, one NVidia graphics card sound chip. NVidia card selected b/c HDMI cable. ALSA HDMI configuration working flawlessly with all input and output apps (except espeak). ALSA espeak errors:

$ espeak "hello world"
ALSA lib pcm_dsnoop.c:618:(snd_pcm_dsnoop_open) unable to open slave
ALSA lib confmisc.c:1281:(snd_func_refer) Unable to find definition 'cards.HDA-Intel.pcm.front.7:CARD=1'
ALSA lib conf.c:4371:(_snd_config_evaluate) function snd_func_refer returned error: No such file or directory
ALSA lib conf.c:4850:(snd_config_expand) Evaluate error: No such file or directory
ALSA lib pcm.c:2450:(snd_pcm_open_noupdate) Unknown PCM front
ALSA lib pcm.c:2450:(snd_pcm_open_noupdate) Unknown PCM cards.pcm.rear
ALSA lib pcm.c:2450:(snd_pcm_open_noupdate) Unknown PCM cards.pcm.center_lfe
ALSA lib pcm.c:2450:(snd_pcm_open_noupdate) Unknown PCM cards.pcm.side
ALSA lib confmisc.c:1281:(snd_func_refer) Unable to find definition 'cards.HDA-Intel.pcm.surround51.7:CARD=1'
ALSA lib conf.c:4371:(_snd_config_evaluate) function snd_func_refer returned error: No such file or directory
ALSA lib conf.c:4850:(snd_config_expand) Evaluate error: No such file or directory
ALSA lib pcm.c:2450:(snd_pcm_open_noupdate) Unknown PCM surround21
ALSA lib confmisc.c:1281:(snd_func_refer) Unable to find definition 'cards.HDA-Intel.pcm.surround71.7:CARD=1'
ALSA lib conf.c:4371:(_snd_config_evaluate) function snd_func_refer returned error: No such file or directory
ALSA lib conf.c:4850:(snd_config_expand) Evaluate error: No such file or directory
ALSA lib pcm.c:2450:(snd_pcm_open_noupdate) Unknown PCM surround71
ALSA lib confmisc.c:1281:(snd_func_refer) Unable to find definition 'cards.HDA-Intel.pcm.iec958.7:CARD=1,AES0=4,AES1=130,AES2=0,AES3=2'
ALSA lib confmisc.c:1281:(snd_func_refer) Unable to find definition 'cards.HDA-Intel.pcm.modem.7:CARD=1'
ALSA lib conf.c:4371:(_snd_config_evaluate) function snd_func_refer returned error: No such file or directory
ALSA lib conf.c:4850:(snd_config_expand) Evaluate error: No such file or directory
ALSA lib pcm.c:2450:(snd_pcm_open_noupdate) Unknown PCM phoneline
ALSA lib pcm_dsnoop.c:618:(snd_pcm_dsnoop_open) unable to open slave
connect(2) call to /dev/shm/jack-1000/default/jack_0 failed (err=No such file or directory)
attempt to connect to server failed

At least two issues jump out: espeak sound is (inexplicably) attempted through the Intel card instead of the NVidia card, so that's probably why all the other subassemblies are also unreachable and spawning errors. "Dsnoop" may also be an issue.

To solve the first problem, we can easily change the values inside /usr/share/alsa/alsa.conf further than my previous post on ALSA HDMI agreement. That is, per this post, comment the line for pcm.front, and each additional line of fail as follows:

# nano /usr/share/alsa/alsa.conf
# pcm.front cards.pcm.front
pcm.front cards.pcm.default

This reroutes dynamic loading on a per command basis to the default card, eliminating the error. But this means lines and lines of corrections. Note that it appears all of these are due to HDA-Intel (instead of NVidia), being called as during dynamic loading. Let's see if we can just rewrite one line to fix the called card to NVidia, instead of doing line-by-line edits on downstream results from calling the HDA-Intel.

First let's try to specify the hardware device, as we can do in:

$ aplay -D plughw:1,7 /usr/share/sounds/alsa/Front_Center.wav

We know ALSA is thus working. So we can do a two-step method using ALSA to be sure espeak is working:

$ espeak "Hello world" --stdout |aplay -D plughw:1,7

If nothing comes out of this, or if there is no content inside a WAV produced with

$ espeak "Hello world" -w somefile.wav

... then it's time to strace.