Read-aloud on Linux: Pied solution

[retiredbiker]

Running 6.28.1 (and prior) on Ubuntu 23.10 (and prior) I was never able to get the text to speech working well in the Viewer. It sort of worked, but was just about unintelligible. I spent hours on it and finally gave up.

Today I saw a post for Pied, a solution to install Piper and get it working with Speech Dispatcher. I gave it a try, and now the Viewer Read-aloud feature works perfectly for me. And I got several very pleasant voices. (Note, this is Beta, but I have had no problems.)

If other Linux users want to try it:

https://pied.mikeasoft.com and installation at https://snapcraft.io/pied

The author is on Mastodon: @mikesheldon@octodon.social

[nurber]

Thanks for sharing this experience. I too have been unable to get speech-dispatcher to work despite trying on multiple previous versions of Calibre. These days I'm using a Calibre 7.1 via flatpak on Ubuntu 20.04 and don't believe there is a way to install speech-dispatcher given the sandboxed nature of flatpak. The only ppa I found for Calibre on Ubuntu ( 20.04 & 22.04 ) seems to have Calibre 5.11.

[retiredbiker]

Why use flatpak for Calibre? Anything other than the binary install provided by Kovid has proven to be buggy or lacking something over the years.

(Any time I've messed with flatpak, some roadblock has happened, and I've gone back to apt install or even the "configure, make, make install" routine.)

[Quoth]

I only use flatpak if no deb.
If the author writes "Don't use packages with the Distros, use my script", then that's what I do.
For years I downloaded the Windows version and now run the script for Linux on the Calibre web site.
See what Kovid writes on the download page:
https://calibre-ebook.com/download_linux

Please do not use your distribution provided calibre package, as those are often buggy/outdated. Instead use the Binary install described below.

Binary install
calibre has a binary install that includes private versions of all its dependencies. It runs on 64-bit Intel or ARM compatible machines. To install or upgrade, simply copy and paste the following command into a terminal and press Enter:

sudo -v && wget -nv -O- https://download.calibre-ebook.com/linux-installer.sh | sudo sh /dev/stdin

[nurber]

Originally Posted by retiredbiker

Why use flatpak for Calibre? Anything other than the binary install provided by Kovid has proven to be buggy or lacking something over the years.

(Any time I've messed with flatpak, some roadblock has happened, and I've gone back to apt install or even the "configure, make, make install" routine.)

I've had fairly good experience with flatpak and snap. Occasionally a particular version of a flatpak or snap doesn't work, but often there are multiple versions in Gnome or Ubuntu software application (using Gnome these days) and it usually seems that one is well-maintained and working. In this example flatpak versions are closely mirroring the Calibre versions and working very reliably with the limitation of being sandboxed.. Like Quoth I too will always choose a deb from Ubuntu ppa or third-party ppa first and then flatpak or snap if not.

[kovidgoyal]

It will indeed be nice if Linux finally gets some good voices.

[retiredbiker]

Originally Posted by kovidgoyal

It will indeed be nice if Linux finally gets some good voices.

The difference after installing the Pied solution is simply amazing. My Ubuntu box has never, ever read like this.

[fahmida]

Originally Posted by retiredbiker

Running 6.28.1 (and prior) on Ubuntu 23.10 (and prior) I was never able to get the text to speech working well in the Viewer. It sort of worked, but was just about unintelligible. I spent hours on it and finally gave up.

Today I saw a post for Pied, a solution to install Piper and get it working with Speech Dispatcher. I gave it a try, and now the Viewer Read-aloud feature works perfectly for me. And I got several very pleasant voices. (Note, this is Beta, but I have had no problems.)

If other Linux users want to try it:

https://pied.mikeasoft.com and installation at https://snapcraft.io/pied

The author is on Mastodon: @mikesheldon@octodon.social

I would like to show you my gratitude to you and just Thank you for making this up. It is so helpful, words can't explain it.

As a new bie, I have just one question, how to change the speed? caliber doesn't allow that. (or it's just not working)

[TTY15]

Originally Posted by fahmida

As a newbie, I have just one question, how to change the speed? caliber doesn't allow that. (or it's just not working)

Pied doesn't provide this feature yet. It only makes basic config files for speech-dispatcher. You need to edit these files but when you change voice in piper it will change them.

The permanent solution would be to create proper config files in your

/home/.config/speech-dispatcher

or

/etc/speech-dispatcher/

And after that don't use Piper until it has this feature. But I haven't checked what happens if both configs are present in etc and in home.

read:
how to lower speed

Piper as speech-dispatcher plugin

module request: piper

[TTY15]

This piper.conf works for me:

GenericExecuteSynth "if command -v sox > /dev/null; then\
        PROCESS=\'sox -r 22050 -c 1 -b 16 -e signed-integer -t raw - -t wav - tempo $RATE pitch $PITCH norm\'; OUTPUT=\'$PLAY_COMMAND\';\
    elif command -v paplay > /dev/null; then\
        PROCESS=\'cat\'; OUTPUT=\'$PLAY_COMMAND --raw --channels 1 --rate 22050\';\
    else\
        PROCESS=\'cat\'; OUTPUT=\'aplay -t raw -c 1 -r 22050 -f S16_LE\';\
    fi;\

GenericRateAdd 1
GenericPitchAdd 1
GenericVolumeAdd 1
GenericRateMultiply 1
GenericPitchMultiply 1000

GenericExecuteSynth "printf %s \'$DATA\' | piper --length_scale \`echo \'($RATE * 0.65) + 1\' \| bc\`  --sentence_silence 1 --model ~/.local/share/piper/voices/$VOICE --output-raw | aplay -r 22050 -f S16_LE -t raw -"
# only use medium quality voices to respect the 22050 rate for aplay in the command above.

GenericCmdDependency "piper"
GenericCmdDependency "aplay"
GenericCmdDependency "printf"
GenericCmdDependency "bc"
GenericSoundIconFolder "/usr/share/sounds/sound-icons/"

GenericPunctNone ""
GenericPunctSome "--punct=\"()<>[]{}\""
GenericPunctMost "--punct=\"()[]{};:\""
GenericPunctAll "--punct"

#GenericStripPunctChars  ""

GenericLanguage  "en" "en_US" "utf-8"


AddVoice        "en"    "MALE1"         "en_US-libritts_r-medium.onnx -s 7"
AddVoice        "en"    "FEMALE1"       "en_US-amy-medium.onnx"

DefaultVoice    "en_US-libritts_r-medium.onnx -s 7"

Look at

$RATE * 0.65

And speechd.conf as in above links.

[KindleAZWorKFX]

Originally Posted by retiredbiker

Why use flatpak for Calibre? Anything other than the binary install provided by Kovid has proven to be buggy or lacking something over the years.

(Any time I've messed with flatpak, some roadblock has happened, and I've gone back to apt install or even the "configure, make, make install" routine.)

I think when I try this I would use the snap install for Pied on kubuntu or ubuntu distro.

https://snapcraft.io/pied

Looking forward to checking this out, next time i am booted up in my linux distro at home, now in calibre in linux do you need any plugins for the text to speech installed for the viewer or does it just work with Pied?

p.s. is the calibre gettings any HDR support for when kde plasma 6 makes its way to all the linux distros, so far I think KaOS-2024.01-x86_64 has plasma 6, and is stable, I don't know if it has the supported HDR for monitors yet feature, not sure about KDE neon yet,

I know testing builds of KDE neon have plasma 6 but I don't know if its in its stable version yet, since both have snap I think installing Pied on either of them should be easy maybe. I have a have a M28U 4k display that supports 144 Hz with HDR included, its a gigabyte monitor, in linux when I use it with my 4k display besides the Fedora linux distro of kde plasma

I find that I have to go to 1080 with Fedora's Gnome linux distro, both linux distro's like silverblue distro does not detect my monitor correctky, but its kinoite has a better setting for my 4k monitor so far it's been the best one I used with my older desktop and Linux, my newer desktop I still use windows with currently for my video games.

https://fedoraproject.org/atomic-desktops/kinoite/

https://neon.kde.org/download

https://kaosx.us/ -- plasma 6 is already on this linux distro if anyone wants to know that.

I look at distrowatch for news about new linux distro features and stuff like that.

https://distrowatch.com/

[KindleAZWorKFX]

Originally Posted by nurber

I've had fairly good experience with flatpak and snap. Occasionally a particular version of a flatpak or snap doesn't work, but often there are multiple versions in Gnome or Ubuntu software application (using Gnome these days) and it usually seems that one is well-maintained and working. In this example flatpak versions are closely mirroring the Calibre versions and working very reliably with the limitation of being sandboxed.. Like Quoth I too will always choose a deb from Ubuntu ppa or third-party ppa first and then flatpak or snap if not.

How well does Pied work on Kde Neon, I been thinking of dual booting it on my new pc, with the testing version which Plasma 6, I have windows 11 installed to the SSD drive, and two other hard drives, one which I could install a Linux to it. I had used rufus and live booted my USB media drive, and took some screen shots, there is like a few red items in Firmware Security, all my but one of External hard drive work from Linux, I have a old IOMAGIC drive that doesn't work well with Linux, otherwise my other two do. I can use snap with Kde Neon to install Pied, also I need to install NVidia drivers for Nvidia RTX 3070 card, the motherboard is z690 AORUS gigabyte brand, and I have it in a Cooler Masters case. Lately the IRIS on HAF700 EVO was crashing ghosting effect on its display on the front of the case for showing like CPU temp, been doing this since Master plus windows software released that firmware update to the IRIS on the HAF700 EVO case again was thinking of switching to Linux since Linux doesn't have it turning on when you bootup a live USB image like ubuntu or other KDE Neon from USB drive, again I have yet to install it on this pc, only did a live mode from USB drive, to share some screenshots, I do plan on installing this Linux on my older gigabyte desktop at home, I might wait for a few more stable builds of KDE plasma 6 before I use it on my newer pc we built at home. and No my Facebook will not log into the cooler master website, last time I tried I was unable to get on their support website, about the iris display problem, my parents got me the case from amazon.com website. I have no problems running calibre from Linux I done this before on my older pc at home. This pc has also a Intel AlderLake-S GT1 GPU in it, I don't know if I have to install drivers for that one, or if it just works in linux, neon-testing-20240207-1524.iso downloaded image used with rufus-4.4 and my USB drive.

OS: KDE neon Testing Edition x86_64

Host: Z690 AORUS MASTER —CF

Kernel: 6.5.0—17—generic

Uptime: 15 mins

Packages: 2206 (dpkg)

Shell: bash 5.1.16

Resolution: 3846x2160

DE: Plasma 6.0.0

WM: kwin

Theme: Breeze [GTK2]

Icons: breeze [GTK2/3]

Terminal: konsole

CPU: 12th Gen Intel i9—12900K (24) @ 5.10@GHz
GPU: Intel AlderLake—S GT1

GPU: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Lite Hash Rate
Memory: 1869MiB / 64056MiB