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Please do not use your distribution provided calibre package, as those are often buggy/outdated.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.