Human-sounding speech in German as a screen reader.

[Kaule07]

Thorsten Voice or RHVoice cannot be configured using GUI applications.

Attempts with Gemini (7 hours) and ChatGPT (several hours) were unsuccessful.

Please make one or more of the human-sounding voices configurable via the GUI, like Orca. The currently available voices are very outdated and barely understandable for blind and visually impaired users.

There are voices, like Thorsten Voice or RHVoice, that sound really good. However, they cannot be installed, even with AI assistance, via the command line.

[Jopp-gh]

Check out Pied on flathub.org.

[mtwebster]

Is flathub set up as a repo still (It should be unless you've removed it).

Can you install the runtime directly?

flatpak install --system org.freedesktop.Platform/x86_64/24.08

[Kaule07]

It worked. But it's a shame that freedesktop.Platform/x86_64/24.08 isn't found and can't be installed via the GUI application manager. This is a problem for new Linux users.

The first command installed the following:

$ flatpak install --system org.freedesktop.Platform/x86_64/24.08
Searching for matches... 


IDENTIFICATION Branch Op Remote station Download 
1. org.freedesktop.Platform.GL.default 24.08 i flathub < 145.9 MB 
2. org.freedesktop.Platform.GL.default 24.08extra i flathub < 145.9 MB 
3. org.freedesktop.Platform.Locale 24.08 i flathub < 388.3 MB (partial) 
4. org.freedesktop.Platform.VAAPI.Intel 24.08 i flathub < 15.0 MB 
5. org.freedesktop.Platform.openh264 2.5.1 i flathub < 971.4 KB

6. org.freedesktop.Platform 24.08 i flathub < 269.6 MB

Continue with these changes to the system installation? [Y/n]:

Then:

$ flatpak install --user com.mikeasoft.pied.flatpak

com.mikeasoft.pied Permissions:

ipc network fallback-x11 pulseaudio
wayland x11 dri file access [1]
dbus access [2]

[1] home

[2] org.freedesktop.Flatpak

IDENTIFICATION Branch Op Peer Download

1. com.mikeasoft.pied master i pied3-origin 0 Bytes

Continue with these changes to the user installation? [Y/n]:

After a restart, Pied was available in the start menu. It could be started, Piper installed, and the voice selected.

Thank you for your help.

With better integration of all the missing software, Linux Mint could also be made more accessible.

[Kaule07]

How can I see if Flathub is set as a repository? In the application manager, the package sources are set to Main (Zena) and Base (Noble). Nothing is listed under Additional Package Sources.

Flatpak is installed, and I can search for and install Flatpaks via the application manager.

I haven't removed any repositories.

[mtwebster]

With better integration of all the missing software, Linux Mint could also be made more accessible.

Again, the developer of this app has chosen not to allow integration by not publishing this application on Flathub, even though it relies on runtimes that the user must download from there anyhow.

I'm not judging that choice either way, but this is a big part of why you're having issues here.

flatpak remote-list

You should see 'flathub' listed as a system repo. If they're showing up in the software manager, everything's probably fine.

[Jopp-gh]

@Kaule07
Don't worry about updates.

Basically, you can forget about Pied, once installed. The point was to download voices, right?

• Commercial software updates more often because of marketing needs.
• complex software needs patches too, Pied is not on that "complex software list".

Linux behaves not the same as commercial counterparts.

[ost-guy]

this error is very scary for kids in my opinion