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ljs.dev
Asked: 2013-11-17 19:08:42 +0800 CST

How to stop Ubuntu from talking to me?

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The title may sound silly, but on Ubuntu 13.10, I'm getting frequent audible notifications using text to speech.

Is this the "speech dispatcher" and how can I disable it?

orca

8 Answers

  1. Best Answer

    Pressing AltSuperS will disable or enable speech dispatcher.

    The last thing you should hear is "screen reader off" :-

    ps. The Super key is the "windows" key...

    • 169

  2. Go to the Settings application. Select Universal Access. You will see a tab labeled "Seeing". In there should be Screen Reader. Turn that off.

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  3. I had the same problem maybe, starting with Ubuntu 15.04. The Screen reader is off, same with the dispatcher setting; but it keeps telling me what I'm typing.

    I have running four dispatcher, all at the time that can't be killed because they're starting again directly. To solve my problem, I went to System Settings -> Sound. On Applications, I muted the four speech-dispatcher.

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  4. Do you want to change the systemwide settings for Speech Dispatcher? The (yes/no) systemwide settings for Speech Dispatcher can be changed by editing the /etc/default/speech-dispatcher file.

    Open the terminal and from the terminal open the /etc/default/speech-dispatcher file for editing in nano text editor: 

    sudo nano '/etc/default/speech-dispatcher'

    Find the lines in speech-dispatcher that say:

    # Set to yes to start system wide Speech Dispatcher
RUN=yes

    ...and change RUN=yes to RUN=no.

    This will disable the system wide speech dispatcher audible notifications, if they have been previously enabled. Press the keyboard combination Ctrl+O and after that press Enter to save the speech-dispatcher file. Press the keyboard combination Ctrl+X to exit nano.

    You can still toggle enable/disable the screen reader after it has been turned off systemwide by using the keyboard shortcut Alt+Super+S

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  5. Maybe "orca" has bean launched. Kill the "orca" (Screen Reader) process, then you should hear "screen reader off".

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  6. Go to universal access under settings then turn off the screen reader

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  7. You can disable it in following ways :-

    Press Alt + Super + S

    or goto System Settings > Universal Access > Turn Off Screen Reader

    If you will check your System Setting > Sound > Applications then may be you can find that some instance of Speech Dispatcher is running. You can kill the running instances in this way:-

    deepak@SpiritualDixit-PC:~$ ps aux | grep speech
deepak    2593  0.0  0.0 289004  5076 ?        Sl   10:10   0:00 /usr/lib/speech-dispatcher-modules/sd_dummy /etc/speech-dispatcher/modules/dummy.conf
deepak    2599  0.0  0.0 289004  5008 ?        Sl   10:10   0:00 /usr/lib/speech-dispatcher-modules/sd_cicero /etc/speech-dispatcher/modules/cicero.conf
deepak    2603  0.1  0.1 531004  9608 ?        Sl   10:10   0:03 /usr/lib/speech-dispatcher-modules/sd_espeak /etc/speech-dispatcher/modules/espeak.conf
deepak    2632  0.0  0.0 289016  5024 ?        Sl   10:10   0:00 /usr/lib/speech-dispatcher-modules/sd_generic /etc/speech-dispatcher/modules/generic.conf
deepak    2635  0.0  0.0 104284  2320 ?        Ssl  10:10   0:00 /usr/bin/speech-dispatcher --spawn --socket-path /run/user/1000/speech-dispatcher/speechd.sock --port 6560 --communication-method unix_socket
deepak    4708  0.0  0.0  21292   944 pts/9    S+   11:05   0:00 grep --color=auto speech
deepak@SpiritualDixit-PC:~$ kill 2593
deepak@SpiritualDixit-PC:~$ kill 2599
deepak@SpiritualDixit-PC:~$ kill 2603
deepak@SpiritualDixit-PC:~$ kill 2632
deepak@SpiritualDixit-PC:~$ kill 2635
deepak@SpiritualDixit-PC:~$ 
deepak@SpiritualDixit-PC:~$ ps aux | grep speech
deepak    4719  0.0  0.0  21292   944 pts/9    S+   11:06   0:00 grep --color=auto speech
deepak@SpiritualDixit-PC:~$
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  8. I was also facing same problem with Laptop My solution was simple System -> Sound -> Application and then I muted all four Speech-dispatcher and it solves my issue.

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