Build Orca Master, optionally with Piper on Ubuntu 24.04

build_orca_master_with_spiel.md

Use the Orca Screen Reader with Piper

Orca support for Piper depends on Spiel which is a more modern speech framework for Linux. This is still experimental, but works well in my use.

This guide was written for Ubuntu 24.04 on July 12 2024.

Clone Orca and install its build dependencies

sudo apt install git
git clone https://gitlab.gnome.org/GNOME/orca/
sudo apt install libatspi2.0-dev cmake at-spi2-core meson libatk-bridge2.0-dev python-gi-dev libgirepository-2.0-0 gettext itstool  libgirepository1.0-dev libgstreamer1.0-dev libgstreamer-plugins-base1.0-dev

Build the new version of Orca and purge old artifacts if they exist

This should be done inside the directory where you cloned Orca.

meson subprojects purge --confirm
meson setup --reconfigure --force-fallback-for=spiel -Dspiel=true _build 
meson compile --clean -C _build
meson install -C _build

Install Flatpak and Spiel

sudo apt install flatpak
flatpak kill ai.piper.Speech.Provider
flatpak kill org.espeak.Speech.Provider
flatpak remote-add --user spiel https://project-spiel.org/flatpaks/spiel-repo.flatpakrepo
flatpak install ai.piper.Speech.Provider
flatpak install ai.piper.Speech.Provider.Voice.en_US-amy-medium

If this does not work, check https://project-spiel.org/install.html for latest instructions.

Run the piper speech provider

You will need to have this running in the background while you use Orca.

flatpak run ai.piper.Speech.Provider

Run Orca with Piper

Running meson devenv in the same folder you clone Orca creates an environment that allows you to use the newly built orca which has piper support, not the global system orca

meson devenv -C _build
orca --replace --speech-system=spiel