[Xastir] splay and Xastir

[Lee Bengston]

On 12/13/09, Amateur Radio WB8NUT <duffy at wb8nut.com> wrote:
> Folks, this is probably more of a Linux issue than Xastir, but I thought
> someone here could steer me in right direction.
>
> I am trying to get alert sounds working in Xastir using splay.
>
> When splay plays any of the .wav files, it sound like a mosquito going
> by your ear or like a short screeching sound. Any hints on how to get it
> to play the sound file normally. I searched the Internet and I am stumped.

I hadn't played with the sound files in a long time.  Here's what I
ended up doing to make it work in Eeebuntu 3.0, which is based on
Ubuntu 9.04.

 - installed sox using sudo apt-get install sox
 - enabled audio alarms in the File-Configure-Audio Alarms menu in Xastir

The key was determining which application used the "play" command that
Xastir had included by default. I didn't try splay, which I understand
is a different application.

Curiously, when I tried the above in a Virtualbox virtual machine of
Ubuntu 9.10 (running under Windows), Xastir froze up as soon as it
attempted to play a sound.  However, if I simply enter play
newstation.wav in the terminal, the wav file plays just fine.  I have
a desktop running Ubuntu 9.10 natively that I have not tried this on
yet, so maybe it's just a Virtualbox issue.

My workaround for the problem in Virtualbox was to install mpg123
(sudo apt-get install mgp123) and convert the wav files to mp3.  With
mpg123 entered in Xastir as the command to play sounds, the file names
changed to .mp3, and the mp3 files copied into the xastir sound
directory, everything worked fine.

> Also, if anyone can steer me to a page (been to the Xastir wiki) that
> could help get Festival working with Xastir would also be appreciated.

I believe there is some info on using Festival in the installation
notes for Ubuntu in the wiki - check the recent ones for Ubuntu 8.04
and newer.

Regards,

Lee - K5DAT