pocketsphinx_continuous failed to open audio device

Question

After installing pocketsphinx , when I tried to run the pocketsphinx_continuous program then I got this error..

_oss.c(103): Failed to open audio device(/dev/dsp): No such file or directory FATAL_ERROR: "continuous.c", line 242: Failed top open audio device

How to solve this problem?

Answer 1

Install the following from the terminal :

sudo apt-get update;sudo apt-get dist-upgrade;
sudo apt-get install pavucontrol linux-sound-base alsa-base alsa-utils lightdm ubuntu-desktop  linux-image-`uname -r` libasound2;
sudo apt-get -y --reinstall install linux-sound-base alsa-base alsa-utils lightdm ubuntu-desktop  linux-image-`uname -r` libasound2;
killall pulseaudio;
rm -r ~/.pulse*;
ubuntu-support-status;
sudo usermod -aG `cat /etc/group | grep -e '^pulse:' -e '^audio:' -e '^pulse-access:' -e '^pulse-rt:' -e '^video:' | awk -F: '{print $1}' | tr '\n' ',' | sed 's:,$::g'` `whoami`

sudo apt-get install pulseaudio

sudo apt-get install libpulse-dev

sudo apt-get install osspd

Might take a while, but it worked perfectly for me.

Answer 2

You have an issue with pocketsphinx installation

To make easy access to pocketsphinx, just install pocketsphinx from repository, more over, recently pocketsphinx has been landed in Ubuntu repository.

If you compile pocketsphinx from sources, the installation process for pocketsphinx is not an issue if you understand the complexity of audio subsystems in Linux. The audio subsystem is complex unfortunately, but once you get it things will be easier. Historically, audio subsystem is pretty fragmented. It includes the following major frameworks:

Old Unix-like DSP framework – everything is handled by the kernel-space driver. Applications interact with /dev/dsp device to produce and record audio ALSA – newer audio subsystem, partially in kernel but also has userspace library libasound. ALSA also provides DSP compatibliity layer through snd_pcm_oss driver which creates /dev/dsp device and emulates audio Pulseaudio – even newer system which works on the top of libasound ALSA library but provides a sound server to centralize all the processing. To communicate with the library it also provides libpulse library which must be used by applications to record sound Jack – another sound server, also works on the top of ALSA, provides anoher library libjack. Similar to Pulseaudio there are others not very popular frameworks, but sphinxbase doesn’t support them. Example are ESD (old GNOME sound server), ARTS (old KDE sound server), Portaudio (portable library usable across Windows, Linux and Mac). The recommended audio framework on Ubuntu is pulseaudio.

Sphinxbase and pocketsphinx support all the frameworks and automatically selects the one you need in compile time. The highest priority is in pulseaudio framework. Before you install sphinxbase you need to decide which framework to use. You need to setup the development part of the corresponding framework after that.

For example, it’s recommended to install libpulse-dev package to provide access to pulseaudio and after that sphinxbase will automatically work with Pulseaudio. Once you work with pulseaudio you do not need other frameworks. On embedded device try to configure alsa.

For the future, you can quickly get the answer on this and other issues by reading Pocketsphinx FAQ

Answer 3

The following worked for me perfectly:

sudo apt-get update;sudo apt-get dist-upgrade; sudo apt-get install pavucontrol linux-sound-base alsa-base alsa-utils
sudo apt-get install libsound2
sudo apt-get install pulseaudio
sudo apt-get install libpulse-dev
sudo apt-get install osspd

And the below output resulted:

momen@momenlaptop:~$ pocketsphinx_continuous -inmic yes
INFO: pocketsphinx.c(152): Parsed model-specific feature parameters from /usr/local/share/pocketsphinx/model/en-us/en-us/feat.params
Current configuration:
[NAME]          [DEFLT]     [VALUE]
-agc            none        none
-agcthresh      2.0     2.000000e+00
-allphone               
-allphone_ci        no      no
-alpha          0.97        9.700000e-01
-ascale         20.0        2.000000e+01
-aw         1       1
-backtrace      no      no
-beam           1e-48       1.000000e-48
-bestpath       yes     yes
-bestpathlw     9.5     9.500000e+00
-ceplen         13      13
-cmn            live        batch
-cmninit        40,3,-1     41.00,-5.29,-0.12,5.09,2.48,-4.07,-1.37,-1.78,-5.08,-2.05,-6.45,-1.42,1.17
-compallsen     no      no
-debug                  0
-dict                   /usr/local/share/pocketsphinx/model/en-us/cmudict-en-us.dict
-dictcase       no      no
-dither         no      no
-doublebw       no      no
-ds         1       1
-fdict                  
-feat           1s_c_d_dd   1s_c_d_dd
-featparams             
-fillprob       1e-8        1.000000e-08
-frate          100     100
-fsg                    
-fsgusealtpron      yes     yes
-fsgusefiller       yes     yes
-fwdflat        yes     yes
-fwdflatbeam        1e-64       1.000000e-64
-fwdflatefwid       4       4
-fwdflatlw      8.5     8.500000e+00
-fwdflatsfwin       25      25
-fwdflatwbeam       7e-29       7.000000e-29
-fwdtree        yes     yes
-hmm                    /usr/local/share/pocketsphinx/model/en-us/en-us
-input_endian       little      little
-jsgf                   
-keyphrase              
-kws                    
-kws_delay      10      10
-kws_plp        1e-1        1.000000e-01
-kws_threshold      1       1.000000e+00
-latsize        5000        5000
-lda                    
-ldadim         0       0
-lifter         0       22
-lm                 /usr/local/share/pocketsphinx/model/en-us/en-us.lm.bin
-lmctl                  
-lmname                 
-logbase        1.0001      1.000100e+00
-logfn                  
-logspec        no      no
-lowerf         133.33334   1.300000e+02
-lpbeam         1e-40       1.000000e-40
-lponlybeam     7e-29       7.000000e-29
-lw         6.5     6.500000e+00
-maxhmmpf       30000       30000
-maxwpf         -1      -1
-mdef                   
-mean                   
-mfclogdir              
-min_endfr      0       0
-mixw                   
-mixwfloor      0.0000001   1.000000e-07
-mllr                   
-mmap           yes     yes
-ncep           13      13
-nfft           512     512
-nfilt          40      25
-nwpen          1.0     1.000000e+00
-pbeam          1e-48       1.000000e-48
-pip            1.0     1.000000e+00
-pl_beam        1e-10       1.000000e-10
-pl_pbeam       1e-10       1.000000e-10
-pl_pip         1.0     1.000000e+00
-pl_weight      3.0     3.000000e+00
-pl_window      5       5
-rawlogdir              
-remove_dc      no      no
-remove_noise       yes     yes
-remove_silence     yes     yes
-round_filters      yes     yes
-samprate       16000       1.600000e+04
-seed           -1      -1
-sendump                
-senlogdir              
-senmgau                
-silprob        0.005       5.000000e-03
-smoothspec     no      no
-svspec                 0-12/13-25/26-38
-tmat                   
-tmatfloor      0.0001      1.000000e-04
-topn           4       4
-topn_beam      0       0
-toprule                
-transform      legacy      dct
-unit_area      yes     yes
-upperf         6855.4976   6.800000e+03
-uw         1.0     1.000000e+00
-vad_postspeech     50      50
-vad_prespeech      20      20
-vad_startspeech    10      10
-vad_threshold      2.0     2.000000e+00
-var                    
-varfloor       0.0001      1.000000e-04
-varnorm        no      no
-verbose        no      no
-warp_params                
-warp_type      inverse_linear  inverse_linear
-wbeam          7e-29       7.000000e-29
-wip            0.65        6.500000e-01
-wlen           0.025625    2.562500e-02

INFO: feat.c(715): Initializing feature stream to type: '1s_c_d_dd', ceplen=13, CMN='batch', VARNORM='no', AGC='none'
INFO: acmod.c(162): Using subvector specification 0-12/13-25/26-38
INFO: mdef.c(518): Reading model definition: /usr/local/share/pocketsphinx/model/en-us/en-us/mdef
INFO: mdef.c(531): Found byte-order mark BMDF, assuming this is a binary mdef file
INFO: bin_mdef.c(336): Reading binary model definition: /usr/local/share/pocketsphinx/model/en-us/en-us/mdef
INFO: bin_mdef.c(516): 42 CI-phone, 137053 CD-phone, 3 emitstate/phone, 126 CI-sen, 5126 Sen, 29324 Sen-Seq
INFO: tmat.c(149): Reading HMM transition probability matrices: /usr/local/share/pocketsphinx/model/en-us/en-us/transition_matrices
INFO: acmod.c(113): Attempting to use PTM computation module
INFO: ms_gauden.c(127): Reading mixture gaussian parameter: /usr/local/share/pocketsphinx/model/en-us/en-us/means
INFO: ms_gauden.c(242): 42 codebook, 3 feature, size: 
INFO: ms_gauden.c(244):  128x13
INFO: ms_gauden.c(244):  128x13
INFO: ms_gauden.c(244):  128x13
INFO: ms_gauden.c(127): Reading mixture gaussian parameter: /usr/local/share/pocketsphinx/model/en-us/en-us/variances
INFO: ms_gauden.c(242): 42 codebook, 3 feature, size: 
INFO: ms_gauden.c(244):  128x13
INFO: ms_gauden.c(244):  128x13
INFO: ms_gauden.c(244):  128x13
INFO: ms_gauden.c(304): 222 variance values floored
INFO: ptm_mgau.c(476): Loading senones from dump file /usr/local/share/pocketsphinx/model/en-us/en-us/sendump
INFO: ptm_mgau.c(500): BEGIN FILE FORMAT DESCRIPTION
INFO: ptm_mgau.c(563): Rows: 128, Columns: 5126
INFO: ptm_mgau.c(595): Using memory-mapped I/O for senones
INFO: ptm_mgau.c(838): Maximum top-N: 4
INFO: phone_loop_search.c(114): State beam -225 Phone exit beam -225 Insertion penalty 0
INFO: dict.c(320): Allocating 138824 * 32 bytes (4338 KiB) for word entries
INFO: dict.c(333): Reading main dictionary: /usr/local/share/pocketsphinx/model/en-us/cmudict-en-us.dict
INFO: dict.c(213): Dictionary size 134723, allocated 1016 KiB for strings, 1679 KiB for phones
INFO: dict.c(336): 134723 words read
INFO: dict.c(358): Reading filler dictionary: /usr/local/share/pocketsphinx/model/en-us/en-us/noisedict
INFO: dict.c(213): Dictionary size 134728, allocated 0 KiB for strings, 0 KiB for phones
INFO: dict.c(361): 5 words read
INFO: dict2pid.c(396): Building PID tables for dictionary
INFO: dict2pid.c(406): Allocating 42^3 * 2 bytes (144 KiB) for word-initial triphones
INFO: dict2pid.c(132): Allocated 42672 bytes (41 KiB) for word-final triphones
INFO: dict2pid.c(196): Allocated 42672 bytes (41 KiB) for single-phone word triphones
INFO: ngram_model_trie.c(354): Trying to read LM in trie binary format
INFO: ngram_search_fwdtree.c(74): Initializing search tree
INFO: ngram_search_fwdtree.c(101): 791 unique initial diphones
INFO: ngram_search_fwdtree.c(186): Creating search channels
INFO: ngram_search_fwdtree.c(323): Max nonroot chan increased to 152609
INFO: ngram_search_fwdtree.c(333): Created 723 root, 152481 non-root channels, 53 single-phone words
INFO: ngram_search_fwdflat.c(157): fwdflat: min_ef_width = 4, max_sf_win = 25
INFO: continuous.c(307): pocketsphinx_continuous COMPILED ON: Sep 10 2017, AT: 22:55:34

INFO: continuous.c(252): Ready....
INFO: continuous.c(261): Listening...
INFO: ngram_search_fwdtree.c(949): cand_sf[] increased to 64 entries
INFO: ngram_search.c(459): Resized backpointer table to 10000 entries
INFO: ngram_search.c(467): Resized score stack to 200000 entries
INFO: ngram_search.c(459): Resized backpointer table to 20000 entries
INFO: ngram_search.c(467): Resized score stack to 400000 entries
INFO: ngram_search.c(459): Resized backpointer table to 40000 entries
INFO: ngram_search.c(467): Resized score stack to 800000 entries
INFO: cmn_live.c(88): Update from < 41.00 -5.29 -0.12  5.09  2.48 -4.07 -1.37 -1.78 -5.08 -2.05 -6.45 -1.42  1.17 >
INFO: cmn_live.c(105): Update to   < 69.63  8.29 -5.53 -0.71  6.93  0.21 -8.90 -0.03  2.80 -1.20  3.76  5.92 -5.86 >