[Bug 1991022] [NEW] [SRU] Service activation via Systemd socket

[Launchpad Bug Tracker]

You have been subscribed to a public bug by Nathan Teodosio (nteodosio):

[Description]

Systemd socket activation for Speech Dispatcher.

  - Creates the speech-dispatcher.socket;
  - Modifies the server so that it can detect it was automatically launched by that socket activation; and
  - Modifies the Autotools files accordingly.

[Impact]

It's relevance is described in [1], of which I quote the essential parts
[my notes in brackets]:

> Sandboxed applications [snaps] that use Speech Dispatcher currently bundle it inside of the sandbox, so that each application has its own "private" instance of Speech Dispatcher running. This works more or less, but it has the downside that speech dispatcher cannot coordinate simultaneous messages from multiple apps. When multiple sandboxed apps use Speech Dispatcher at the same time, the text reading overlaps.
>
> In order to solve this issue, I would really like to give sandboxed apps access to the Speech Dispatcher instance of the host.

That can be done by implementing the action of the speech dispatcher
service via a Systemd socket:

> The only issue I see is having it auto launch. I think it would
probably be a good step forward for speech-dispatcher to be auto
launched by a systemd socket like other daemons already do on demand.
That way the host speech-dispatcher with it's configuration would be
used by all snaps,

[Additional information]

The changes are already merged upstream[21][22][23], but still not
released.

I have built and installed the package in Mantic and verified that
running spd-say from inside a snap causes the host's dispatcher to spawn
and emit sound — see 'Test case' for more details. This has also been
verified in Jammy by Lissyx[31][32] and there is a merge proposal[4] for
the Firefox snap that assumes the incorporation of this delta in speech-
dispatcher.

Note: Either the installed socket needs to be started manually to
function correctly or the system needs to be rebooted.

[Test case]

Install the proposed speech-dispatcher and the snap[5] containing spd-
say. Then,

  systemctl start --user speech-dispatcher.socket
  snap run --shell geheim
  $ XDG_RUNTIME_DIR=/run/user/1000 spd-say hi

should say "hi" through your loudspeakers. If you have no loudspeakers
or if you are testing in a virtual machine, you can use Pavucontrol to
verify that the dummy output device meter shows activity right after you
issue the last command.

[Regression potential]

If the socket communication were not working (e.g. connection refused),
then this would result in text-to-speech failing, even for a not
sandboxed program.

Do note, however, that if the socket were not available for whatever
reason (e.g. the user didn't start it manually nor rebooted), then the
sd_listen_fds(0) >= 1 test would be false and no regression would be
observed, as then the program would fallback to its usual operation.

[1]  https://github.com/brailcom/speechd/issues/335
[21] https://github.com/brailcom/speechd/pull/763
[22] https://github.com/brailcom/speechd/pull/776
[23] https://github.com/brailcom/speechd/pull/817
[31]  https://irclogs.ubuntu.com/2023/05/17/%23ubuntu-desktop.html
[32] https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1729750#c23
[4]  https://github.com/canonical/firefox-snap/pull/12
[5]  https://launchpad.net/~nteodosio/+snap/test-speechd/+build/2103550

** Affects: speech-dispatcher (Ubuntu)
     Importance: High
     Assignee: Nathan Teodosio (nteodosio)
         Status: Fix Released

** Affects: speech-dispatcher (Ubuntu Focal)
     Importance: High
     Assignee: Nathan Teodosio (nteodosio)
         Status: New

** Affects: speech-dispatcher (Ubuntu Jammy)
     Importance: High
     Assignee: Nathan Teodosio (nteodosio)
         Status: Confirmed

** Affects: speech-dispatcher (Ubuntu Kinetic)
     Importance: High
     Assignee: Nathan Teodosio (nteodosio)
         Status: Confirmed

** Affects: speech-dispatcher (Ubuntu Lunar)
     Importance: High
     Assignee: Nathan Teodosio (nteodosio)
         Status: Confirmed


** Tags: patch
-- 
[SRU] Service activation via Systemd socket
https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/1991022
You received this bug notification because you are a member of Ubuntu Sponsors Team, which is subscribed to the bug report.