Error: Could not narrate. Try to run VarAC as administrator.

I'm running VarAC, Vara FM and Vara on an MX-Linux 23 system (Bookworm). I'm nearly certain that the narration feature worked immediatly after I installed it, because I was impressed that I would not need to install my own narration files, as with JS8Call. However, narration audio now longer works.

From the VarAC log:

 Error: Could not narrate. Try to run VarAC as administrator.Object reference not set to an instance of an object.
   at System.Speech.Internal.Helpers.CompareInvariantCulture(CultureInfo culture1, CultureInfo culture2)
   at System.Speech.Synthesis.InstalledVoice.FirstEnabled(List`1 list, CultureInfo culture)
   at System.Speech.Internal.Synthesis.VoiceSynthesis.GetEngineWithVoice(TTSVoice defaultVoice, VoiceInfo defaultVoiceId, String name, CultureInfo culture, VoiceGender gender, VoiceAge age, Int32 variant, Boolean switchContext)
   at System.Speech.Internal.Synthesis.VoiceSynthesis.GetVoice(Boolean switchContext)
   at System.Speech.Synthesis.SpeechSynthesizer.SelectVoiceByHints(VoiceGender gender, VoiceAge age, Int32 voiceAlternate, CultureInfo culture)
   at System.Speech.Synthesis.SpeechSynthesizer.SelectVoiceByHints(VoiceGender gender)
   at VarAC.Form8.<>c__DisplayClass39_0.<narrate>b__0()

I tried running VarAC as root. In fact, I copied the entire WINE sandbox/environment to /root and ran it there, but I still get the error.

I'm also getting ALSA lib errors at program launch, which I think have always been present:

ALSA lib dlmisc.c:337:(snd_dlobj_cache_get0) Cannot open shared library libasound_module_pcm_pipewire.so (/lib/i386-linux-gnu/alsa-lib/libasound_module_pcm_pipewire.so: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory)
ALSA lib dlmisc.c:337:(snd_dlobj_cache_get0) Cannot open shared library libasound_module_pcm_pipewire.so (/lib/i386-linux-gnu/alsa-lib/libasound_module_pcm_pipewire.so: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory)
ALSA lib dlmisc.c:337:(snd_dlobj_cache_get0) Cannot open shared library libasound_module_pcm_pipewire.so (/lib/i386-linux-gnu/alsa-lib/libasound_module_pcm_pipewire.so: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory)
ALSA lib dlmisc.c:337:(snd_dlobj_cache_get0) Cannot open shared library libasound_module_pcm_pipewire.so (/lib/i386-linux-gnu/alsa-lib/libasound_module_pcm_pipewire.so: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory)

Sure enough, i386-linux-gnu/alsa-lib/libasound_module_pcm_pipewire.so was missing from the system so I installed it:

sudo apt-get install  pipewire-alsa:i386

The ALSA lib errors went away at boot but so did all my sounds in the "Sounds (enable to test)" section, which previously worked, and the pipewire-alsa:i386 installation didn't fix the Narrator sounds either.

So I removed the i386 library and at least got my "Sounds (enable to test)" sounds back.

sudo apt-get remove pipewire-alsa:i386
sudo apt-autoremove

In all cases, I also get this ALSA error after program launch, right after the VarAC window is rendered:

ALSA lib pcm.c:8570:(snd_pcm_recover) overrun occurred

It seems that my WINE environment has a few bugs. I can live with the Vara CPU gauge "%CPU not available" bug, which appears to be well-known in WINE installations, but I'd really like to get all my sounds working.

Anyone here have any suggestions?

73,

Cal -- AD8Q