I have encountered a very similar problem. I had never used the screen reader. I'm guessing that something had glitched in my system. But I had heard a random sound while using my system and I checked the running processes and I had found these processes running. Is there a related bug anywhere?
-- You received this bug notification because you are a member of Desktop Packages, which is subscribed to speech-dispatcher in Ubuntu. https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/1496542 Title: Running processes left after disabling screen reader Status in speech-dispatcher package in Ubuntu: Triaged Bug description: After I disabled my screen reader, I noticed that when running "ps xa | grep -P 'speech-dispatcher.*\.conf'" I get: 17906 tty2 Sl+ 0:09 /usr/lib/speech-dispatcher-modules/sd_espeak /etc/speech-dispatcher/modules/espeak.conf 17911 tty2 Sl+ 0:01 /usr/lib/speech-dispatcher-modules/sd_cicero /etc/speech-dispatcher/modules/cicero.conf 17915 tty2 Sl+ 0:01 /usr/lib/speech-dispatcher-modules/sd_generic /etc/speech-dispatcher/modules/generic.conf 17918 tty2 Sl+ 0:01 /usr/lib/speech-dispatcher-modules/sd_dummy /etc/speech-dispatcher/modules/dummy.conf 24407 pts/0 S+ 0:00 grep --color=auto -P speech-dispatcher.*\.conf So it seems as though it left some running processes behind after I disabled it. I have also attached a screenshot of my Sound settings which show that they are still running (Sound_Application_List2.png). --- OS Information: No LSB modules are available. Distributor ID: Ubuntu Description: Ubuntu 15.04 Release: 15.04 Codename: vivid Package Information: speech-dispatcher: Installed: 0.8.1-0ubuntu1 Candidate: 0.8.1-0ubuntu1 Version table: *** 0.8.1-0ubuntu1 0 500 http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ vivid/main amd64 Packages 100 /var/lib/dpkg/status ProblemType: Bug DistroRelease: Ubuntu 15.04 Package: speech-dispatcher 0.8.1-0ubuntu1 ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 3.19.0-28.30-generic 3.19.8-ckt5 Uname: Linux 3.19.0-28-generic x86_64 ApportVersion: 2.17.2-0ubuntu1.4 Architecture: amd64 CurrentDesktop: GNOME Date: Wed Sep 16 20:27:00 2015 InstallationDate: Installed on 2015-07-29 (49 days ago) InstallationMedia: Ubuntu-GNOME 15.04 "Vivid Vervet" - Release amd64 (20150422) SourcePackage: speech-dispatcher UpgradeStatus: No upgrade log present (probably fresh install) To manage notifications about this bug go to: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/speech-dispatcher/+bug/1496542/+subscriptions -- Mailing list: https://launchpad.net/~desktop-packages Post to : desktop-packages@lists.launchpad.net Unsubscribe : https://launchpad.net/~desktop-packages More help : https://help.launchpad.net/ListHelp