espeak returns error on ubuntu server

I want to use espeak on my server, so I can scare my girlfriend from work :)

ubuntu 11.04 server.

sudo espeak -v en "Hello i am espeak"

Error:

ALSA lib pcm.c:2212:(snd_pcm_open_noupdate) Unknown PCM cards.pcm.rear
ALSA lib pcm.c:2212:(snd_pcm_open_noupdate) Unknown PCM cards.pcm.center_lfe
ALSA lib pcm.c:2212:(snd_pcm_open_noupdate) Unknown PCM cards.pcm.side
ALSA lib pcm_dmix.c:957:(snd_pcm_dmix_open) The dmix plugin supports only playback stream
Cannot connect to server socket err = No such file or directory
Cannot connect to server socket
jack server is not running or cannot be started

even if you are using the ubuntu server install, you might have the pulseaudio sound server running. This will default to surround alsa emulation which espeak isn't capable to handle.

Use: espeak -v en "Hello i am espeak" --stdout|paplay instead.

I had exakt the same problem on a Raspberry Pi. For me it worked fine with:

espeak -v en "Hello i am espeak" --stdout | aplay

(aplay instead of paplay)