New_Decoder returned -1 on Mac OS X 10.10.4

[gdbassett]

from os import environ, path

from pocketsphinx.pocketsphinx import *
from sphinxbase.sphinxbase import *

MODELDIR = "/usr/local/share/pocketsphinx/model"
DATADIR = "/tmp/"

# Create a decoder with certain model
config = Decoder.default_config()
config.set_string('-hmm', path.join(MODELDIR, 'en-us/en-us'))
config.set_string('-lm', path.join(MODELDIR, 'en-us/en-us.lm.dmp'))
config.set_string('-dict', path.join(MODELDIR, 'en-us/cmudict-en-us.dict'))
decoder = Decoder(config)

Yields error:

---------------------------------------------------------------------------
RuntimeError                              Traceback (most recent call last)
<ipython-input-2-2bb98e99123c> in <module>()
      7 config.set_string('-lm', path.join(MODELDIR, 'en-us/en-us.lm.dmp'))
      8 config.set_string('-dict', path.join(MODELDIR, 'en-us/cmudict-en-us.dict'))
----> 9 decoder = Decoder(config)
     10 

/usr/local/lib/python2.7/site-packages/pocketsphinx/pocketsphinx.pyc in __init__(self, *args)
    268         __init__(Decoder self, Config config) -> Decoder
    269         """
--> 270         this = _pocketsphinx.new_Decoder(*args)
    271         try:
    272             self.this.append(this)

RuntimeError: new_Decoder returned -1

Not sure how to collect more debug information on this.

This occurs whether installing from source (pip install pocketsphinx) or homebrew (https://github.com/watsonbox/homebrew-cmu-sphinx)

$ pocketsphinx_continuous -inmic yes at the command line runs fine.

[nshmyrev]

-lm path is now en-us.lm.bin, not lm.dmp. I fixed README

[gdbassett]

Thank you for the quick response. It appears the error still persists even with the adjustment in the documentation. Is there any way to produce more verbose debug output than the current runtime error?

from os import environ, path

from pocketsphinx.pocketsphinx import *
from sphinxbase.sphinxbase import *

MODELDIR = "/usr/local/share/pocketsphinx/model"
DATADIR = "/tmp/"

# Create a decoder with certain model
config = Decoder.default_config()
config.set_string('-hmm', path.join(MODELDIR, 'en-us/en-us'))
config.set_string('-lm', path.join(MODELDIR, 'en-us/en-us.lm.bin'))
config.set_string('-dict', path.join(MODELDIR, 'en-us/cmudict-en-us.dict'))
decoder = Decoder(config)

---------------------------------------------------------------------------
RuntimeError                              Traceback (most recent call last)
<ipython-input-48-1816cf3b7f10> in <module>()
     12 config.set_string('-lm', path.join(MODELDIR, 'en-us/en-us.lm.bin'))
     13 config.set_string('-dict', path.join(MODELDIR, 'en-us/cmudict-en-us.dict'))
---> 14 decoder = Decoder(config)
     15 

/usr/local/lib/python2.7/site-packages/pocketsphinx/pocketsphinx.pyc in __init__(self, *args)
    268 
    269     def __next__(self):
--> 270         """__next__(SegmentIterator self) -> Segment"""
    271         return _pocketsphinx.SegmentIterator___next__(self)
    272 

RuntimeError: new_Decoder returned -1

the directory contains:

$ ls /usr/local/share/pocketsphinx/model/en-us
cmudict-en-us.dict  en-us-phone.lm.bin
en-us           en-us.lm.bin

[gdbassett]

For reference, here is the configuration data when running pocketsphinx_continuous -inmic yes:

$ pocketsphinx_continuous -inmic yes
INFO: pocketsphinx.c(145): Parsed model-specific feature parameters from /usr/local/Cellar/cmu-pocketsphinx/HEAD/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            current     current
-cmninit        8.0     40,3,-1
-compallsen     no      no
-debug                  0
-dict                   /usr/local/Cellar/cmu-pocketsphinx/HEAD/share/pocketsphinx/model/en-us/cmudict-en-us.dict
-dictcase       no      no
-dither         no      no
-doublebw       no      no
-ds         1       1
-fdict                  /usr/local/Cellar/cmu-pocketsphinx/HEAD/share/pocketsphinx/model/en-us/en-us/noisedict
-feat           1s_c_d_dd   1s_c_d_dd
-featparams             /usr/local/Cellar/cmu-pocketsphinx/HEAD/share/pocketsphinx/model/en-us/en-us/feat.params
-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/Cellar/cmu-pocketsphinx/HEAD/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/Cellar/cmu-pocketsphinx/HEAD/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                   /usr/local/Cellar/cmu-pocketsphinx/HEAD/share/pocketsphinx/model/en-us/en-us/mdef
-mean                   /usr/local/Cellar/cmu-pocketsphinx/HEAD/share/pocketsphinx/model/en-us/en-us/means
-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                /usr/local/Cellar/cmu-pocketsphinx/HEAD/share/pocketsphinx/model/en-us/en-us/sendump
-senlogdir
-senmgau
-silprob        0.005       5.000000e-03
-smoothspec     no      no
-svspec                 0-12/13-25/26-38
-tmat                   /usr/local/Cellar/cmu-pocketsphinx/HEAD/share/pocketsphinx/model/en-us/en-us/transition_matrices
-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                    /usr/local/Cellar/cmu-pocketsphinx/HEAD/share/pocketsphinx/model/en-us/en-us/variances
-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

(I reran using MODELDIR = "/usr/local/Cellar/cmu-pocketsphinx/HEAD/share/pocketsphinx/model/" and got the same error.)

[nshmyrev]

There must be log output from python similar the one from pocketsphinx_continuous. What if you run it in simple python, not with ipython.

[gdbassett]

Ran at command line python console and it looks like it imported fine. It must be an ipython thing, though I don't know what it would be. Any ideas for troubleshooting the ipython issues?

Python 2.7.9 (default, Jul 19 2015, 17:56:11)
[GCC 4.2.1 Compatible Apple LLVM 6.1.0 (clang-602.0.53)] on darwin
Type "help", "copyright", "credits" or "license" for more information.
>>> from os import environ, path
>>>
>>> from pocketsphinx.pocketsphinx import *
>>> from sphinxbase.sphinxbase import *
>>>
>>> MODELDIR = "/usr/local/share/pocketsphinx/model"
>>> DATADIR = "/tmp/"
>>> config = Decoder.default_config()
>>> config.set_string('-hmm', path.join(MODELDIR, 'en-us/en-us'))
>>> config.set_string('-lm', path.join(MODELDIR, 'en-us/en-us.lm.bin'))
>>> config.set_string('-dict', path.join(MODELDIR, 'en-us/cmudict-en-us.dict'))
>>> decoder = Decoder(config)
INFO: pocketsphinx.c(145): 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            current     current
-cmninit        8.0     40,3,-1
-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                  /usr/local/share/pocketsphinx/model/en-us/en-us/noisedict
-feat           1s_c_d_dd   1s_c_d_dd
-featparams             /usr/local/share/pocketsphinx/model/en-us/en-us/feat.params
-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                   /usr/local/share/pocketsphinx/model/en-us/en-us/mdef
-mean                   /usr/local/share/pocketsphinx/model/en-us/en-us/means
-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                /usr/local/share/pocketsphinx/model/en-us/en-us/sendump
-senlogdir
-senmgau
-silprob        0.005       5.000000e-03
-smoothspec     no      no
-svspec                 0-12/13-25/26-38
-tmat                   /usr/local/share/pocketsphinx/model/en-us/en-us/transition_matrices
-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                    /usr/local/share/pocketsphinx/model/en-us/en-us/variances
-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='current', VARNORM='no', AGC='none'
INFO: cmn.c(143): mean[0]= 12.00, mean[1..12]= 0.0
INFO: acmod.c(164): 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(206): Reading HMM transition probability matrices: /usr/local/share/pocketsphinx/model/en-us/en-us/transition_matrices
INFO: acmod.c(117): Attempting to use PTM computation module
INFO: ms_gauden.c(198): Reading mixture gaussian parameter: /usr/local/share/pocketsphinx/model/en-us/en-us/means
INFO: ms_gauden.c(292): 42 codebook, 3 feature, size:
INFO: ms_gauden.c(294):  128x13
INFO: ms_gauden.c(294):  128x13
INFO: ms_gauden.c(294):  128x13
INFO: ms_gauden.c(198): Reading mixture gaussian parameter: /usr/local/share/pocketsphinx/model/en-us/en-us/variances
INFO: ms_gauden.c(292): 42 codebook, 3 feature, size:
INFO: ms_gauden.c(294):  128x13
INFO: ms_gauden.c(294):  128x13
INFO: ms_gauden.c(294):  128x13
INFO: ms_gauden.c(354): 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(835): 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 137526 * 32 bytes (4297 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): Allocated 1007 KiB for strings, 1662 KiB for phones
INFO: dict.c(336): 133425 words read
INFO: dict.c(358): Reading filler dictionary: /usr/local/share/pocketsphinx/model/en-us/en-us/noisedict
INFO: dict.c(213): 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(398): Trying to read LM in trie binary format
INFO: ngram_search_fwdtree.c(99): 788 unique initial diphones
INFO: ngram_search_fwdtree.c(148): 0 root, 0 non-root channels, 56 single-phone words
INFO: ngram_search_fwdtree.c(186): Creating search tree
INFO: ngram_search_fwdtree.c(192): before: 0 root, 0 non-root channels, 56 single-phone words
INFO: ngram_search_fwdtree.c(326): after: max nonroot chan increased to 152410
INFO: ngram_search_fwdtree.c(339): after: 719 root, 152282 non-root channels, 52 single-phone words
INFO: ngram_search_fwdflat.c(157): fwdflat: min_ef_width = 4, max_sf_win = 25
>>> type(decoder)
<class 'pocketsphinx.pocketsphinx.Decoder'>
>>>

[nshmyrev]

Maybe ipython loads some broken module from some other location. It is strange it does not dump the log messages.

I've just checked with my ipython, it works correctly same as python.

Maybe you can share your ipython and python version.

[gdbassett]

Python version 2.7.9 on Mac Pro 10.10.4. IPython version 3.2.0

I did a couple reboots and no longer have a problem in iPython. Recommend closing.

[choudharykrish]

This solved my problem

https://stackoverflow.com/questions/44339312/new-decoder-returned-1-when-trying-to-run-pocketsphinx-on-raspberry-pi/51346264#51346264

[kbrajwani]

still getting same problem

INFO: feat.c(715): Initializing feature stream to type: '1s_c_d_dd', ceplen=13, CMN='live', VARNORM='no', AGC='none'
INFO: mdef.c(518): Reading model definition: ../Lib/site-packages/pocketsphinx/model/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: ../Lib/site-packages/pocketsphinx/model/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
ERROR: "acmod.c", line 91: No tmat file specified
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "C:/Users/hp/Desktop/rollwala/venv/project/spinx.py", line 170, in
sd = SpeechDetector()
File "C:/Users/hp/Desktop/rollwala/venv/project/spinx.py", line 54, in init
self.decoder = Decoder(config)
File "C:\Users\hp\Desktop\rollwala\venv\lib\site-packages\pocketsphinx\pocketsphinx.py", line 272, in init
this = _pocketsphinx.new_Decoder(*args)
RuntimeError: new_Decoder returned -1

Process finished with exit code 1