Cant enable Dictation - assistantd Error

[Schattenzwerg]

Hello,

 

I have a strange problem with the new dictation feature in ML, as soon as I click on enable dictation, a dialog open that seems that the program is trying to connect and then nothing happens and I could wait for years. I checked already several things but now I dont know what I could do next.

 

1. I'm connected with the internet and the Appstore/iCloud is working properly

2. I checked the console and can see following error messages:

4/8/12 3:31:50.613 AM assistantd[3590]: <Error>: AceConnection - Couldn't read anything through read! the os lied to us ;_;
4/8/12 3:31:50.613 AM assistantd[3590]: <Warning>: Session - Failed loading/creating assistant Critical Error: Cannot create Assistant! elapsed time 0.000000
4/8/12 3:31:50.614 AM assistantd[3590]: <Error>: AceConnection - incomplete finish
4/8/12 3:31:51.615 AM assistantd[3590]: <Warning>: Session - Retrying after assistant failure
4/8/12 3:31:51.646 AM assistantd[3590]: <Error>: AceConnection - Attempting to send ace command before ace connection connected

 

3. I checked in my user /L/P directories and the files related to assistantd like com.apple.assistant.plist. It seems that this file is missing informations/is corrupt or something similar

 

bplist00—_Session LanguageUen-US$

 

4. I killed the process delete the files and then retried to enable dictation again, unfortunately without success, I got every time the same errors in console

 

5. I tried to create another user profile to enable dictation there, I got the same errors in console

 

6. I tried different Sound inputs (internal, and the one from my USB Headset) but got again the same result

 

Anybody an idea what I could try next ?

[napster-grey]

Well, I have the same problem, but I did not get further either.

[nyolc8]

the os lied to us ;_;

My tip is that something wrong with your smbios file, maybe the serial, maybe the machine spec values not matching together... The error message basically tells that your hack is sends some information to the apple server which couldn't be true.

[rcork]

This is strange. I had Dictation working perfectly in Developer Preview 3 and 4 but now in final release, it doesn't work. Here's the logs i get when trying to use it.

 

8/4/12 7:22:25.287 AM assistantd[5885]: #### initWithRecordDevice started ####
8/4/12 7:22:25.291 AM assistantd[5885]: Final debug level: 0x7
8/4/12 7:22:25.291 AM assistantd[5885]: initWithRecordDevice: unable to print name of inRecordDevice
8/4/12 7:22:25.301 AM assistantd[5885]: initWithRecordDevice: calling initVCAudio
8/4/12 7:22:25.302 AM assistantd[5885]: initWithRecordDevice: HW ID 48, sample rate 16000.000000
8/4/12 7:22:25.307 AM assistantd[5885]: #### initWithRecordDevice finished ####
8/4/12 7:22:25.308 AM assistantd[5885]: #### AVVoiceController: prepareRecordWithSettings: (IGNORING SETTINGS) ####
8/4/12 7:22:25.308 AM assistantd[5885]: RECORD QUEUE FORMAT:
8/4/12 7:22:25.308 AM assistantd[5885]:  1 ch,  16000 Hz, 'lpcm' (0x00000009) 32-bit little-endian float
8/4/12 7:22:25.323 AM assistantd[5885]: createAudioConverter: INITIAL AUDIOCONVERTER OUTPUT FORMAT:
8/4/12 7:22:25.323 AM assistantd[5885]:  1 ch,  16000 Hz, 'spex' (0x00000000) 0 bits/channel, 0 bytes/packet, 1920 frames/packet, 0 bytes/frame
8/4/12 7:22:25.329 AM assistantd[5885]: FINAL RECORD FORMAT:
8/4/12 7:22:25.330 AM assistantd[5885]:  1 ch,  16000 Hz, 'spex' (0x00000000) 0 bits/channel, 0 bytes/packet, 3200 frames/packet, 0 bytes/frame
8/4/12 7:22:25.686 AM assistantd[5885]: #### AVVoiceController: startRecording ####
8/4/12 7:22:26.121 AM assistantd[5885]: Alert Listener: RUNNING = 1
8/4/12 7:22:26.140 AM assistantd[5885]: #### beganRecording: (success = 1 status = 0) ####
8/4/12 7:22:26.230 AM assistantd[5885]: <Warning>: Session - Failed loading/creating assistant Critical Error: Cannot create Assistant! elapsed time 0.000000
8/4/12 7:22:26.411 AM assistantd[5885]: Alert Listener: RUNNING = 0
8/4/12 7:22:26.411 AM assistantd[5885]: alertFinished: AVVoice_RecordStarting done and record starting or active, so load AVVoice_RecordStopped
8/4/12 7:22:27.135 AM assistantd[5885]: #### startpointDetected: ####
8/4/12 7:22:27.232 AM assistantd[5885]: <Warning>: Session - Retrying after assistant failure
8/4/12 7:22:27.255 AM assistantd[5885]: <Error>: AceConnection - Attempting to send ace command before ace connection connected
8/4/12 7:22:27.679 AM assistantd[5885]: #### AVVoiceController: stopRecording ####
8/4/12 7:22:27.708 AM assistantd[5885]: #### AVVoiceController: Recording finished (success = 1 status = 0) ####
8/4/12 7:22:27.708 AM assistantd[5885]: #### AVVoiceController: playAlertSoundForType: 2 ####
8/4/12 7:22:27.734 AM assistantd[5885]: Alert Listener: RUNNING = 1
8/4/12 7:22:27.734 AM assistantd[5885]: alertStarted: either not playing start alert, or record state not kRecordStarting
8/4/12 7:22:28.152 AM assistantd[5885]: Alert Listener: RUNNING = 0
8/4/12 7:22:28.153 AM assistantd[5885]: alertFinished: AVVoice_RecordStoppedXXX done
8/4/12 7:22:28.153 AM assistantd[5885]: alertFinished: not cancelling record or record state is inactive: resetting alert queue

[eep357]

I've had/have this problem as well. I've done a few different setups with GM where some it works, and some it doesn't, all using the same smbios on the same build, but different drives. Let me see if I can remember this right...:Clean install to SSD or HD=works, clean install then migration assistant from working one=not work, restore to clean partition from time machine backup while booted into installer=works, 2 SSD's in RAID-0 with clone of working version=not work, 2 SSD's in RAID-0 with clean install then transfer from time machine with Setup Assistant=Not work. Can't do the time machine restore from the installer to RAID, it complains about recovery and says to restart, but can do a clean install to new raid array, go figure. So since for me it seems to usually involve some sort of account transfer, wondering if maybe a keychain issue or pref file.

 

the os lied to us ;_;

I love some of the console logs like this I've been seeing sprinkled around since DP1, makes me laugh while my computer's on fire and shooting sparks

[Schattenzwerg]

For me its working NOW. What I did was to delete all Cache data (especially System and User) with Onyx, repair all permissions, restart and tried to enable again. After this it was able to enable dictation, but unfortunately it didn't recognized a word. I tried different country settings in the Language & Text Options and in dictation settings, used different VPN-Server (Astrill with OpenVPN), enabled and disabled dictation but nothing worked. So I gave up, changed my country back to US (but currently I'm in China), changed dictation language to English US and gave it up and thought it's still very buggy (and it is!). Today I was connected for longer via VPN through a Server in NY (US), and finally I thought, let's give dictation a try, maybe its good today, I double pressed the FN key, the Mic Picture poped up, I said Siri and pressed FN again, and it recognized it!!!! Wow, I tested it now again with more difficult sentence and it worked nice, I even tried just to change the language in dictation to change to German and it also worked and recognized the sentence! So here I'm and I report you guys, btw. in my previous post I wrote that I think that the plist file is corrupt, I have to say that my current one looking the same, but at least to let Onyx kill all cache files and to restart made me able to enable dictation.

[eep357]

Working here, as Schattenzwerg said, used Onyx to clear user, system and internet/dns caches, rebooted. Turned dictate off and on a couple times and disabled guest account that had some parental controls. Working now. I was reading the Apple message boards and a lot of times it can just be hit or miss too, servers may be busy at times with everyone trying it out.

[rcork]

I decided to try again this morning and now it's working. It must've been a server issue.

[gatd]

can someone please help me get dictation to work.

 

the error I get in console is this

 

assistantd: <Error>: Daemon - Sending recognition failed Error Domain=kAFAssistantErrorDomain Code=208 "The operation couldn't be completed. (kAFAssistantErrorDomain error 208.)"