[Grml] Speakup softsynth not talking with grml 1.1 installation

Hi listers, I recently installed grml 1.1 on my hard disk and can't seem to get it talking through my softsynth device. I went through all the configuration files of speech-dispatcher and espeak but couldn't find the cause. However if I use the cdrom speakup talks through my hardware apollo synth as well as through software synth. I would like to have it talk through software synth. Any ideas as to what I might do? I'd like to add that I'm blind and therefore can't read the messages coming up when the system started and I enter swspeak! I also entered swspeak as a start parameter on the cdrom and on the hard disk installation. Any help would be greatly appreciated! Ernst