diff -ur flite-1.1-release.orig/src/audio/au_oss.c flite-1.1-release/src/audio/au_oss.c
--- flite-1.1-release.orig/src/audio/au_oss.c	Fri Dec 21 19:26:44 2001
+++ flite-1.1-release/src/audio/au_oss.c	Tue May 14 21:40:17 2002
@@ -73,9 +73,11 @@
 
     afd = open(oss_audio_device,O_WRONLY);
     if (afd == -1)
+    {
 	cst_errmsg("oss_audio: failed to open audio device %s\n",
 		   oss_audio_device);
-
+	return NULL;
+    }
     ad = cst_alloc(cst_audiodev, 1);
     ad->sps = sps;
     ad->channels = channels;
diff -ur flite-1.1-release.orig/src/audio/audio.c flite-1.1-release/src/audio/audio.c
--- flite-1.1-release.orig/src/audio/audio.c	Fri Dec 21 19:26:44 2001
+++ flite-1.1-release/src/audio/audio.c	Tue May 14 21:40:08 2002
@@ -63,6 +63,7 @@
     int up, down;
 
     ad = AUDIO_OPEN_NATIVE(sps, channels, fmt);
+    if (ad == NULL) return NULL;
 
     down = sps / 1000;
     up = ad->real_sps / 1000;