voculinux/README.md

Vocalinux

Voice-to-text for Linux, finally done right!

A seamless free open-source private voice dictation system for Linux, comparable to built-in solutions on macOS and Windows.

📚 What's New in v0.7.0-beta

🎉 Major Release: Autostart, Tabbed Settings & Intel GPU Support! — The most feature-rich Vocalinux release yet.

🚀 Highlights (v0.6.3 → v0.7.0)

Feature	Description
🖥️ Autostart Support	Launch Vocalinux automatically on desktop session startup
⚙️ Tabbed Settings	Completely redesigned settings dialog with organized tabs
🎮 Intel GPU Detection	Automatically detects incompatible Intel GPUs and falls back to CPU
🔒 Single Instance	Prevents multiple Vocalinux instances from running simultaneously

✨ New Features (v0.7.0)

• Autostart on Login — Added XDG autostart support via settings dialog and system tray
• Tabbed Settings Dialog — reorganized settings into Speech Engine, Recognition, Text Injection, Audio Feedback, and General tabs
• Intel GPU Compatibility Detection — Detects incompatible Intel GPUs and automatically falls back to CPU processing
• Multiple Instance Prevention — Shows notification and exits if Vocalinux is already running
• Evdev Device Management — Automatically removes disconnected input devices to prevent CPU spin

🐛 Bug Fixes (v0.7.0)

• #254: Improved GPU detection to avoid false positives on systems without dev libraries
• #251: Skip IBus setup when daemon is not running, enable fallback to other methods
• #243: Prevent dnf check-update from exiting script on Fedora
• #240: Raise exception on IBus setup failure to enable automatic fallback
• #234: Removed leading space from first speech transcription
• #242/#253: Removed disconnected evdev devices to prevent CPU spin

🔧 Recent Improvements

• Web SEO Enhancements — Added 7 new optimized pages for organic traffic
• Mobile Responsiveness — Improved mobile and tablet layout for the website
• Better Fedora Support — Fixed dnf check-update behavior
• Improved Device Handling — More robust handling of input device connections/disconnections

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✨ Features

• 🎤 Double-tap Ctrl to start/stop voice dictation
• ⚡ Real-time transcription with minimal latency
• 🌎 Universal compatibility across all Linux applications
• 🔒 100% Offline operation for privacy and reliability
• 🤖 whisper.cpp by default - High-performance C++ speech recognition
• 🎮 Universal GPU support - Vulkan acceleration for AMD, Intel, and NVIDIA
• 🎨 System tray integration with visual status indicators
• 🚀 Start on login support via XDG autostart (desktop-session startup)
• 🔊 Pleasant audio feedback - smooth gliding tones, headphone-friendly
• ⚙️ Graphical settings dialog for easy configuration
• 📦 3 engine choices - whisper.cpp (default), OpenAI Whisper, or VOSK

📸 Screenshots

Here are some screenshots showcasing Vocalinux in action:

Real-time voice-to-text transcription	System tray with listening indicator
About view with version info	Log viewer for debugging
Overview of key features and configuration options with annotations

🚀 Quick Install

Interactive Install (Recommended)

Our new interactive installer guides you through setup with intelligent hardware detection:

curl -fsSL raw.githubusercontent.com/jatinkrmalik/vocalinux/v0.7.0-beta/install.sh -o /tmp/vl.sh && bash /tmp/vl.sh

Choose your engine:

1. whisper.cpp ⭐ (Recommended) - Fast, works with any GPU via Vulkan
2. Whisper (OpenAI) - PyTorch-based, NVIDIA GPU only
3. VOSK - Lightweight, works on older systems

The installer will:

• Auto-detect your hardware (GPU, RAM, Vulkan support)
• Recommend the best engine for your system
• Download the appropriate model (~39MB for whisper.cpp tiny)
• Install in ~1-2 minutes (vs 5-10 min with old Whisper)

Note

: Installs v0.7.0-beta. For other versions, check GitHub Releases.

Installation Options

Default (whisper.cpp - recommended):

curl -fsSL raw.githubusercontent.com/jatinkrmalik/vocalinux/v0.7.0-beta/install.sh -o /tmp/vl.sh && bash /tmp/vl.sh

Fastest installation (~1-2 min), universal GPU support via Vulkan.

Whisper (OpenAI) - if you prefer PyTorch:

curl -fsSL raw.githubusercontent.com/jatinkrmalik/vocalinux/v0.7.0-beta/install.sh -o /tmp/vl.sh && bash /tmp/vl.sh --engine=whisper

NVIDIA GPU only (~5-10 min, downloads PyTorch + CUDA).

VOSK only - for low-RAM systems:

curl -fsSL raw.githubusercontent.com/jatinkrmalik/vocalinux/v0.7.0-beta/install.sh -o /tmp/vl.sh && bash /tmp/vl.sh --engine=vosk

Lightweight option (~40MB), works on systems with 4GB RAM.

Alternative: Install from Source

# Clone the repository
git clone https://github.com/jatinkrmalik/vocalinux.git
cd vocalinux

# Run the installer (will prompt for Whisper)
./install.sh

# Or with Whisper support
./install.sh --with-whisper

The installer handles everything: system dependencies, Python environment, speech models, and desktop integration.

🌙 Nightly Releases (Bleeding Edge)

For developers and early adopters who want to test the latest features, check out our GitHub Releases page which includes both beta and nightly builds.

⚠️ Warning: Nightly releases contain the absolute latest code and may be unstable. For production use, we recommend using the latest beta release.

Nightly builds are automatically generated from the main branch every day. They include all merged changes but haven't undergone the same testing as beta releases.

Release Channels:

• Beta (Recommended) — Tested pre-releases with known features
• Nightly — Untested bleeding edge with latest commits

After Installation

# If ~/.local/bin is in your PATH (recommended):
vocalinux

# Or activate the virtual environment first:
source ~/.local/bin/activate-vocalinux.sh
vocalinux

# Or run directly:
~/.local/share/vocalinux/venv/bin/vocalinux

Or launch it from your application menu!

📋 Requirements

• OS: Linux (tested on Ubuntu 22.04+, Debian 11+, Fedora 39+, Arch Linux, openSUSE Tumbleweed)
• Python: 3.8 or newer
• Display: X11 or Wayland
• Hardware: Microphone for voice input

Note: See Distribution Compatibility for distribution-specific information and experimental support for Gentoo, Alpine, Void, Solus, and more.

🎙️ Usage

Voice Dictation

1. Double-tap Ctrl to start recording
2. Speak clearly into your microphone
3. Double-tap Ctrl again (or pause speaking) to stop

Voice Commands

Command	Action
"new line"	Inserts a line break
"period" / "full stop"	Types a period (.)
"comma"	Types a comma (,)
"question mark"	Types a question mark (?)
"exclamation mark"	Types an exclamation mark (!)
"delete that"	Deletes the last sentence
"capitalize"	Capitalizes the next word

Command Line Options

vocalinux --help                  # Show all options
vocalinux --debug                 # Enable debug logging
vocalinux --engine whisper_cpp    # Use whisper.cpp engine (default)
vocalinux --engine whisper        # Use OpenAI Whisper engine
vocalinux --engine vosk           # Use VOSK engine
vocalinux --model medium          # Use medium-sized model
vocalinux --wayland               # Force Wayland mode
vocalinux --start-minimized       # Start without first-run modal prompts

Autostart on Login

Vocalinux uses the Linux desktop standard for autostart:

• Mechanism: XDG autostart desktop entry (vocalinux.desktop)
• Path: $XDG_CONFIG_HOME/autostart/ or ~/.config/autostart/ (fallback)
• Launch mode: Starts as a regular user desktop app in your graphical session
• Not used: No systemd unit/service is created by Vocalinux for autostart

How to enable/disable:

• First-run welcome dialog
• Tray menu: Start on Login
• Settings dialog: Start on Login

Compatibility notes:

• Works on mainstream desktop environments (GNOME, KDE, Xfce, Cinnamon, MATE, LXQt)
• On minimal/custom window-manager sessions, an autostart handler may be required (for example DE-specific startup hooks or tools like dex)

⚙️ Configuration

Configuration is stored in ~/.config/vocalinux/config.json:

{
  "speech_recognition": {
    "engine": "whisper_cpp",
    "model_size": "tiny",
    "vad_sensitivity": 3,
    "silence_timeout": 2.0
  }
}

You can also configure settings through the graphical Settings dialog (right-click the tray icon).

🔧 Development Setup

# Clone and install in dev mode
git clone https://github.com/jatinkrmalik/vocalinux.git
cd vocalinux
./install.sh --dev

# Activate environment
source venv/bin/activate

# Run tests
pytest

# Run from source with debug
python -m vocalinux.main --debug

📁 Project Structure

vocalinux/
├── src/vocalinux/                 # Main application code
│   ├── speech_recognition/        # Speech recognition engines (VOSK, Whisper, whisper.cpp)
│   │   └── recognition_manager.py # Unified engine interface
│   ├── text_injection/            # Text injection (X11/Wayland)
│   ├── ui/                        # GTK UI components
│   └── utils/                     # Utility functions
│       ├── whispercpp_model_info.py   # whisper.cpp model metadata & hardware detection
│       └── vosk_model_info.py         # VOSK model metadata
├── tests/                         # Test suite
├── scripts/                       # Development utilities
│   └── generate_sounds.py         # Sound generation script
├── resources/                     # Icons and sounds
├── docs/                          # Documentation
└── web/                           # Website source

📖 Documentation

• Installation Guide - Detailed installation instructions
• Update Guide - How to update Vocalinux
• User Guide - Complete user documentation
• Distribution Compatibility - Distro/session behavior and caveats
• Contributing - Development setup and contribution guidelines

🔊 Sound Customization

Vocalinux uses smooth, pleasant gliding tones for audio feedback:

• Start: Ascending F4→A4 (0.6s) - positive, uplifting
• Stop: Descending A4→F4 (0.6s) - resolves completion
• Error: Lower descending E4→C4 (0.7s) - gentle but noticeable

All sounds use pure sine waves with smoothstep interpolation for buttery smooth pitch transitions - perfect for headphone use!

Regenerate Sounds

To modify or regenerate the notification sounds:

python scripts/generate_sounds.py

This script generates all three sounds using the same smooth glide algorithm. You can edit the frequencies, durations, and amplitudes in the script to customize the sounds to your preference.

🗺️ Roadmap

• Custom icon design ✅
• Graphical settings dialog ✅
• Whisper AI support ✅
• Multi-language support (FR, DE, RU) ✅
• whisper.cpp integration (default engine) ✅
• Vulkan GPU support ✅
• In-app update mechanism
• Application-specific commands
• Debian/Ubuntu package (.deb)
• Wayland support via IBus ✅
• Voice command customization

🤝 Contributing

We welcome contributions! Whether it's bug reports, feature requests, or code contributions, please check out our Contributing Guide.

Quick Links

• 🐛 Report a Bug
• 💡 Request a Feature
• 💬 Discussions

⭐ Support

If you find Vocalinux useful, please consider:

• ⭐ Starring this repository
• 🐛 Reporting bugs you encounter
• 📖 Improving documentation
• 🔀 Contributing code

📜 License

This project is licensed under the GNU General Public License v3.0 - see the LICENSE file for details.

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Made with ❤️ for the Linux community