voculinux/README.md

Vocalinux

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

Linux has always punched above its weight, except when it comes to voice typing. Vocalinux fixes that.

It's a free, AGPL-3.0-licensed desktop app that lets you dictate text into any application, on X11 or Wayland, using fully offline speech recognition. Pick from three engines (whisper.cpp, OpenAI Whisper, or VOSK), get automatic GPU acceleration via Vulkan, and control it all with customizable keyboard shortcuts: toggle or push-to-talk.

No internet required. No data leaves your machine. Just speak and type.

📚 What's New in v0.16.0

0.16.0 adds an in-app update checker with tray notifications, defaults new installs to hold Right Alt push-to-talk, makes the language list searchable, lets you delete unused downloaded models, and adds a family dictation tone picker. The project license is AGPL-3.0. The installer is hardened (Justfile, uv lockfiles, distro python3-gi). The app icon, tray states, and site favicons use the shared Voca family mic.

Highlights

Feature	Description
Update checker	Settings → About checks stable/nightly channels; tray shows Update Available when GitHub has a newer release (#631, #645)
Right Alt PTT default	New installs default to hold Right Alt (push-to-talk); existing configs keep their shortcut (#648)
Searchable languages	Type to filter the Speech Model language list (#672)
Delete unused models	Remove leftover downloaded speech models from Settings (#671)
AGPL-3.0	License aligned with other VocaHQ projects (#660)
Family mic icons	App icon, tray states, and site favicons use the shared Voca family mic (#704)
Tone picker	Settings → Audio: Lift, Flick, Ember, Step, Voca, Soft, Chirp, Scale, Drop, Glass, Off, plus Preview. New installs default to Voca. Catalog uses family preview WAVs (#707, #708)
Installer	Justfile, uv lockfiles, distro python3-gi required (no pip sdist of PyGObject). Epic #701 still open (#700, #705, #706)

Also in this release

• IBus: safer scoped injection, engine restore after teardown, XKB layout restore on X11 (#623, #643, #665)
• Audio: filter unsafe virtual capture devices; open stereo mics at native channel count; catalog tones are the family preview WAVs, not the synthesized #707 files (#629, #673, #708)
• Clipboard: restore after ydotool paste; text-only reads and safer overlapping restore (#588, #646)
• GPU / AppImage: honor bundled GPU libs and skip software Vulkan; ship transitive GI typelibs (AppImage fix already hotfixed onto the v0.15.0 AppImages) (#674, #637)
• Settings / tray: separate Close from Test Dictation; reuse Settings/Logs windows; prefer Ayatana AppIndicator on KDE; optional missing-tray warning toggle (#670, #669, #621, #628)
• Test Dictation: no longer reports no speech when recognition never started (#702)
• Settings: About page groups this app, the VocaHQ family, and talk-to-us links (#718)
• Installer / downloads / tests: gate util-linux-extra to Ubuntu 24.04+; report failed model downloads; stop tests from overwriting real config.json (#635, #690, #694)
• Website: vocalinux.com restyled to the Voca family workbench; Discord and X links point at VocaHQ (#728, #729, #722, #717)

See docs/UPDATE.md and the full changelog.

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Features

• 🎤 Toggle or Push-to-Talk activation modes
• ⚡ 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

Vocalinux in action. Settings gallery shots may lag the newest UI. Full gallery on the website screenshots page.

Product

Real-time voice-to-text transcription	System tray with listening indicator
About & Updates in Settings	Log viewer for debugging

Settings

Speech Engine	Recognition	Audio
Performance	General	Advanced

🚀 Quick Install

Interactive Install (Recommended)

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

curl -fsSL raw.githubusercontent.com/VocaHQ/vocalinux/main/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 (~74MB for the default whisper.cpp tiny model)
• Install neural VAD support when ONNX Runtime is available
• Install in ~1-2 minutes (vs 5-10 min with old Whisper)

Note

: Always installs the latest release. For a specific version, check GitHub Releases.

Installation Options

Default (whisper.cpp - recommended):

curl -fsSL raw.githubusercontent.com/VocaHQ/vocalinux/main/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/VocaHQ/vocalinux/main/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/VocaHQ/vocalinux/main/install.sh -o /tmp/vl.sh && bash /tmp/vl.sh --engine=vosk

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

Arch Linux (AUR)

yay -S vocalinux

See docs/AUR.md.

Flatpak (any distro)

For a sandboxed, distro-independent install (great for NixOS, Fedora Silverblue, Steam Deck, and anywhere else), build the Flatpak from the bundled manifest:

flatpak install flathub org.gnome.Platform//50 org.gnome.Sdk//50
flatpak-builder --user --install --force-clean build-dir \
  packaging/flatpak/com.vocalinux.Vocalinux.yml
flatpak run com.vocalinux.Vocalinux

The Flatpak ships the whisper.cpp engine with Vulkan GPU support and runs through XWayland on Wayland sessions. See packaging/flatpak/README.md for build details, permissions, and Flathub submission notes. Flathub publishing is in progress.

Alternative: Install from Source

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

# Run the interactive installer (engine picker + GPU detection)
./install.sh

# Or pick the engine up front
./install.sh --engine=whisper_cpp   # whisper.cpp (default, GPU-accelerated)
./install.sh --engine=vosk          # lightweight VOSK

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 24.04+, Debian 12+, Fedora 39+, Arch Linux, openSUSE Tumbleweed)
• Python: 3.11 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. Push-to-talk (default): Hold Right Alt (Option on Mac-layout keyboards) and speak
2. Speak clearly into your microphone
3. Release the key to stop, or switch to Toggle mode in Settings (double-tap a key to start/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 --model medium.en-q5_0  # Use exact whisper.cpp model variant
vocalinux --model large-v3-turbo  # Use large-v3 Turbo with whisper.cpp
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
  }
}

For whisper.cpp, model_size may be a size such as tiny or an exact ggml model ID such as medium.en-q5_0 or large-v3-turbo. You can also configure this through the graphical Settings dialog, where whisper.cpp models are split into Model Size and Specialization controls. Unused leftover downloads can be deleted from Unused downloads on the Speech Model page (expand the section, then delete one model at a time).

Neural Voice Activity Detection

Vocalinux ships with a Silero VAD model and uses it automatically when onnxruntime is available. The official installer attempts to install this support automatically. Without it, recording falls back to the simpler amplitude-threshold VAD.

For manual or PyPI installs, enable neural VAD with:

pip install "vocalinux[vad]"

Restart Vocalinux after install. The Recognition tab in Settings shows which backend is active. The same vad_sensitivity (1-5) works for both -- it's mapped to a Silero probability threshold internally (1 = 0.8, 5 = 0.3).

🔧 Development Setup

# Clone and install in dev mode
git clone https://github.com/VocaHQ/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

Repository mirrors

GitHub is the primary forge for issues, pull requests, CI, and releases.

Role	URL
Primary	https://github.com/VocaHQ/vocalinux
Read-only mirror (Codeberg)	https://codeberg.org/jatinkrmalik/vocalinux

The Codeberg copy is a read-only source backup. Open issues and PRs on GitHub only.

🔊 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 ✅
• Wayland support via IBus ✅
• Flatpak packaging ✅ (Flathub submission in progress)
• Application-specific commands
• Debian/Ubuntu package (.deb)
• Voice command customization

🌐 The Voca Ecosystem

Vocalinux is part of VocaHQ. Same privacy-first, offline voice dictation idea, one app per operating system.

Platform	Project	Website	GitHub	Status
🐧 Linux	VocaLinux	vocalinux.com	VocaHQ/vocalinux	✅ Stable v0.16.0
🍎 macOS	VocaMac	vocamac.com	VocaHQ/vocamac	🚀 Beta
🪟 Windows	VocaWin	vocawin.com	VocaHQ/vocawin	📋 Planned

Each platform uses native technologies for the best possible integration, while sharing the same privacy-first philosophy and offline-only architecture.

🤝 Contributing

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

Contributors

Thanks to everyone who has contributed to Vocalinux! 🙌

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 Affero General Public License v3.0 (AGPL-3.0), aligning with the other VocaHQ distribution projects (VocaMac, VocaPhone, VocaGateway).

You may use, study, modify, and redistribute the software under AGPL-3.0. If you run a modified version as a network service, AGPL also requires that you make the corresponding source available.

Star Chart

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