c9ea6c7de7
* feat(flatpak): publish a signed self-hosted OSTree remote on releases (#785) release.yml gains publish-flatpak-remote: it imports the per-arch .flatpak bundles into an OSTree repo, signs commits and the summary with a provisioned GPG key, regenerates static deltas and the vocahq.flatpakrepo/index page, and pushes to VocaHQ/vocalinux-flatpak served by GitHub Pages — the Homebrew-tap analogue, so installs auto-update via flatpak update instead of per-release downloads. The job is secret-gated like publish-aur (FLATPAK_GPG_PRIVATE_KEY + FLATPAK_REPO_TOKEN) and skips itself while unconfigured. Prior repo objects are pulled back in from gh-pages so clients get incremental deltas. The manifest now declares branch: stable and the flatpakrepo declares DefaultBranch=stable + RuntimeRepo for the Flathub GNOME runtime. Docs: new docs/FLATPAK_REMOTE.md (one-time setup, rotation, verification); README, docs/INSTALL.md, packaging/flatpak/README.md and the release notes now lead with the remote and keep release bundles as the no-auto-update fallback. tests/test_release_integrity.py pins the job's shape. Closes #785 * fix(flatpak-remote): publish a .flatpakref and gate the remote to stable tags - needs build-and-release so the remote cannot lead the GitHub Release - stable tags only: prereleases must not reach `flatpak update` - probe gh-pages before the empty-repo fallback: a transient checkout failure no longer discards remote history - publish com.vocalinux.Vocalinux.flatpakref (RuntimeRepo lives there, not on .flatpakrepo) plus vocahq.gpg, so clean installs resolve the GNOME runtime and key rotation works via remote-modify --gpg-import - gate the release-notes remote instructions on the publish actually running; the bundle path stays primary otherwise - document rotation via remote-modify --gpg-import / remote-delete --force and the explicit Flathub setup step --------- Co-authored-by: Jatin K Malik <jatinkrmalik@gmail.com>
6.6 KiB
Vocalinux Flatpak Packaging
Manifest and AppStream metadata for building Vocalinux as a Flatpak.
VocaHQ remote (auto-update)
The recommended install is the self-hosted VocaHQ OSTree remote — the
Homebrew-tap analogue — which release.yml signs and publishes to
VocaHQ/vocalinux-flatpak (GitHub Pages) on every stable v* tag:
flatpak install https://vocahq.github.io/vocalinux-flatpak/com.vocalinux.Vocalinux.flatpakref
flatpak update # each new release arrives here
The .flatpakref adds the vocahq remote and resolves the GNOME runtime
through Flathub via RuntimeRepo= — the manual equivalent is remote-add
for flathub then vocahq, then flatpak install vocahq com.vocalinux.Vocalinux. Only the app is ours; org.gnome.Platform//50
still comes from Flathub. One-time repo/key setup:
docs/FLATPAK_REMOTE.md.
GitHub Release bundles
Each v* GitHub Release attaches Vocalinux-<version>-x86_64.flatpak and
Vocalinux-<version>-aarch64.flatpak as a no-remote fallback:
# once: Flathub remote + GNOME runtime (the app itself is not on Flathub)
flatpak remote-add --if-not-exists flathub https://dl.flathub.org/repo/flathub.flatpakrepo
flatpak install flathub org.gnome.Platform//50
flatpak install --user ./Vocalinux-<version>-x86_64.flatpak
flatpak run com.vocalinux.Vocalinux
Bundles do not auto-update — the VocaHQ remote above is the path for
that. Vocalinux is not on Flathub (submission
flathub/flathub#9368 closed on
policy grounds; we are not re-submitting). Local flatpak-builder remains for
contributors (below).
Current Scope
The manifest ships the default whisper_cpp engine only. VOSK is omitted because
the PyPI package is wheel-only (no sdist), so a Flathub-ready VOSK build would
need to compile VOSK and its native deps from source.
Global keyboard shortcuts use evdev (/dev/input).
Text injection uses wl-copy + ydotool Ctrl+V (instant paste into native
Wayland apps). Character-by-character ydotool type is only a fallback.
xdotool remains for pure X11/XWayland clients.
Permissions: --socket=wayland (clipboard), --socket=x11 (xdotool fallback),
--device=all (evdev hotkeys + uinput; Flatpak has no narrower uinput flag).
Local Build
# one-time runtime/SDK
flatpak install flathub org.gnome.Platform//50 org.gnome.Sdk//50
# from repo root — add flags as needed:
# --user --install install for the current user
# --repo=repo export a local repo (then bundle or lint)
# --compose-url-policy=full --mirror-screenshots-url=https://dl.flathub.org/media
flatpak-builder --force-clean build-dir packaging/flatpak/com.vocalinux.Vocalinux.yml
flatpak run com.vocalinux.Vocalinux --debug
# single-file bundle (after a --repo=repo build)
flatpak build-bundle repo vocalinux.flatpak com.vocalinux.Vocalinux
# elsewhere: flatpak install --user vocalinux.flatpak
Lint (needs org.flatpak.Builder):
flatpak run --command=flatpak-builder-lint org.flatpak.Builder manifest packaging/flatpak/com.vocalinux.Vocalinux.yml
flatpak run --command=flatpak-builder-lint org.flatpak.Builder builddir build-dir
flatpak run --command=flatpak-builder-lint org.flatpak.Builder repo repo # if you used --repo=repo
Prefer flatpak run after --install for GUI testing. On GNOME runtimes with
glycin loaders, flatpak-builder --run can fail to load themed SVG icons for an
uninstalled stable app ID; it is still fine for non-GUI smokes:
flatpak-builder --run build-dir packaging/flatpak/com.vocalinux.Vocalinux.yml \
python3 -c 'from pywhispercpp.model import Model; print("pywhispercpp ok")'
Python Dependencies
python3-dependencies.yaml is generated from requirements/runtime.txt, the
hash-pinned export just lock writes out of uv.lock. Refresh it whenever the
dependency set changes:
just flatpak-deps # rewrite the manifest (needs PyPI)
just flatpak-deps-check # report drift, change nothing
just lock runs the first of those itself, so a normal dependency change needs
no extra step.
The script resolves each package's URL by looking up the digest uv already
recorded, so the bytes this build downloads are the bytes in uv.lock, not
merely the same version number. It takes a universal wheel where one exists and
the sdist otherwise; an ABI-tagged wheel would pin the build to one SDK Python.
This replaced a flatpak-pip-generator invocation whose package list was typed
out on the command line. Nothing regenerated it and no test compared it to
anything, so it drifted: by 2026-09-10 ten of its fifteen shared packages were
behind the lock, pydub and lxml were still built four months after #705
deleted them for having no imports, and pywhispercpp sat at 1.4.1 under the
project's own >=1.5.0. The project is installed here with
pip3 install --no-deps, so nothing inside the build could notice.
tests/test_flatpak_packaging.py is what notices now, and it runs offline.
Two things in that file are hand-written and the script preserves them, because
no generator produces them: pywhispercpp's Vulkan build, which injects a version
into setup.py (the sdist ships no version.txt, setup() takes no version=
argument, and setuptools-scm has no git tree to read in the sandbox), and the
symlinking of whisper.cpp's shared libraries onto the loader path.
python3-build-dependencies.yaml is a small hand-maintained helper so
--no-build-isolation builds can import mesonpy before NumPy is built.
Channel: VocaHQ remote + GitHub Releases, not Flathub
Flathub is not pursued. The submission,
flathub/flathub#9368, was closed
on 2026-07-23 on policy grounds. See
#167 for the channel decision,
#784 for release bundles, and
#785 for the self-hosted
remote. Do not re-submit. The vocahq remote, local builds, and GitHub
Release .flatpak assets are the supported paths.
Manifest Details
- Runtime / SDK:
org.gnome.Platform//50,org.gnome.Sdk//50 - Mic:
--socket=pulseaudio· GPU:--device=dri· models:--share=network - Input:
--device=all(evdev hotkeys + ydotool/uinput) - Injection: packaged
wl-copy,ydotool/ydotoold, plusxdotool/xselfallback - Display:
--socket=wayland(clipboard) and--socket=x11(xdotool fallback) - IBus:
--talk-name=org.freedesktop.IBus - Tray:
--talk-name=org.kde.StatusNotifierWatcher
Config and models use Flatpak XDG dirs under ~/.var/app/com.vocalinux.Vocalinux/.