Complete installation guide for all supported Linux distributions.
System requirements
OS: Linux with glibc 2.35+ (Ubuntu 24.04+, Fedora 39+, Arch, Debian Trixie+)Desktop: Wayland or X11Audio: PipeWire or PulseAudioCPU: x86_64 with AVX2 supportRAM: 1 GB availableDisk: 500 MB for base.en model
OS: Rolling release (Arch, Fedora latest)Desktop: Wayland compositor (Hyprland, Sway, River)Audio: PipeWireCPU: Modern CPU with AVX-512 supportGPU: Vulkan-compatible (AMD, NVIDIA, Intel)RAM: 4 GB availableDisk: 3 GB for large-v3 model Voxtype requires glibc 2.35 or newer. Older distributions (Ubuntu 22.04, Debian Bullseye) are not supported.
Package installation Arch Linux
Debian/Ubuntu
Fedora
Other distributions
AUR packages Two packages are available: voxtype - Build from source (recommended)voxtype-bin - Prebuilt binaryThe AUR packages include:
Systemd service file
Shell completions (bash, zsh, fish)
Man pages
Configuration examples
Post-installation Enable and start the service: systemctl --user enable --now voxtype
Download and install # Download latest release wget https://github.com/peteonrails/voxtype/releases/latest/download/voxtype_VERSION_amd64.deb # Install package sudo dpkg -i voxtype_VERSION_amd64.deb # Install dependencies if needed sudo apt install -f
Replace VERSION with the actual version number (e.g., 0.6.3). Available binaries The .deb package includes multiple binaries for different CPU/GPU configurations:
voxtype - AVX2 (CPU only)voxtype-avx512 - AVX-512 (faster CPU)voxtype-vulkan - Vulkan GPU accelerationvoxtype-onnx-* - ONNX engine variants Use voxtype setup gpu to switch between CPU and GPU variants. Download and install # Download latest release wget https://github.com/peteonrails/voxtype/releases/latest/download/voxtype-VERSION.x86_64.rpm # Install package sudo dnf install voxtype-VERSION.x86_64.rpm
Replace VERSION with the actual version number (e.g., 0.6.3-1). Available binaries The .rpm package includes multiple binaries for different configurations. Use voxtype setup gpu and voxtype setup onnx to switch between them. Manual binary installation # Download binary for your CPU/GPU wget https://github.com/peteonrails/voxtype/releases/latest/download/voxtype-VERSION-linux-x86_64-avx2 # Make executable chmod +x voxtype-VERSION-linux-x86_64-avx2 # Move to PATH sudo mv voxtype-VERSION-linux-x86_64-avx2 /usr/local/bin/voxtype
Available binaries:
avx2 - Standard CPU (Intel/AMD)avx512 - AVX-512 capable CPUsvulkan - GPU acceleration via Vulkanonnx-avx2, onnx-avx512, onnx-cuda, onnx-rocm - ONNX engine variants Build from source Building from source gives you the most control and latest features.
Prerequisites sudo dnf install rust cargo alsa-lib-devel
Build steps # Clone repository git clone https://github.com/peteonrails/voxtype.git cd voxtype # Build release binary cargo build --release # Binary is at: target/release/voxtype
Build with GPU acceleration cargo build --release --features gpu-vulkan
Supports AMD, NVIDIA, and Intel GPUs. # Install CUDA toolkit first cargo build --release --features gpu-cuda
NVIDIA GPUs only. Requires CUDA 11.x or newer. # Install ROCm first cargo build --release --features gpu-hipblas
AMD GPUs only. Requires ROCm 5.x or newer. cargo build --release --features gpu-metal
macOS/Apple Silicon only (not applicable for Linux). Install binary # Install to /usr/local/bin sudo install -m 755 target/release/voxtype /usr/local/bin/ # Verify installation voxtype --version
Runtime dependencies Voxtype requires a text input driver and clipboard utility.
Text input drivers Install at least one:
wtype (recommended)
dotool
ydotool
Best Unicode/CJK support, works on most Wayland compositors wtype does not work on KDE Plasma or GNOME Wayland. Use dotool or ydotool instead.
Keyboard layout support via XKB, works everywhere Configure keyboard layout: # ~/.config/voxtype/config.toml [ output ] dotool_xkb_layout = "de" # Your layout (de, fr, es, etc.)
Universal fallback, works on Wayland/X11/TTY sudo dnf install ydotool systemctl --user enable --now ydotool
ydotool requires a daemon. Enable it with systemd or the typing will not work.
Clipboard utilities For clipboard fallback and paste mode:
# Fedora sudo dnf install wl-clipboard # Arch sudo pacman -S wl-clipboard # Ubuntu sudo apt install wl-clipboard
Audio system One of these should already be installed:
PipeWire (recommended, modern)PulseAudio (older systems)
Verify:
pactl info # Should show server info
Permissions Compositor keybindings (recommended) No special permissions needed. Just configure your compositor and disable the built-in hotkey:# ~/.config/voxtype/config.toml [ hotkey ] enabled = false
Built-in hotkey (evdev) If using the built-in hotkey on X11 or as a fallback:
# Add yourself to input group sudo usermod -aG input $USER # Log out and back in for changes to take effect
Then verify:
groups # Should list 'input'
Download models Voxtype needs a transcription model to work.
Default model # Download base.en (142 MB) voxtype setup --download
Specific model # Download a specific model voxtype setup --download --model large-v3-turbo # Interactive selection voxtype setup model
Available models Model Size Languages Best for tiny.en 39 MB English Testing, low resources base.en 142 MB English General use small.en 466 MB English Better accuracy medium.en 1.5 GB English High accuracy large-v3 3 GB 99 languages Multilingual large-v3-turbo 1.6 GB 99 languages Fast + accurate (GPU)
Models are stored in ~/.local/share/voxtype/.
Verify installation Run the setup check:
Expected output:
Checking system configuration... ✓ Voxtype binary found ✓ Model found: base.en ✓ Audio system: PipeWire ✓ Text output: wtype (Wayland) ✓ Clipboard: wl-copy All checks passed! Ready to use voxtype.
See the Quick Start guide for compositor-specific keybinding setup.
Optional: Systemd service Run Voxtype as a systemd user service to start automatically:
# Install service file voxtype setup systemd # Enable and start systemctl --user enable --now voxtype # Check status systemctl --user status voxtype # View logs journalctl --user -u voxtype -f
The service uses your config from ~/.config/voxtype/config.toml.
Optional: Waybar integration Add status bar integration:
# Show configuration voxtype setup waybar # Auto-install to ~/.config/waybar/ voxtype setup waybar --install
See Integrations for full Waybar setup.
Upgrade Download and install the latest .deb or .rpm package.
cd voxtype git pull cargo build --release sudo install -m 755 target/release/voxtype /usr/local/bin/
Uninstall AUR
Debian/Ubuntu
Fedora
Manual
sudo rm /usr/local/bin/voxtype rm -rf ~/.config/voxtype rm -rf ~/.local/share/voxtype
Next steps
Quick start Configure and test your installation
Basic usage Learn push-to-talk controls
GPU acceleration Enable GPU for faster transcription
Troubleshooting Fix common installation issues
