Install Vocalinux with Flatpak

Who the Flatpak is for

Pick the Flatpak if your distribution already uses Flatpak, if you run an immutable or non-standard layout, or if you want updates handled by the same tool as your other desktop apps. It runs on x86_64 and aarch64, and it ships the default whisper.cpp engine with Vulkan GPU support.

Pick the install script instead if you want Faster Whisper, Parakeet, OpenAI Whisper or VOSK, or the local VocaGateway launcher. Those are not in the Flatpak.

Updates

Every stable v* tag is imported into the remote, signed with the VocaHQ GPG key and published with static deltas, so an update downloads only what changed:

flatpak update

• Alpha, beta and rc tags never reach the remote. The only Flatpak for a prerelease is the .flatpak bundle on GitHub Releases.
• Release bundles (Vocalinux-<version>-x86_64.flatpak or -aarch64.flatpak) do not auto-update. Switch to the remote if you installed one.
• The in-app update checker only tells you a release exists; it never installs anything.

If an update fails signature verification

After a signing-key rotation, existing installs must import the new public key. Re-running remote-add does not replace it. The documented fix:

curl -fsSL https://vocahq.github.io/vocalinux-flatpak/vocahq.gpg -o /tmp/vocahq.gpg
flatpak remote-modify --gpg-import=/tmp/vocahq.gpg vocahq
flatpak update

What the Flatpak includes and leaves out

Config and models live under ~/.var/app/com.vocalinux.Vocalinux/, not ~/.config/vocalinux.

Sandbox permissions and Wayland

The manifest asks for the microphone (--socket=pulseaudio), the GPU (--device=dri), network for model downloads, the Wayland and X11 sockets, IBus and the tray watcher on D-Bus, and --device=all for keyboard devices and /dev/uinput. Flatpak has no narrower flag for uinput.

Hotkeys

• Native X11: since v0.18.4 the Flatpak uses the X11 listener, so the hotkey needs no device access. GNOME on X11 is the exception and still needs /dev/input.
• Wayland: the built-in hotkey reads /dev/input. If you tighten permissions, grant --device=input on Flatpak 1.15.6 or newer, or --device=all on older versions.
• No device access at all: enable Settings → Shortcuts → External Activation (Desktop Shortcut) and bind a desktop shortcut to the D-Bus Toggle command below. Desktop shortcuts toggle dictation; they cannot do push-to-talk.

gdbus call --session --dest com.vocalinux.Vocalinux --object-path /com/vocalinux/Vocalinux --method com.vocalinux.Vocalinux.Toggle

To drop device access but keep the GPU for whisper.cpp:

flatpak override --user --nodevice=all --device=dri com.vocalinux.Vocalinux

Typing text

Text injection prefers the RemoteDesktop portal, which asks for permission once and handles non-US layouts. When the portal is unavailable it falls back to wl-copy plus ydotool paste, then xdotool for X11 and XWayland clients. Without /dev/uinput the ydotool fallback is gone, but the portal and xdotool remain. On KDE Plasma Wayland, set System Settings → Keyboard → Virtual Keyboard to “IBus Wayland”. On GNOME, the tray icon needs the AppIndicator extension. For more, see Wayland voice typing and global shortcuts via D-Bus.

Uninstall

The uninstall.sh script is for script and source installs. For the Flatpak, use Flatpak itself. Remove the app:

flatpak uninstall com.vocalinux.Vocalinux

Add --delete-data to also remove settings and downloaded models under ~/.var/app/com.vocalinux.Vocalinux/. If no other app uses the remote, drop it too:

flatpak remote-delete vocahq