Vocalinux v0.18.3
A patch release on the stable line, all fixes. "new line" and "new paragraph" finally type real line breaks, hotkeys work again on GNOME Shell X11, and every packaged build now runs on the older CPUs that v0.18.x binaries were crashing on. Snap users: this is the first 0.18.x revision that can publish to the Store.
Highlights
| Area | Change |
|---|---|
| Voice commands | "new line" and "new paragraph" insert real line breaks standalone and mid-utterance, the stray punctuation they left behind is gone, and xdotool sends key Return instead of the Linefeed keysym GTK drops
|
| Hotkeys | evdev backend preferred on GNOME X11, where mutter never feeds pynput's XRecord listener; quitting no longer collapses multi-layout keyboard maps |
| Compatibility | Snap, Flatpak, AppImage, .deb/.rpm all build pywhispercpp at the true x86-64 baseline; the SIGILL on pre-Haswell CPUs is gone |
| Snap | uinput plug removed after the Store denied the grant, so new revisions clear automatic review and can publish again
|
| CI | Flatpak remote publish warns loudly when unconfigured instead of silently skipping every tag |
Bug fixes
Voice commands and text injection
- "new line" and "new paragraph" produce real line breaks: standalone commands were dropped entirely or injected a stray ". ", and mid-utterance substitutions leaked trailing punctuation (#958; fixes #955 reported by @rastarr)
- The xdotool backend sends
key Returnfor each newline instead oftype's Linefeed keysym, which GTK targets silently drop; verified live against a GtkTextView (#962; fixes #955 reported by @rastarr)
Hotkeys and session restore
- Push-to-talk and toggle shortcuts work on GNOME Shell X11 sessions again: the evdev backend is preferred there since mutter never delivers physical keys to pynput's XRecord listener (#963; fixes #954 reported by @jepst)
- Quitting no longer collapses a multi-layout keyboard map to a single layout: the IBus engine restore is skipped when a real engine is already active (#963)
Packaged builds
- Snap, Flatpak, AppImage, and the .deb/.rpm packages now compile the bundled pywhispercpp at the portable x86-64 baseline (every GGML SIMD flag pinned off), fixing the SIGILL crash on pre-Haswell CPUs like the reporter's i5-3337U (#959; fixes #957 reported by @bucketsofmail)
- The Snap recipe drops the
uinputplug the Store denied, so new revisions pass automatic review again; Wayland typing goes through the RemoteDesktop portal, and the v0.18.2 GitHub.snapstill carries uinput for KDE users who want ydotool (#960)
Dialogs
- Transcribe File's modal model-download dialog releases its grab when the TinyDiarize download completes, so the transcript's Copy and Save As buttons are clickable instead of hidden behind a stuck modal (#965; found during release e2e testing)
CI and docs
- The Flatpak remote publish emits a warning annotation when its secrets are unset, so an unconfigured remote shows up on the release run instead of hiding in a log (#961; fixes #951 reported by @andreacasini)
- README header gains a badge row covering every install format plus a Nix flake section (#949)
Thanks
Reports that shaped this release: @rastarr (#955, including the follow-up verification that caught the xdotool layer), @jepst (#954), @bucketsofmail (#957), @andreacasini (#951).
Install or upgrade
Recommended, one-line installer:
curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/VocaHQ/vocalinux/main/install.sh | bashNative packages: vocalinux_0.18.3-1_amd64.deb or vocalinux-0.18.3-1.x86_64.rpm (aarch64 builds attached too).
AppImage: Vocalinux-0.18.3-x86_64.AppImage (aarch64 build attached too). chmod +x and run.
AUR: yay -S vocalinux (source build) or yay -S vocalinux-bin (AppImage wrapper).
PyPI: pipx install vocalinux.
Nix: nix run github:VocaHQ/vocalinux or nix profile install github:VocaHQ/vocalinux.
Snap: sudo snap install vocalinux --edge now that revisions can publish to the Store again (the uinput plug was denied and removed). On KDE Plasma, if you want ydotool, the v0.18.2 GitHub .snap still declares it: sudo snap install --dangerous ./vocalinux_0.18.2_amd64.snap && sudo snap connect vocalinux:uinput.
Flatpak: flatpak install https://vocahq.github.io/vocalinux-flatpak/com.vocalinux.Vocalinux.flatpakref from the self-hosted VocaHQ remote for auto-updates via flatpak update, or sideload Vocalinux-0.18.3-x86_64.flatpak / Vocalinux-0.18.3-aarch64.flatpak from the assets below (no auto-update).
Verifying
Every binary asset ships SHA256SUMS plus GitHub attestations:
sha256sum -c SHA256SUMS --ignore-missing
gh attestation verify <file> --repo VocaHQ/vocalinuxFull changelog: v0.18.2...v0.18.3