Downloads

The files are in the bar at the top of every page, in every language. This page is for deciding what to take, and for checking what you received.

Which file

The package is small because it carries neither the Python environment nor the Vosk models: those are fetched on first configuration (see below).

sudo apt install ./vosk-cli-dictation_0.5.4~beta_all.deb

On the other covered distributions:

# Fedora
sudo dnf install ./vosk-cli-dictation-0.5.4~beta-1.fc42.noarch.rpm

# openSUSE
sudo zypper install ./vosk-cli-dictation-0.5.4~beta-1.leap156.noarch.rpm

# Arch Linux
sudo pacman -U ./vosk-cli-dictation-0.5.4_beta-1-any.pkg.tar.zst

What the package installs

• the vosk-cli-dictation command, a wrapper into a private Python environment;
• the application code and its default configuration, under /usr/lib/vosk-cli-dictation/ and /usr/share/vosk-cli-dictation/;
• manual pages in English, French, German and Spanish (man vosk-cli-dictation).

The Vosk engine is not packaged for Debian. The first time the package is configured it creates a private virtual environment and installs Vosk into it — this is the one step that needs network access, and it happens only then.

It does not include a Vosk acoustic model. Download one from alphacephei.com/vosk/models and unzip it under ~/.local/share/vosk-models/; the manpage’s FILES section gives the exact path.

About that apt notice

The install command prints something that looks alarming and is not:

N: Download is performed unsandboxed as root as file '...' couldn't be
   accessed by user '_apt'. - pkgAcquire::Run (13: Permission denied)

The installation succeeded. apt gives up its sandbox when it cannot read the file as the unprivileged _apt user, and says so rather than staying silent. Home directories are mode 700 by default on current Debian, so _apt cannot traverse yours — a sane default, not a mistake on your side.

There is nothing to fix. If you would rather not see it, install from a directory _apt can read:

sudo cp vosk-cli-dictation_0.5.4~beta_all.deb /var/tmp/
sudo apt install /var/tmp/vosk-cli-dictation_0.5.4~beta_all.deb

After installing

Only if you use the ydotool fallback for text injection, your user needs to be in the input group (access to /dev/uinput):

sudo usermod -aG input $USER

Log out and back in for it to take effect. Native Wayland injection (wtype) and X11 (xdotool) do not need it.

Check what you downloaded

Every version publishes the checksums of its files. Comparing takes one command, and it is the only way to know that what arrived is what was published:

sha256sum -c SHA256SUMS

Run it in the directory that holds the downloaded files.

Or clone it, if you intend to make changes

git clone https://github.com/RonanDavalan/vosk-cli-dictation.git

The package and the source install are mutually exclusive on one machine. Take the package unless you are going to modify the code; the Guides cover the from-source path.

Earlier versions

This site serves the current version — the one you install. The forge keeps the archive: every release, with its notes and its date, at github.com/RonanDavalan/vosk-cli-dictation/releases. Duplicating it here would only split the same content across two addresses.

The documentation, offline

One PDF per language — English, French, German, Spanish — assembled from the same sources as the online documentation. It is published only here, not in the Git repository. The badge at the top of the page gives you the one for the current language.

Where it runs

Debian 12+ and its derivatives (Ubuntu 24.04+, Mint 22+…) via the .deb, Fedora (.rpm .fc42), openSUSE Leap (.rpm .leap156) and Arch Linux (pacman). Other systems or versions are not covered — not as a matter of principle, simply the perimeter that has been tested. Saying so is more useful than a compatibility list nobody checked.