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OpenWhispr runs on 64-bit Linux and works on every desktop we’ve tried, but more of its behaviour depends on your session here than it does on macOS or Windows. This page is the map of what changes and why.

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What you need

  • 64-bit x86-64 — there’s no ARM build
  • PulseAudio or PipeWire for audio; PipeWire is also what system-audio capture uses

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Which package to install

This is the one choice worth making deliberately. Browser sign-in works by registering the openwhispr:// URL scheme, and only the packaged installs do that. On AppImage and tar.gz the Google, Apple and Microsoft buttons are disabled with the message “Browser sign-in unavailable”. Signing in with an email code still works, and everything after sign-in behaves identically.

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Pasting into other apps

OpenWhispr always copies your transcription to the clipboard. Putting it into the focused window is the part that depends on your session. It ships a native paste helper and uses it where it can. On X11 that’s the normal case and needs nothing from you. On Wayland the helper needs access to /dev/uinput, which most distributions don’t grant by default:
Log out and back in afterwards — group membership isn’t picked up until you do. Where the helper can’t be used, OpenWhispr falls back to whichever tool you have installed: If none of them is available the app tells you plainly — “Clipboard Mode on Wayland” — and you paste with Ctrl+V yourself. That’s a designed fallback, not a failure. Clipboard and system audio on Linux is the step-by-step version, including which packages to install.

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Terminals and editors

Terminals take Ctrl+Shift+V rather than Ctrl+V, and OpenWhispr recognises around two dozen of them. Konsole and Electron-based editors like VS Code and Cursor get Shift+Insert instead, because that’s the one that works reliably in both. Editors, IDEs and terminals explains when that matters.

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Hotkeys

The default dictation hotkey is Ctrl+Super. Electron’s own global shortcuts don’t work on Wayland, so OpenWhispr registers through the desktop environment instead — and which one you run changes what’s possible:
Shortcuts are registered as native GNOME custom shortcuts over D-Bus and gsettings, so they show up under Settings → Keyboard → Shortcuts → Custom. GNOME reports a shortcut as a single press, so hold-to-talk isn’t available through this path.
Shortcuts are registered through KDE’s own global shortcut service over D-Bus, one shortcut per action.
Bindings are applied with hyprctl at runtime and re-applied each time OpenWhispr starts. If the app can’t write to your Hyprland config it says so — the binding works for this session but won’t survive a config reload. OpenWhispr also claims the combination, so an existing Hyprland bind on the same keys is unbound.
Most desktops reserve a long list of combinations, particularly anything built on Super. OpenWhispr refuses those with a reason rather than binding something that silently never fires. Choosing a shortcut that works covers the rules. Hold-to-talk needs the same input group membership as the paste helper. Until that’s in place dictation runs in tap mode, and the app shows Hold to Speak needs setup with the command to run.

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System audio for meetings

System audio is captured through PipeWire, from your default sink monitor. There’s no permission dialog and no screen-share picker on Linux — if you were expecting one, its absence is correct. Check that the audio you want is playing through the default sink before you start recording. Meeting audio isn’t captured covers the rest.

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What isn’t available on Linux

  • Launch at login — the setting is hidden rather than shown and ignored. Use your desktop’s own autostart, pointed at the OpenWhispr binary or its .desktop entry.
  • The Globe key and mouse-button hotkeys — macOS only.

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Updates and uninstalling

Update the way you installed: fetch the new package and install it over the top, or replace the AppImage. Settings, history and downloaded models are kept. Uninstalling a .deb or .rpm removes cached models as part of the package’s own cleanup. For other formats, remove ~/.cache/openwhispr/ yourself. Adding ~/.config/OpenWhispr gives you a clean slate — and takes your local settings, history and un-synced notes with it.