Linux - OpenWhispr

Requirements

x64 architecture
PulseAudio or PipeWire for audio

Package formats

Format	Distros
`.AppImage`	Any (portable, no install)
`.deb`	Debian, Ubuntu, Mint, Pop!_OS
`.rpm`	Fedora, RHEL, openSUSE
`.tar.gz`	Universal archive

AppImage
deb
rpm
tar.gz

chmod +x OpenWhispr-*.AppImage
./OpenWhispr-*.AppImage

sudo apt install ./OpenWhispr-*-linux-x64.deb

sudo dnf install ./OpenWhispr-*-linux-x64.rpm

tar -xzf OpenWhispr-*-linux-x64.tar.gz
cd OpenWhispr-*/
./openwhispr

Auto-paste

OpenWhispr ships a native C binary (linux-fast-paste) for pasting text. It works on both X11 and Wayland. If the native binary isn’t available, install one of these fallbacks:

X11
Wayland

sudo apt install xdotool    # Debian/Ubuntu
sudo dnf install xdotool    # Fedora
sudo pacman -S xdotool      # Arch

# Option 1: wtype
sudo apt install wtype

# Option 2: ydotool (requires daemon)
sudo apt install ydotool
sudo systemctl enable --now ydotoold

Text is always copied to the clipboard regardless — if no paste tool works, use Ctrl+V manually.

Wayland hotkeys

Electron’s global shortcuts don’t work on Wayland. OpenWhispr handles this automatically per compositor:

GNOME

Uses native GNOME shortcuts via D-Bus and gsettings. Hotkeys appear in Settings > Keyboard > Shortcuts > Custom.

Default fallback: F8 when Ctrl+Super cannot be registered
Push-to-talk not available (GNOME shortcuts fire a single toggle event)

KDE Plasma

Uses native KDE shortcuts via D-Bus.

Hyprland

Uses hyprctl keyword bind for runtime keybinding. Requires hyprctl on PATH (ships with Hyprland).

Push-to-talk not available
Bindings are re-registered on each app startup

Meeting audio (Linux)

System audio capture uses the desktop portal chooser. Select the audio source when prompted at the start of a meeting recording.

Uninstalling

deb/rpm — post-uninstall scripts remove cached models
Other formats — manually remove ~/.cache/openwhispr/ if desired

​Requirements

​Package formats

​Auto-paste

​Wayland hotkeys

​GNOME

​KDE Plasma

​Hyprland

​Meeting audio (Linux)

​Uninstalling