Owlet

Speech-to-text GNOME app built with GTK4 + libadwaita in Vala. Uses transcribe.cpp for local inference (HIP / Vulkan / CPU) and supports OpenAI-compatible remote transcription APIs.

Build an Arch Linux package

These steps create an installable package on Arch Linux or an Arch-based distribution. No programming tools need to be configured by hand; makepkg installs the required build dependencies.

1. Install Arch's package-building tools:

   sudo pacman -S --needed base-devel git

2. Download Owlet and enter its directory:

   git clone https://github.com/papodaca/owlet.git
   cd owlet

3. Enter the packaging directory, then build and install one variant. makepkg initializes the transcribe.cpp and sherpa-onnx submodules and statically links them. sherpa-onnx's cmake FetchContent archives (onnxruntime, espeak-ng, …) are declared in source=() and pre-seeded into the sidecar build dir so configure does not hit the network. The other variants and their GPU dependencies will not be built or installed.

   cd packaging/arch

   Variant	Recommended for	Build and install command
   CPU	Any computer; slowest but most compatible	OWLET_BACKEND=cpu makepkg -si
   Vulkan	Most AMD, Intel, and NVIDIA GPUs	OWLET_BACKEND=vulkan makepkg -si
   HIP	AMD GPUs with ROCm support	OWLET_BACKEND=hip makepkg -si

   The variants conflict with each other because GPU support is compiled into Owlet. Installing another variant with makepkg -si will offer to replace the currently installed one.

After installation, launch Owlet from the application menu. Speech models are downloaded from Owlet's Preferences window and are not bundled in the package.

To update later, run git pull in the owlet directory and repeat step 3. The generated package version includes the current Git revision, so it changes automatically when the project is updated.

Build a Debian / Ubuntu package

These steps create installable .deb packages on Ubuntu 26.04 (resolute) or Debian sid. Owlet needs libadwaita ≥ 1.8 (Adw.ShortcutsDialog), so Ubuntu 24.04 / Debian 13 are not supported build hosts. Package names below match Ubuntu 26.04; Debian sid uses the same names for the Owlet build/runtime deps checked so far.

1. Install packaging tools and (for the CPU variant) build dependencies:

   sudo apt install build-essential debhelper devscripts dpkg-dev git \
     meson ninja-build valac pkg-config cmake python3-pytest \
     appstream desktop-file-utils libglib2.0-bin \
     libgtk-4-dev libadwaita-1-dev \
     libgstreamer1.0-dev libgstreamer-plugins-base1.0-dev \
     libsoup-3.0-dev libsecret-1-dev libjson-glib-dev libarchive-dev libei-dev \
     libx11-dev libxext-dev libxrandr-dev libcairo2-dev libpango1.0-dev libblas-dev

   Vulkan additionally needs libvulkan-dev, glslc, and spirv-headers (ggml-vulkan's CMake find_package(SPIRV-Headers)). HIP needs AMD's ROCm apt repository (see below) plus hip-dev, rocm-device-libs, hipblas, hipblas-dev, rocblas, rocblas-dev, rocminfo, rccl, and noble's libxml2 (for ROCm lld's libxml2.so.2).

2. Clone Owlet and enter the Debian packaging directory:

   git clone https://github.com/papodaca/owlet.git
   cd owlet/packaging/debian

3. Build one variant. build.sh symlinks packaging/debian to the repo-root debian/ directory, refreshes the changelog version from git, initializes submodules, pre-seeds sherpa-onnx's FetchContent archives (packaging/sherpa-onnx-archives.sh; set OWLET_SHERPA_ARCHIVES_DIR for a network-isolated cache), and runs dpkg-buildpackage. Finished .deb files are left in packaging/debian/.

   Variant	Recommended for	Build command	Install
   CPU	Any computer; slowest but most compatible	OWLET_BACKEND=cpu ./build.sh	sudo apt install ./owlet_*.deb
   Vulkan	Most AMD, Intel, and NVIDIA GPUs	OWLET_BACKEND=vulkan ./build.sh	sudo apt install ./owlet-vulkan_*.deb
   HIP	AMD GPUs with ROCm support	OWLET_BACKEND=hip ./build.sh	sudo apt install ./owlet-hip_*.deb

   The variants conflict with each other because GPU support is compiled into Owlet. Install only one. Dictation prefers libei when the build host has libei ≥ 1.6 (EI_DEVICE_CAP_TEXT); Ubuntu 26.04 / Debian sid currently ship 1.5, so packages fall back to ydotool / xdotool (Suggests). Runtime libei1 is a Recommends, not a hard Depends.

HIP: enable AMD ROCm apt

Distro-universe ROCm packages are too old/incomplete for the HIP targets Owlet builds (gfx1100;gfx1030;gfx906;gfx90a;gfx1200;gfx1201). Use AMD's repo (example for ROCm 6.4.3; check current AMD docs for the latest path). AMD currently publishes jammy / noble suites only — on Ubuntu 26.04 or Debian sid, pin the noble suite until a newer one appears:

sudo mkdir -p /etc/apt/keyrings
wget -qO - https://repo.radeon.com/rocm/rocm.gpg.key \
  | gpg --dearmor | sudo tee /etc/apt/keyrings/rocm.gpg >/dev/null
echo "deb [arch=amd64 signed-by=/etc/apt/keyrings/rocm.gpg] https://repo.radeon.com/rocm/apt/6.4.3 noble main" \
  | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/rocm.list
printf 'Package: *\nPin: release o=repo.radeon.com\nPin-Priority: 600\n' \
  | sudo tee /etc/apt/preferences.d/rocm-pin-600
# ROCm lld needs libxml2.so.2; Ubuntu 26.04 / sid only ship libxml2.so.16.
echo "deb http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu noble main" \
  | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/noble-rocm-compat.list
printf 'Package: libxml2 libicu74\nPin: release n=noble\nPin-Priority: 700\n' \
  | sudo tee /etc/apt/preferences.d/noble-rocm-compat
sudo apt update
sudo apt install hip-dev rocm-device-libs \
  hipblas hipblas-dev rocblas rocblas-dev rocminfo rccl \
  libxml2

rocm-device-libs is only a Recommends of rocm-llvm; install it explicitly (or omit --no-install-recommends) so the HIP compiler can find the ROCm device library. libxml2 here is noble's package (libxml2.so.2 + libicu74); it coexists with distro libxml2-16.

Ensure /opt/rocm/bin is on PATH during the package build (the packaging rules prepend it). If your ROCm is older than 6.4, drop gfx1200 / gfx1201 from amd_targets in packaging/debian/rules.

After installation, launch Owlet from the application menu. Speech models are downloaded from Preferences and are not bundled in the package.

Build an AppImage

These steps create a portable *.AppImage on Ubuntu 26.04 (or an equivalent glibc). Owlet needs libadwaita ≥ 1.8, so the AppImage glibc floor matches that build host — it will not run on older distros (e.g. Ubuntu 22.04 / 24.04). Only CPU and Vulkan AppImages are shipped; HIP/ROCm remains Arch / Debian only.

Easiest path (Docker, mirrors CI):

git clone https://github.com/papodaca/owlet.git
cd owlet/packaging/appimage
./smoke-docker.sh cpu      # → Owlet-*-$ARCH-cpu.AppImage (x86_64 or aarch64)
./smoke-docker.sh vulkan   # → Owlet-*-$ARCH-vulkan.AppImage

Native build on Ubuntu 26.04 (install the same build deps as the Debian section, plus gstreamer1.0-plugins-good, gstreamer1.0-pulseaudio, file, patchelf, and for Vulkan libvulkan-dev / glslc / spirv-headers):

cd packaging/appimage
OWLET_BACKEND=cpu ./build.sh
OWLET_BACKEND=vulkan ./build.sh

Variant	Recommended for	Artifact
CPU	Any computer; slowest but most compatible	Owlet-*-x86_64-cpu.AppImage
Vulkan	Most AMD, Intel, and NVIDIA GPUs	Owlet-*-x86_64-vulkan.AppImage

Make the AppImage executable and run it (chmod +x then double-click or ./Owlet-….AppImage). Vulkan builds expect a host Vulkan ICD (GPU drivers / Mesa); those libraries are not bundled. Speech models are downloaded from Preferences into $XDG_DATA_HOME/owlet/models/ and are not bundled.

Build & run from source

git submodule update --init --recursive
meson setup build                 # once (or -Dgpu_backend=cpu)
ninja -C build run                # build + compile schemas + launch

ninja -C build alone still builds the binary and compiles schemas into build/data/ for manual runs with GSETTINGS_SCHEMA_DIR=build/data.

Global-shortcut / tray dictation shows an always-on-top OSD that needs X11 or XWayland (libx11 / libxext / libxrandr). The overlay is mirrored onto every active XRandR monitor (bottom-centered on each), so it stays visible on dual-head even when XWayland pointer coords are stale. Without DISPLAY, dictation still runs and the HUD soft-fails with a warning.

Tests

meson test -C build --print-errorlogs

Suites (see tests/README.md):

Suite	What
(default metadata)	desktop / schema / appstream validators
unit	GSettings, WAV sample, gresource paths
integration	libsecret, multipart contract, mock download + remote API
ui	Xvfb launch + preferences smoke (needs xvfb-run, xdotool)
network	HuggingFace catalog HEAD checks (opt-in / outbound)

meson test -C build --suite unit
meson test -C build --suite integration
meson test -C build --suite ui
meson test -C build --suite network

Extra host packages for UI / secret tests are listed in tests/README.md. Manual recipes that remain human-only (live rebind, real mic, etc.) are in docs/testing.md.

Translations

Owlet uses GNU gettext via Meson's i18n module (po/). English is the source language; other locales are contributed later.

• UI files (.ui): mark user-visible properties with translatable="yes".

• Vala: wrap user-facing strings with _("…"), C_("ctx", "…"), or ngettext when needed.

• Never use _(@"$x") — Vala interpolates before gettext, so the msgid is unstable. Use _("%s").printf (x) instead.

• After changing strings, regenerate the template from the build dir:

  ninja -C build owlet-pot
  # when locales exist:
  ninja -C build owlet-update-po

• Adding a language: append the locale code to po/LINGUAS, run ninja -C build owlet-update-po, translate po/xx.po, and commit.

• Testing a locale: install to a prefix or use meson devenv -C build so LOCALEDIR resolves, then run with LANGUAGE=xx ./src/owlet.