gnome-speech2text-service 1.0.3

D-Bus service providing speech-to-text functionality for GNOME Shell

GNOME Speech2Text Service

A D-Bus service that provides speech-to-text functionality for the GNOME Shell Speech2Text extension.

Overview

This service handles the actual speech recognition processing using OpenAI's Whisper API. It runs as a D-Bus service and communicates with the GNOME Shell extension to provide seamless speech-to-text functionality.

Features

• Real-time speech recognition using OpenAI Whisper
• D-Bus integration for seamless desktop integration
• Audio recording with configurable duration
• Multiple output modes (clipboard, text insertion, preview)
• Error handling and recovery
• Session management for multiple concurrent recordings

Installation

System Dependencies

This service requires several system packages to be installed:

# Ubuntu/Debian
sudo apt update && sudo apt install -y \
    python3 python3-pip python3-venv python3-dbus python3-gi \
    ffmpeg xdotool xclip wl-clipboard

Service Installation

The service can be installed via pip:

pip install gnome-speech2text-service

Or from the source repository:

cd service/
pip install .

D-Bus Registration

After installation, you need to register the D-Bus service and desktop entry. Recommended options:

1. Using the repository (local source install)

# From the repo root
./src/install-service.sh --local

2. Using the bundled installer (PyPI install)

# From the repo root
./src/install-service.sh --pypi

The installer will:

• Create a per-user virtual environment under ~/.local/share/gnome-speech2text-service/venv
• Install the gnome-speech2text-service package
• Register the D-Bus service at ~/.local/share/dbus-1/services/org.gnome.Speech2Text.service
• Create a desktop entry at ~/.local/share/applications/gnome-speech2text-service.desktop

Usage

Starting the Service

The service is D-Bus activated and starts automatically when requested by the extension. You can also start it manually:

# If the entry point is on PATH (pip install)
gnome-speech2text-service

# Or via the per-user wrapper created by the installer
~/.local/share/gnome-speech2text-service/gnome-speech2text-service

Configuration

The service uses OpenAI's API for speech recognition. You'll need to:

1. Get an OpenAI API key from OpenAI Platform
2. Configure it through the GNOME Shell extension preferences

D-Bus Interface

The service provides the following D-Bus methods:

• StartRecording(duration, copy_to_clipboard, preview_mode) → recording_id
• StopRecording(recording_id) → success
• GetRecordingStatus(recording_id) → status, progress
• CancelRecording(recording_id) → success

Signals:

• TranscriptionReady(recording_id, text)
• RecordingProgress(recording_id, progress)
• RecordingError(recording_id, error_message)

Requirements

• Python: 3.8 or higher
• System: Linux with D-Bus support
• Desktop: GNOME Shell (tested on GNOME 46+)

License

This project is licensed under the GPL-2.0-or-later license. See the LICENSE file for details.

Contributing

Contributions are welcome! Please see the main repository for contribution guidelines: https://github.com/kavehtehrani/gnome-speech2text