Repeat That

Installing on Linux

Repeat That runs on 64-bit x86 (x86_64) Linux with PipeWire. The oldest systems it is built and tested for are Debian 13, Ubuntu 24.04 and Fedora 40; newer releases of those work too. Arm computers aren't supported yet.

Debian 12 and other systems with a glibc older than 2.38 can't run it: the speech detector (ONNX Runtime, built into the app) needs glibc 2.38 and the C++ library of GCC 13. The .deb and the .rpm say so, so apt or dnf refuses to install them there, and the AppImage stops at once with a "version ... not found" error.

Capture, ducking and replay all go through PipeWire, with WirePlumber as its session manager. Ubuntu 24.04, Fedora 40 and GNOME on Debian 13 use both by default. On a system that still runs PulseAudio, Repeat That starts but the status reads "Capture needs PipeWire, and it isn't running". Your distribution's documentation says how to switch, for Debian see wiki.debian.org/PipeWire. wpctl status lists your sound devices when PipeWire and WirePlumber are running.

Download

Get the package for your system from the Releases page. Each release has:

  • Repeat-That_<version>_amd64.deb for Debian, Ubuntu and the distributions based on them.
  • Repeat-That-<version>-1.x86_64.rpm for Fedora. It names the libraries it needs rather than Fedora's package names, so other rpm distributions may take it too, but only Fedora is tested.
  • Repeat-That_<version>_amd64.AppImage, a single file that runs on other distributions without installing.
  • SHA256SUMS holds the checksum of each file, to verify your download.

The .deb and the .rpm are the better choice where they fit: they install the app's menu entry under the name the desktop expects, and your package manager brings in what the app needs.

Install the .deb (Debian, Ubuntu)

sudo apt install ./Repeat-That_<version>_amd64.deb

The ./ matters: without it, apt looks for a package of that name in its repositories. apt installs the libraries the app needs (WebKitGTK, GTK, the tray library, PipeWire's and ALSA's client libraries). The package also recommends PipeWire and WirePlumber themselves, which apt installs too unless you tell it not to.

Install the .rpm (Fedora)

sudo dnf install ./Repeat-That-<version>-1.x86_64.rpm

dnf installs the same libraries, and PipeWire and WirePlumber as weak dependencies.

Run the AppImage

chmod +x Repeat-That_<version>_amd64.AppImage
./Repeat-That_<version>_amd64.AppImage

The AppImage carries its own copy of WebKitGTK, GTK and most other libraries, from Ubuntu 24.04. It takes PipeWire's and ALSA's client libraries and the C++ library from your system on purpose: a PipeWire client must match the PipeWire that runs on your desktop. A desktop system with PipeWire has all three.

An AppImage mounts itself with FUSE. If it says it can't, install your distribution's fuse3 package, or start it with --appimage-extract-and-run added, which unpacks it to a temporary folder first.

Running the file doesn't add Repeat That to your app menu. A tool such as Gear Lever or AppImageLauncher can do that. Two things work differently from the packages:

  • On a Wayland desktop with the GlobalShortcuts portal (KDE Plasma, GNOME 48 and later), the desktop finds the app's name and icon for its shortcuts in me.roboroads.repeat-that.desktop, which only the .deb and the .rpm install. With the AppImage the shortcuts work, but the desktop may list them without the name or icon.
  • Start at login and the command-line actions use the path of the AppImage file. If you move or rename the file, turn Start at login off and on again, and update any custom shortcuts that run it.

First start

Start Repeat That from your app menu (or run the AppImage). It opens its settings window on the first run and puts an icon in the tray. Closing the window keeps it running, and Quit in the tray menu ends it. On GNOME there is no tray unless the AppIndicator and KStatusNotifierItem Support extension is on; without one, the window opens at every start and has a Quit Repeat That button.

Start the app you want to catch up on (Discord, Teams, Firefox, ...), wait until it plays sound, and pick it in the App list. Captured audio stays in memory and is never written to disk; see PRIVACY.md.

The hotkeys depend on your session. On X11 they work as on Windows. On Wayland, KDE Plasma and GNOME 48 and later ask you to confirm the three shortcuts in a system dialog on the first start. Other Wayland desktops (GNOME 46 on Ubuntu 24.04, Sway, Hyprland) can't give an app global hotkeys, so you bind repeat-that --replay and the other commands as custom shortcuts. linux.md covers each case, the tray and start at login.

Verify your download

Compare your download with the release's SHA256SUMS before you install it. In the folder with both files:

sha256sum -c SHA256SUMS --ignore-missing

Your file must show OK. More in verify-downloads.md.

Updating and uninstalling

There's no automatic updater yet. To update, download the newer package and install it the same way: apt and dnf replace the old version. For the AppImage, replace the file, then turn Start at login off and on again if the new file has another name (the name carries the version). Your settings are kept in each case.

To uninstall:

  1. Turn off Start at login in the settings window, then quit Repeat That. If you removed the app with the switch still on, delete ~/.config/autostart/Repeat That.desktop.
  2. Remove the app: sudo apt remove repeat-that, sudo dnf remove repeat-that, or delete the AppImage file.
  3. Delete the settings folder, ~/.config/me.roboroads.repeat-that, and ~/.local/share/me.roboroads.repeat-that, which holds the duck journal (see PRIVACY.md). Neither holds audio.

Build from source

The packages come from CI, but you can build your own on Debian 13 or later, or Ubuntu 24.04 or later. Install the system packages listed under Building from source in the README, plus Rust and Node.js 22.19 or later, then:

git clone https://github.com/Roboroads/repeat-that
cd repeat-that/app
npm ci
npm run tauri build

The packages end up in target/release/bundle/deb/, target/release/bundle/rpm/ and target/release/bundle/appimage/. A build runs on systems with the same or a newer glibc than the one it was built on, which is why the release packages are built on Ubuntu 24.04, whose glibc (2.39) is the oldest of the supported systems.

This page is docs/install-linux.md in the repository.