1. Check your Mint release and session
Linux Mint 22.3 “Zena”, released in January 2026, ships Cinnamon 6.6, Linux kernel 6.14 and an Ubuntu Noble (24.04) package base, with security updates until 2029. Mint 21.3 and the rest of the 21.x series sit on Ubuntu Jammy (22.04) and receive security updates until 2027. Both bases fall within IraVoice’s requirement of Ubuntu 22.04 or later.
Cinnamon has offered a Wayland session as a login-screen option since Cinnamon 6.0 in Mint 21.3, labelled experimental, and the Mint team said then that Wayland would not replace Xorg as the default in 21.3 or 22.x. Run echo $XDG_SESSION_TYPE to confirm what you are on; if it prints x11, everything in the next two sections applies without extra permissions.
2. Give dictation apps a way to type: xdotool
On X11 a dictation app types by sending synthetic keystrokes through the XTEST extension, which is exactly what xdotool does. Install it with sudo apt install xdotool, then test it on its own before blaming any dictation app: run sleep 3; xdotool type 'hello from Mint' and click into a text editor within three seconds.
nerd-dictation uses xdotool by default, Handy recommends it for X11, and IraVoice selects it automatically on an X11 session. If the test text appears in the editor but your dictation app types nothing, look at the app’s shortcut or microphone rather than the typing layer.
- Install: sudo apt install xdotool
- Test: sleep 3; xdotool type 'hello from Mint'
- Click into a text editor before the three seconds run out.
3. Install a dictation app the Mint way
Mint disables the Snap Store and favours Flatpak and .deb packages. That shapes the options: Speech Note installs from Flathub with flatpak install net.mkiol.SpeechNote and, on X11, inserts text into the active window without extra setup, while Canonical’s Myna, which is delivered as snaps and built for Ubuntu’s GNOME session, is not a realistic Cinnamon option.
For IraVoice, download the .deb from iravoice.com/download and run sudo apt install ./IraVoice-*.deb in the folder that holds it; apt fetches its two dependencies, libgtk-layer-shell0 and libopenblas0. Or take the default download, an AppImage that needs no install and updates itself. The Linux build is a beta. On first run it downloads the Parakeet Unified EN model (about 700 MB) once, then recognizes speech offline with NVIDIA Parakeet.
Handy, the open-source app IraVoice is built on, also publishes a .deb, and its README gives the same advice: install it with sudo apt install ./Handy_*.deb so dependencies resolve, rather than with dpkg -i.
4. Add a Cinnamon keyboard shortcut
On the X11 session IraVoice’s own key, Ctrl+Space, should reach the app: hold it to talk, or tap it for hands-free dictation and tap again to finish, and you can change the key in IraVoice’s General settings. A Cinnamon shortcut is still useful for tools that only expose commands, and it becomes the main route if you try the Wayland session.
nerd-dictation’s README suggests binding nerd-dictation begin and nerd-dictation end to separate keys. For IraVoice one shortcut is enough, because iravoice --toggle-transcription starts a dictation in the running app and the next press stops it and types the text.
- Open the Keyboard app from the menu and go to the Shortcuts tab.
- Select Custom Shortcuts, then click Add custom shortcut.
- Enter a name and the command iravoice --toggle-transcription (or the AppImage’s full path followed by --toggle-transcription).
- Under Keyboard bindings, double-click unassigned and press the key combination.
5. Set the input device and check PipeWire
Mint 22 moved its sound server to PipeWire. The release notes suggest inxi -A to see which server is running, and document a way back to PulseAudio if sound misbehaves: apt purge pipewire pipewire-bin, systemctl enable --user pulseaudio, then reboot. nerd-dictation can record through parec or pw-cat, so it works with either.
To choose the microphone, click the sound icon in the panel, open Sound Settings and pick the device on the Input tab. USB headsets appear as their own devices, so select yours explicitly and watch the input level move while you speak before you start dictating.
6. Plan for Mint 23 and the Wayland session
The next release, numbered 23 for now and nicknamed “Alfa” while its name is undecided, is planned for Christmas 2026. The Mint team’s March 2026 update lists an Ubuntu 26.04 LTS package base, Linux kernel 7.0 and a development build of Cinnamon 6.7, and its June 2026 update says Wayland will no longer be labelled experimental: the next Cinnamon fully supports both X11 and Wayland.
If you switch to the Wayland session, typing changes. xdotool then reaches only X11 apps running under XWayland, and wtype does not help, because Cinnamon’s compositor, Muffin, does not implement the virtual-keyboard protocol wtype relies on. dotool or ydotool, which type through /dev/uinput, become the route, together with a Cinnamon shortcut for the dictation app’s toggle command.
An Ubuntu 26.04 base stays inside IraVoice’s Ubuntu 22.04-or-later requirement, but the Linux build is a beta, so test dictation again after any major upgrade.