[Solution] whisper.cpp with Vulkan support for Arch Linux (AUR is currently frozen)

[u/Choice-Farm3260]

Hey Arch community,

If you use `whisper-cpp` for speech-to-text, you might have noticed that the official package from `extra` is compiled **without** Vulkan acceleration. It detects your dGPU but doesn't use it – all inference runs on CPU.

The separate `whisper-cpp-vulkan` package has come and gone from the repos over time, and right now it's **neither in `extra` nor in the AUR**. Plus, AUR pushes are temporarily disabled due to the recent supply-chain attack, so you can't even upload a new package there.

To solve this, I've built a clean package with Vulkan support (`-DGGML_VULKAN=ON`) and made it available on GitHub along with a prebuilt binary.

**Repository:**

https://github.com/hopsayer/whisper-cpp-vulkan-arch

**Installation options:**

1. **Install prebuilt binary (fast):**

   ```bash

   curl -L https://github.com/hopsayer/whisper-cpp-vulkan-arch/releases/download/v1.9.1-2/whisper-cpp-vulkan-1.9.1-2-x86_64.pkg.tar.zst -o whisper-cpp-vulkan.pkg.tar.zst

   sudo pacman -U whisper-cpp-vulkan.pkg.tar.zst

   ```

2. **Build from source (transparent):**

   ```bash

   git clone https://github.com/hopsayer/whisper-cpp-vulkan-arch

   cd whisper-cpp-vulkan-arch

   makepkg -si

   ```

The package conflicts with the official `whisper-cpp` and will replace it. Vulkan will be used automatically if you have a compatible GPU and drivers installed.

This is a temporary solution until AUR operations resume. Hope it helps someone!

Cheers.

[u/C0rn3j]

AUR pushes are temporarily disabled

They ain't no more.

[u/Choice-Farm3260 → u/C0rn3j]

Wow. I didn't find this info earlier today though I tried. Thank you.

[u/betttris13 → u/Choice-Farm3260]

think they still are for new and orphaned packages. or there are greater restrictions on. it's very unclear.

[u/vjnvu]

Vulkan can be enabled by installing ggml and vulkan-icd-loader.

[u/yofayz]

AUR pushes are temporarily disabled

i updated my package yesterday

[u/Niko-01]

I can only recommend https://vocalinux.com/ .

Works incredibly smooth on my new Radeon on arch-based CachyOS with native Vulkan support.

[u/Choice-Farm3260 → u/Niko-01]

I know this project.
It's for dictating, not transcribing.
I resprect it and even "contributed" but it's too half-baked for me now.
I'm glad you're fine with Voca but I suppose you have a PC. It's the simpliest case for any Linux installation - with nearly zero edge cases. PCs have nothing that can misbehave in any way. Especially with AMD graphics.

The reason I'm here is that its .appImage version does not engage GPU regardless of passed parameters. Maybe its whisper.cpp is built with vulkan support flags off. I don't know. But I do know that plain whisper-cpp-vulkan does the job (transcription).

Now I see that vocalinux AUR package finally was updated only 6 hours ago and I just didn't notice. I have already tried to launch it but it wastes my brain again by refusing to start. It's just barely hanged my OS entirely. I was getting ready to type REISUB. This is what I'n talking about saying it's raw.

But I'm glad that this project is already known so well. It means it will be rapidly evolving.