6.7 KiB
Linux Voice Assistant on RaspberryPi with ReSpeaker 2‑Mic — Installation & Configuration Guide
Created using ChatGPT 5 with the following prompt:
Using the following github document as a guide
https://github.com/rhasspy/wyoming-satellite/blob/master/docs/tutorial_2mic.md,
take the attached bash history of commands and create a similar document
detailing the installation and configuration of this linux-voice-assistant project.
Modeled after the Wyoming Satellite two‑mic tutorial, adapted from actual shell history.
This guide reproduces a working setup of the linux-voice-assistant project with Wyoming OpenWakeWord and MicroWakeWord on a Raspberry PI Zero 2W and a Respeaker 2‑mic HAT (e.g., seeed-2mic-voicecard). It assumes a fresh system with sudo access and the default "pi" user. Included is the option to use PipeWire or PulseAudio instead of ALSA.
Prerequisites
- Raspberry Pi OS Lite (64-bit)
- Linux 6.12.34+rpt-rpi-v8 #1 SMP PREEMPT Debian 1:6.12.34-1+rpt1~bookworm
- (2025-06-26) aarch64 GNU/Linux
- Default Python 3.11+ recommended
- A ReSpeaker 2‑mic sound card or compatable
- Network access to your Home Assistant instance
1. Install system packages
sudo apt update
sudo apt upgrade
sudo apt install libportaudio2 build-essential git \
libmpv-dev mpv python3.11-dev
sudo reboot
2. Get the code
git clone https://github.com/imonlinux/linux-voice-assistant.git
3. Install ReSpeaker drivers
chmod +x ~/linux-voice-assistant/respeaker2mic/install-respeaker-drivers.sh
sudo ~/linux-voice-assistant/respeaker2mic/install-respeaker-drivers.sh
sudo reboot
4. Linux Voice Assistant (LVA)
cd ~/linux-voice-assistant/
script/setup
5. Choose your install option "Choose your Adventure!"
Pick one of the following install paths. Expand a section to see the exact steps.
Tip: All services run in user mode (requires
loginctl enable-linger);
PipeWire (user-mode services)
Prep (PipeWire): Follow the PipeWire tutorial first: the tutorial.
Enable linger (required for user services to start after reboot):
sudo loginctl enable-linger pi
Install LVA user-mode services:
mkdir -p ~/.config/systemd/user
cp ~/linux-voice-assistant/service/user-pw-linux-voice-assistant.service ~/.config/systemd/user/linux-voice-assistant.service
Enable & start:
systemctl --user daemon-reload
systemctl --user enable --now linux-voice-assistant.service
Verify:
systemctl --user status linux-voice-assistant --no-pager -l
PulseAudio (user-mode services)
Prep (PulseAudio): Follow the PulseAudio tutorial first: the tutorial.
Enable linger (required for user services to start after reboot):
sudo loginctl enable-linger pi
Install LVA user-mode services:
mkdir -p ~/.config/systemd/user
cp ~/linux-voice-assistant/service/user-pa-linux-voice-assistant.service ~/.config/systemd/user/linux-voice-assistant.service
Enable & start:
systemctl --user daemon-reload
systemctl --user enable --now linux-voice-assistant.service
Verify:
systemctl --user status linux-voice-assistant --no-pager -l
ALSA (user-mode services)
No extra audio stack needed. If you’re using a different sound card/driver, confirm device names:
arecord -l
aplay -l
Enable linger (required for user services to start after reboot):
sudo loginctl enable-linger pi
Install LVA user-mode services:
mkdir -p ~/.config/systemd/user
cp ~/linux-voice-assistant/service/user-linux-voice-assistant.service ~/.config/systemd/user/linux-voice-assistant.service
Enable & start:
systemctl --user daemon-reload
systemctl --user enable --now linux-voice-assistant.service
Verify:
systemctl --user status linux-voice-assistant --no-pager -l
6. Connect to Home Assistant
If HA does not discover the new LVA:
- In Home Assistant, go to "Settings" -> "Device & services"
- Click the "Add integration" button
- Choose "ESPHome" and then "Set up another instance of ESPHome"
- Enter the IP address of your voice satellite with port 6053
- Click "Submit"
- During the registration process, use the wake word that is displayed on the registration page. Default is "OK Nabu".
7. Verification
-
Use "journalctl --user -u linux-voice-assistant.service -f" to check for errors. Debugging is enabled.
-
Expect logs like
Connected to Home Assistant -
Look for
[OWW] Detection: name=...followed by re-arming/cycling -
Ask: “What time is it?” and confirm TTS reply
-
If you do not get a voice response, check the Voice Assistant that you choose during registration has a voice assigned to it.
Settings -> Voice assistants -> Assist (the assistant you configured) -> Text-to-speech -> Voice
8. Change OWW detection model
After the LVA is registered with HA, you can change the Wake Word model used in the ESPHome Voice Assistant entity.
Project OWW models include:
alexa_v0.1.tflite -> Alexa
hey_jarvis_v0.1.tflite -> Hey Jarvis
hey_mycroft_v0.1.tflite -> Hey Mycroft
hey_rhasspy_v0.1.tflite -> Hey Rhasspy
ok_nabu_v0.1.tflite -> OK Nabo **(I had to say OK Nobu)**
Additional community provided OWW models available from this repository: https://github.com/fwartner/home-assistant-wakewords-collection
You just copy the ones you want into the ~/linux-voice-assistant/wakewords/openWakeWord directory. If a model is currupted, the LVA will fail to start. Each model added will need a corresponding json file. (note the json file names matches the tflite name)
Example
Add Model:
/linux-voice-assistant/wakewords/openWakeWord/hal_v2.tflite
Create Json:
/linux-voice-assistant/wakewords/openWakeWord/hal_v2.json
Contents:
{
"type": "openWakeWord",
"wake_word": "HAL",
"model": "hal_v2.tflite"
}
Word of warning. I have had problems with some of the community provided wake words. YMMV
9. Switching between ALSA, PW, or PA see section 5.
If you intend to switch from PA or PW to ALSA, you must first stop and disable the corresponding user-mode services.
###PulseAudio
sudo systemctl --user stop pulseaudio.service
sudo systemctl --user disable pulseaudio.service
###PipeWire
sudo systemctl --user stop pipewire.service
sudo systemctl --user disable pipewire.service