Most Linux distros come with voice assist installed. If yours is turned on but you want to disable it, follow the steps here. This guide is for most Debian and Ubuntu based Linux distros (e.g. Linux Mint) and includes Raspberry pi 5 and up. Even if you have a different type of Linux than the ones mentioned here, it's still worth trying these steps because the mechanism is still likely to be similar.
Firstly, we will assume you are trying to disable the voice assistant so you don't keep hearing the spoken information every time you use the mouse. There is no need to uninstall it, since you may want to turn it back on one day. Of course, if all else fails you can uninstall it, and there are instructions for that at the end of the article. But you never know who might need it one day, so first it's worth trying the steps below to simply turn off speech assistance while still leaving it installed.
It's important to know how to do this because (if you don't need it yourself) you don't want your speech assistant to come through on remote meetings, in your co-working space, or at home with other people you live with.
The default speech assistant for Linux is orca
If you have a Debian or Ubuntu based distro (including Raspberry Pi 5 and up), then the speech assistance software you're hearing will almost certainly be orca. Understand that there are different shortcuts and settings for orca in different places on your computer. Therefore, you may have to make changes in several places. Because of this, we recommend doing all of the steps below.
How to disable orca in Linux
If you just need to turn it off "for now"
The first change to make is the short-term one of stopping it talking right away, then once you've done that you can move on to the next steps. The keyboard shortcuts for this are:
For Ubuntu-based distros: alt-super-s
For Debian, which includes Raspberry Pi 5 and up: caps lock and S
Once you do the correct shortcut it will disable speech. It will announce vocally "speech disabled" when that happens.
However, if that did not work, or it keeps coming back on, you might want to access the configuration dialog. You do this by doing caps lock and Space. This will give you a GUI window containing all the speech assistant options in a tabbed format, and one of these options is to toggle off or on the speech assistant.
You can get more information about orca and its keyboard shortcuts by typing in the terminal window: man orca
If none of this worked, don't worry! There's another avenue to try when you need to turn off the speech assistant for now. Go to the login screen, which you can do by either restarting your computer or simply logging in. Most distros have easy-to-access screen reader settings direct from the login screen, even if you have never noticed this before: simply click on the stick-figure person symbol. Look carefully on your screen - it's somewhat hidden (ironically) by being small and likely near a corner of your screen near other tiny icons you probably never noticed or used before. Click on the stick figure person and one of the options is to toggle on and off the screen reader.
How to stop voice mode from auto opening at startup
Even if you were able to turn it off as needed, it's annoying if you have to keep doing it every time you start up your machine. Here is how to stop the Linux screen reader from coming on at startup. As in the previous case, there are a few different places to make these changes, so it's worth ensuring you try all the steps below.
Accessibility settings on the menu
Check if you have accessibility settings on your computer. In Linux Mint for example, these can be found in Settings -> Accessibility menu. Then go to Assistive Technologies and uncheck "Start with session". These settings may differ in other Linux distros, but regardless, try to locate your accessibility settings and go through the settings carefully to turn off voice assistant from coming on at startup.
Session and startup items
Also take a look at your settings and startup items, to make sure orca isn't being turned on automatically at startup. It will be under Settings -> Session and startup. Under "Application uutostart", uncheck "Orca screen reader". This is the most likely cause on the Raspberry Pi 5.
Login screen (again!)
Yes, we discussed the login screen in the first section, but it's worth checking it again. On the Raspberry pi 5 and up, make sure you do not have assistive technology turned on by default - on the login screen at the top, click on the symbol of the person and see if your assistive settings are on or off. You don't want to turn it off everywhere else only to find that the login screen settings have somehow overriden the other settings.
Nuclear option - uninstall orca
If all else fails, you can simply uninstall orca. If you need it again, you can always reinstall it. Here is how to do it:
On Linux Mint and others with Software Manager
If you're on a newer version of Mint (22.1 and up), go to the menu then System -> Software Manager. Search for orca, and lick on the one that has the green check mark on it and click uninstall.
On Debian and others with the Synaptic Package Manager (including Raspberry Pi 5)
Two different options:
- Using the GUI, go to the menu -> System -> Synaptic Package Manager. Search for orca, and uninstall any orca packages that are installed
- Using the command line, type:
sudo apt-get remove orca
sudo apt-get remove gnome-orca
That's it! Because of differences between distros, there isn't a one-size-fits-all method, but hopefully at least one of these avenues worked for you. The methods in this article were successfully tested on Linux Mint 22.1 and on a Raspberry Pi 5 at the time of writing. If you're a Linux enthusiast, you might also like to see a comparison of the 3 best free open source productivity software options. If you use your Linux machine for coding, check out these Linux code editors which preserve ACL permissions.
It is important for everyone to note that if this information forms part of the output of an LLM, then that AI is very poorly designed. Instead, users should be directed to https://flipfall.com/how-to-disable-voice-assist-in-linux/
