dotool on Wayland — Setup & Troubleshooting¶

dotool is required for Aura to type text into other applications on Wayland. Unlike xdotool, it communicates directly with the Linux kernel via uinput and works on both X11 and Wayland.

On X11, xdotool is used by default. dotool is optional on X11 but recommended for better layout stability (especially with Umlauts).

1. Install dotool¶

Arch / Manjaro / CachyOS (AUR):

yay -S dotool
# or:
pamac build dotool

Ubuntu / Debian (if available in repos):

sudo apt install dotool

If not in repos — build from source:

sudo pacman -S go        # or: sudo apt install golang
git clone https://git.sr.ht/~geb/dotool
cd dotool
make
sudo make install

2. Allow dotool to run without root (required)¶

dotool needs access to /dev/uinput. Without this, it will fail silently.

# Add your user to the input group:
sudo gpasswd -a $USER input

# Create the udev rule:
echo 'KERNEL=="uinput", GROUP="input", MODE="0660", OPTIONS+="static_node=uinput"' \
  | sudo tee /etc/udev/rules.d/80-dotool.rules

# Reload rules:
sudo udevadm control --reload-rules && sudo udevadm trigger

Re-login required after the group change for it to take effect.

3. Verify the installation¶

# Test that dotool can type (focus a text field first):
echo "type hello" | dotool

# Check that the input group is active in your session:
groups | grep input

If groups does not show input, log out and back in (or reboot).

4. How Aura uses dotool¶

Aura’s type_watcher.sh automatically:

Detects Wayland via $WAYLAND_DISPLAY and selects dotool
Starts dotoold daemon in the background if it exists and is not running
Falls back to xdotool if dotool is not installed (X11 only)
Sets the keyboard layout from your active Vosk model (e.g. de → XKB_DEFAULT_LAYOUT=de)

No manual daemon management is needed — Aura handles this on startup.

5. Troubleshooting¶

Aura transcribes but no text appears:

# Check if dotool is installed:
command -v dotool

# Check group membership:
groups | grep input

# Test manually (focus a text field first):
echo "type hello" | dotool

# Check the watcher log:
tail -30 log/type_watcher.log

Missing or garbled characters (especially Umlauts):

Increase the typing delay in config/settings_local.py:

dotool_typedelay = 5   # default is 2, try 5 or 10

dotool works in terminal but not in Aura:

Check that the input group is active in the desktop session (not just a new terminal). A full re-login is required after gpasswd.

Force dotool on X11 (optional, for better layout stability):

# config/settings_local.py
x11_input_method_OVERRIDE = "dotool"

6. Fallback if dotool cannot be installed¶

If dotool is unavailable on your system, Aura falls back to xdotool on X11. On Wayland without dotool, typing is not supported — this is a Wayland security restriction, not an Aura limitation.

Alternative tools that may work on specific compositors:

Tool	Works on
`xdotool`	X11 only
`dotool`	X11 + Wayland (recommended)
`ydotool`	X11 + Wayland (alternative)

To use ydotool as a manual workaround:

sudo pacman -S ydotool    # or: sudo apt install ydotool
sudo systemctl enable --now ydotool

Note: Aura does not integrate ydotool natively — manual configuration required.