2.1 Before You Begin

Install git, make, GNU Texinfo (which provides makeinfo), and Emacs 31 or newer. Installing the Omnivox 1.4.1 release archive also requires curl and either sha256sum on GNU/Linux and WSL2 or shasum on macOS. GNU/Linux and macOS use tar; WSL2 uses unzip. It does not require a Rust or C++ build toolchain.

To check the Emacs found by your shell, run:

emacs --version

The first line should begin with GNU Emacs 31 or a higher version number. If the command is not found or reports an older version, install a supported Emacs or locate its executable. You can check a specific executable in the same way:

/path/to/emacs-31/bin/emacs --version

The Linux x86-64 archive requires an Ubuntu 24.04-compatible glibc, libstdc++, libgcc, and ALSA runtime. If the archive does not match the host, the Omnivox source route requires Rust, Python 3, a C and C++ toolchain, CMake, and Clang with libclang. It additionally requires pkg-config and ALSA development headers on GNU/Linux or the Xcode command-line tools on macOS. WSL2 has an easier pre-built Windows route described in Install An Omnivox Windows Release Under WSL2. Docker and Windows .NET Framework are required only for the reproducible source-build route in Building Omnivox For WSL2.

Choose a permanent parent directory and clone Emacsvox:

cd /path/where/you/keep/source
git clone https://github.com/bartbunting/emacsvox

The Emacsvox checkout is the installation directory. It builds in place and does not create a second tree to copy elsewhere. Clone Omnivox beside it only when following the Omnivox source-build or reproducible WSL2 build route.