How to Install QSpeakers on Ubuntu 22.04 or 20.04 – Quick, No‑Nonsense Guide
You’ll learn how to pull down the QSpeakers binary, satisfy its Qt prerequisites, and get it running so you can fine‑tune speaker levels without hunting for a half‑finished script.
Where to Grab the Binary
QSpeakers isn’t in the default Ubuntu repos, but the project hosts ready‑made .deb files on GitHub.
1. Open a terminal or press Ctrl+Alt+T.
2. Download the latest release with wget:
wget https://github.com/qspeaker-org/QSpeakers/releases/download/v1.5.0/qspeakers_1.5.0_amd64.deb
(Replace v1.5.0 and the file name if a newer release shows up.)
Why this step? The .deb is pre‑compiled for Ubuntu, so you skip the messy build process that would otherwise involve Qt headers and a CMake dance.
Install Dependencies First
Even though the package is self‑contained, it relies on a few shared libraries. Install them ahead of time:
sudo apt update sudo apt install libqt5core5a libqt5gui5 libqt5widgets5
These are the core Qt 5 runtimes that QSpeakers calls into. If you skip this, the app will launch and immediately complain about missing DLLs (or .so files, for Linux).
Install QSpeakers
With the dependencies in place, install the downloaded file:
sudo dpkg -i qspeakers_1.5.0_amd64.deb || sudo apt --fix-broken install
dpkg will complain about unmet dependencies if something’s missing; apt --fix-broken install pulls them in automatically.
Verify and Launch
Run it from the terminal:
qspeakers
A window should pop up showing six test tones—one for each channel. Hit the buttons to hear each speaker. If you don’t see any sound, double‑check that your default audio output is set correctly in Settings => Sound.
I've seen users after a kernel upgrade to 22.04 complaining that their speakers are unevenly balanced; QSpeakers lets them adjust volume per channel and spot which one’s off.
Common Pitfalls
| Symptom | Likely Cause | Fix |
|---|---|---|
| “Library not found” errors | Wrong architecture (e.g., 32‑bit build on a 64‑bit system) | Download the correct .deb for your CPU or compile from source. |
| No sound at all | ALSA default device set to loopback or headphone jack is muted | Switch the output in Settings => Sound, or use pavucontrol to unmute and select the proper card. |
| Crash on launch | Outdated Qt libraries (rare) | Make sure you’ve installed the latest libqt5* packages from Ubuntu’s repositories. |
Alternative: Compile From Source
If you prefer not to install a pre‑built package, or if your distro only offers older Qt versions, compile it yourself:
sudo apt install git build-essential qtbase5-dev git clone https://github.com/qspeaker-org/QSpeakers.git cd QSpeakers qmake make sudo make install
This pulls the source straight from GitHub, builds it with your local Qt installation, and drops the binaries into /usr/local/bin. It’s a bit longer but gives you the freshest code.
Give it a whirl and let me know if your speakers sound as sharp as they should.
