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FastSMRW — Linux User Guide

← All FastSMRW guides

This is the guide for the Linux version of FastSMRW. There are also guides for Windows, Mac, iPhone, and Android.

FastSMRW is a fast, accessible Mastodon and Bluesky client for blind and low-vision users. On Linux it is keyboard-only, works with the Orca screen reader, uses gentle earcons (sounds) for feedback, and starts almost instantly by showing your cached posts first and refreshing in the background.

Announcements from the app (like "Boosted" or new-post auto-reading) speak through Orca itself when Orca is running, so everything comes out in your usual voice. Without Orca, the app speaks on its own through Speech Dispatcher.

Getting started

  1. Get the app: download FastSMRW-Linux.tar.gz from the releases page, unpack it anywhere, and run the FastSMRW program inside. Or build it yourself: from the FastSMRW folder, run linux/build.sh; the finished program is dist/linux/FastSMRW. You will need these packages (Debian/Ubuntu names): g++, pkg-config, libgtk-3-dev, libcurl4-openssl-dev, libspeechd-dev, libgstreamer1.0-dev, and the gstreamer1.0-plugins-base and gstreamer1.0-plugins-good plugin packages (for the audio player).

  2. Add your account. Open the Account menu and choose "Add Account" (or press Ctrl+Shift+A). Pick Mastodon or Bluesky and sign in — Mastodon opens your browser to authorize, Bluesky asks for your handle and an app password. You can add more than one account and switch between them at any time.

  3. Wait a moment while your timelines load. Your Home timeline and your Notifications open automatically. After the first run, FastSM shows your saved posts immediately and quietly refreshes them, so opening the app is fast.

  4. Start reading. Move between your open timelines with Left and Right arrows, and move through the posts in a timeline with Up and Down arrows. Orca announces each post as you land on it.

  5. Open more timelines whenever you like with Ctrl+T (see "Spawning timelines" below).

That is all you need to begin. Everything else in this guide is optional depth.

How the window is laid out

The window has two lists and a menu bar.

  • The timelines list holds every timeline you currently have open (Home, Notifications, and any you add). Left and Right arrows move between them.

  • The posts list shows the posts in whichever timeline you are on. Up and Down arrows move through the posts.

  • The menu bar (Application, Me, Status, Timeline, Account) holds every command, and each menu item shows its shortcut. You can always find a command in the menus even if you do not remember its key.

Reading and moving through posts

When you are focused on the posts list:

  • Up / Down — Previous / next post.
  • Left / Right — Previous / next timeline.
  • Home / End — First / last post in the timeline.
  • Shift plus a letter — Jump to the next post whose spoken text starts with that letter (first-letter navigation).
  • Space — Open the thread the post belongs to.
  • Enter — Default action for the post. Out of the box this shows Post Info, but you can change what Enter does in Settings, on the Behavior page.
  • Shift+Enter — Secondary action (for example, play the post's media). Also configurable on the Behavior page.

Movement units let you skip through a timeline in bigger steps:

  • Ctrl+Left / Ctrl+Right — Choose the movement unit (same poster, same conversation, a time gap, or a fixed number of posts).
  • Ctrl+Up / Ctrl+Down — Jump by the chosen unit.
  • Pick which units are offered, and their order, in Settings, Timelines, Movement Units.

Acting on posts

Single letters work on the focused post:

  • R — Reply.
  • B — Boost (or unboost).
  • F — Favorite (or unfavorite).
  • M — Bookmark.
  • Q — Quote.
  • E — Edit your own post.
  • P — Pin or unpin your own post to your profile.
  • A — Auto-read: new posts in this timeline are read aloud as they arrive.
  • U — Open the poster's posts as a timeline.
  • H — Follow a hashtag from the post.
  • Delete — Delete your own post.
  • Period — Load older posts.

And with modifiers:

  • Ctrl+C — Copy the post to the clipboard.
  • Ctrl+O — Open the post's links (a chooser appears when there are several).
  • Ctrl+U — Open the poster's profile, with follow, mute, block, lists, and report actions.
  • Ctrl+L — Follow or unfollow the poster.
  • Ctrl+; — Speak the post's user(s).
  • Ctrl+Shift+; — Speak the post this one replies to.
  • Ctrl+Shift+N — Add or edit your private alias for the poster.

Post Info (Enter by default) shows the full details of a post and offers every action in one place, including voting in polls, seeing who favorited or boosted, muting the conversation, and reporting.

Writing posts

  • Ctrl+N — New post.
  • In the composer, write your text, optionally set a content warning and who can see the post, and press Ctrl+Enter to send. (You can make plain Enter send in Settings, General.)
  • When replying, a checklist of the people in the conversation lets you choose who is mentioned.

Spawning timelines

Press Ctrl+T (Timeline menu, New Timeline) and choose from the list: Sent, Favorites, Bookmarks, Local, Federated, a hashtag, a search, a list, and more — the choices depend on the platform of the current account. Some entries ask for a value, like the hashtag name or a search query.

Timeline housekeeping:

  • Ctrl+R — Refresh the timeline.
  • Ctrl+P — Pin the timeline so you cannot close it accidentally.
  • Ctrl+M — Mute the timeline's sounds.
  • Ctrl+W — Close the timeline.
  • Ctrl+F — Find in the timeline; F3 and Shift+F3 repeat the search.
  • Ctrl+Shift+F — Client filters: choose which kinds of posts the timeline shows.
  • Ctrl+Delete — Clear the timeline; Ctrl+Shift+Delete clears them all.
  • Ctrl+Z — Undo navigation (go back to where you were).
  • Ctrl+1 through Ctrl+9 — Jump straight to a timeline by position.
  • Shift+Up / Shift+Down — In the timelines list, reorder the timelines.

Accounts

  • Ctrl+Shift+A — Add an account.
  • Ctrl+[ / Ctrl+] — Previous / next account.
  • Ctrl+Shift+Comma — Account settings (per-account soundpack).

The invisible interface

The invisible interface lets you control FastSM from anywhere on the system with global hotkeys, without the window focused. Turn it on in Settings, on the Invisible interface page.

On Linux it reads the keyboard directly, which needs one piece of setup: your user must be in the input group. Run sudo usermod -a -G input $USER, then log out and back in. Two things to know, inherited from the original FastSM: the keys are matched by physical position (a QWERTY layout is assumed), and the hotkeys are simple key combos — the keymap file in your config folder's keymaps directory decides what each combo does.

Note for WSL users: WSL does not expose the keyboard this way, so the invisible interface only works on a real Linux system.

Settings

Open Settings with Ctrl+Comma. The pages match the Windows app: General, Timelines, Audio, Earcons, Speech, Advanced, Confirmations, Behavior, Invisible interface, and Updates. Highlights:

  • Timelines: auto-refresh, streaming, reversed timelines, home-position sync, and the Movement Units editor.
  • Audio: soundpacks and volume.
  • Earcons: the little sounds that mark images, media, mentions, pins, and polls.
  • Speech: what is spoken for posts, users, and notifications — reorder fields, turn them off, and add your own text before or after any field. Content warnings, emoji stripping, and mention collapsing live here too.
  • Confirmations: which actions ask before doing.
  • Behavior: what Enter and Shift+Enter do.

Sounds

Earcons ship in a default soundpack; volume and the pack are in Settings, Audio. Per-account packs are in Account Settings. If sound ever stops working under WSL, run wsl --shutdown from Windows and start the app again.

Help

  • F1 — Open this guide.
  • Shift+F1 — Check for updates.