Palash Debnath
5cab8e0149
Renames what users see. The app, the installers, the window title, the
docs and all 21 locales now say VoiceStudio, with "(previously
OmniVoice-Studio)" noted near the title of each doc surface so people
recognise it.
Deliberately NOT renamed, because renaming any of them silently breaks
an existing install — there is no legacy-path fallback anywhere in this
codebase:
- bundle identifier com.debpalash.omnivoice-studio (MSI UpgradeCode,
macOS TCC grants, managed venv, WebView localStorage, the
single-instance lock)
- data directories OmniVoice / .omnivoice and omnivoice.db
- the ~150 OMNIVOICE_* environment variables
- the X-OmniVoice-* HTTP headers (a wire protocol)
- the published Docker image paths
- the OmniVoice ENGINE, which is a model name and not this product
tests/test_identity_paths_survive_the_rename.py pins every one of those
so a future well-meaning sweep cannot orphan a user's library.
Linux .deb users install a new package name and should apt remove
omnivoice-studio; that note is in the changelog.
7.3 KiB
Downloading models — speed & troubleshooting
VoiceStudio downloads models from the Hugging Face Hub on first use. This page explains how downloads are made fast, how to read the progress, and what to do on slow or restricted networks.
Download backend: legacy LFS by default (accurate progress)
VoiceStudio ships hf_xet (Hugging Face's chunked, parallel, dedup transfer
backend — the IDM/uGet-style fast path), but currently runs with Xet
disabled (HF_HUB_DISABLE_XET=1, set by the app). Reason: Xet's transfer
reports progress out-of-band and bypasses the byte-level progress hook, so the
download UI couldn't show real bytes/speed. Until a proper Xet progress hook
lands, the app forces the classic LFS path, which streams through the
standard progress reporter and gives accurate downloaded/remaining/speed.
To keep that path fast despite Xet being off, the app runs a built-in
multi-connection (segmented) downloader on by default — it fetches each file
over parallel byte-ranges (IDM/uGet style), so the legacy-LFS path is no longer
single-stream. It reports real live speed/ETA and falls back to the normal
download on any error, so it can never compromise a correct install. Adding a
free Hugging Face token (first-run setup, or Settings → Credentials) makes this
faster still — authenticated downloads get higher rate limits and fewer stalls.
To force the old single-stream path, set OMNIVOICE_SEGMENTED_DOWNLOAD=0.
State is reported at Settings → About / GET /system/info:
fast_download.xet_installed—hf_xetpresent (true)fast_download.xet_active— whether Xet actually drives downloads (false by default, because ofHF_HUB_DISABLE_XET)- the ⚡ fast download badge in Settings → Models appears only when Xet is active.
The backend logs one line at startup, e.g.
downloads: Xet disabled → legacy LFS (hf_xet 1.4.2 installed=True).
Re-enabling Xet (advanced, opt-in)
Power users who want Xet's speed and don't mind coarser progress can set
HF_HUB_DISABLE_XET=0. With Xet active, the overall bar advances by file and
snaps to the exact total on completion (per-file byte speed isn't shown,
which is exactly why it's off by default). Xet needs a 64-bit OS (all supported
VoiceStudio platforms).
Reading the progress
When a download starts you'll see, in order:
- Resolving — the app fetches the file list and computes an exact plan: total size, how much is already cached, and how much will actually download (shown before any bytes move).
- Downloading — one overall bar with the file count (e.g.
3/7 files), total size, and — on networks where per-byte progress is reported — live speed and ETA. - Done — the bar lands on 100% at the true total size.
Note: the exact total and "already cached / to download" split are known up front (a pre-flight resolve), so remaining is accurate from the start. Live per-byte speed appears once a file is large enough to stream over several seconds; very small/fast files may jump straight to done. The bar always lands on the exact total at completion. (If Xet is re-enabled, progress becomes file-granular — see above.)
Advanced / opt-in tuning
These apply to every platform identically. Set them as environment variables (or
via Settings → API keys / environment). The segmented accelerator is on by
default (set its var to 0 to disable); the rest default off.
| Setting | Env var | Effect |
|---|---|---|
| Segmented accelerator | OMNIVOICE_SEGMENTED_DOWNLOAD=0 |
On by default (see above). Set to 0 to force the old single-stream legacy-LFS download instead of the parallel byte-range one. |
| Max parallel files | OMNIVOICE_DOWNLOAD_MAX_WORKERS (default 8) |
Files fetched at once. Xet already parallelises within a file, so raising this rarely helps and uses more memory. |
| High-performance mode | HF_XET_HIGH_PERFORMANCE=1 |
Maximum throughput. Needs lots of RAM and bandwidth — can hurt low-RAM machines. Leave off unless you have headroom. |
| Spinning-disk (HDD) | HF_XET_RECONSTRUCT_WRITE_SEQUENTIALLY=1 |
Sequential writes; avoids parallel-write thrash on HDDs. Leave off on SSD/NVMe. |
Restricted networks / mirrors (e.g. China)
Automatic (the default). When no endpoint is explicitly configured,
VoiceStudio picks one for you: it probes huggingface.co and the community
mirror hf-mirror.com in parallel (short HTTPS reachability + latency
checks — no geo-IP lookups, no third-party services; your device
language/timezone only decides which endpoint is probed first), prefers the
official endpoint unless the mirror is decisively faster, and remembers the
winner. The decision is re-tested only on the first-run system check, after a
network-classified download failure (the failed download retries once on the
new winner), when it's more than 7 days old, or when you press Test again
in Settings → Models → Hugging Face mirror. Mirror integrity is a
non-issue: huggingface_hub verifies every download by checksum regardless
of endpoint. Opt out with OMNIVOICE_HF_ENDPOINT_MODE=manual.
Explicit (always wins). To pin an endpoint yourself:
HF_ENDPOINT=https://hf-mirror.com
Set it in Settings → Models → Hugging Face mirror (quick-pick presets and a custom URL — any explicit choice switches the panel to manual mode and is never auto-switched), or as an environment variable before launching. On first run, the setup wizard's network check reports which endpoint the automatic selection picked, and still offers the mirror quick-pick when nothing is reachable — the check is a warning, not a blocker, so an offline or firewalled machine can still finish setup once models are available (mirror, or manual download below). If a wizard download fails because the configured mirror is unreachable, the same quick-pick (including Hugging Face (official)) appears right next to the failed row — switching applies to downloads immediately (no restart; only already-loaded engines re-read the endpoint at startup), clears the retry cooldown, and retries the failed download at once. Caveats:
- A mirror serves the classic download path, not Xet — you lose chunk-dedup and Xet's parallel fetch, but you gain reachability. On the classic path, per-byte speed/ETA is shown continuously.
- Russia and some networks have no official mirror; use a VPN/tunnel.
Cancelling a download
Settings → Models lets you cancel an in-flight install. Cancellation stops further retries and clears the failure cooldown so you can restart immediately. A file that's already streaming finishes first — cancellation takes effect at the next retry boundary.
Troubleshooting
- Stuck on "Resolving…" — the Hub is slow to return metadata, or you're rate-limited without a token. Add a token (see docs/setup/huggingface-token.md) and retry.
- Very slow / stalling — try a mirror (above), or a wired connection. High-performance mode only helps if RAM and bandwidth are plentiful.
- "download finished but no model weights were found" — the download was interrupted and left a partial snapshot. Delete the model in Settings → Models and install it again.
- Out of disk — model sizes are shown in the catalog; free space or change
the cache location with
HF_HOME/HF_HUB_CACHE.