The PASCOM desktop client for Linux is only supported on Ubuntu (as 2026-Q3). This project packages the official PASCOM client in an Ubuntu LTS based OCI container so it can also be used on other Linux distributions like Fedora.
This is an community effort; there is no official support by PASCOM running the client this way, but the forum might help you out when there are problems.
Main features:
- Working audio, including Bluetooth headsets: the host's PipeWire / PulseAudio is passed into the container via its native socket. Both the client's PJSIP telephony stack (ALSA, bridged to PulseAudio) and its device enumeration (PulseAudio API) work.
- Native Wayland support with X11/XWayland fallback, hardware-accelerated rendering (
/dev/dri) and camera passthrough for video calls. - Desktop integration: notifications and the browser-based login open on the host (via the session D-Bus and the XDG desktop portal); persistent client configuration; example
.desktoplauncher. - Unprivileged execution: rootless Podman, running with the host user's UID (
--userns=keep-id). The container uses host networking, which the browser-based login (localhostcallback) and SIP/RTP media require (seeDEVELOPMENT.mdfor details).
See DEVELOPMENT.md for background, design decisions and gotchas.
- Requirements
- How to build
- How to use
- Non-goals / Limitations
- Licensing, copyright
- Author information
Usually just a recent Linux with a graphical desktop (like GNOME or KDE) and Podman. In detail:
- Podman (rootless setup; tested with Podman ≥ 5) to build and run the container.
xdg-desktop-portalwith a desktop backend for opening the PASCOM login page in the host's browser.
If not already pre-installed, get the packages from your distribution's default repositories:xdg-desktop-portalplus the fitting desktop backend (e.g.xdg-desktop-portal-gnomeorxdg-desktop-portal-kde)
The following should be available by default on all common desktop distributions but are listed here for completeness:
- A graphical user session (Wayland or X11) with a session D-Bus.
- PipeWire or PulseAudio providing the native PulseAudio socket at
${XDG_RUNTIME_DIR}/pulse/native(default on all common desktop distributions, including Fedora Workstation).
The image is not distributed via a registry as it contains the proprietary PASCOM client (see licensing).
To build the image locally, do the following:
- Install Podman.
- Clone or pull the latest changes from the
foundata/oci-pascom-clientgit repository. - Change into the directory and execute the build command:
This downloads the latest official client tarball from PASCOMS's servers. To pin a specific client version, pass a versioned URL from PASCOMS's release archive:
podman build -t pascom-client .podman build \ --build-arg PASCOM_CLIENT_URL="https://download.pascom.net/release-archive/client/cloud/pascom_Client-120.R5073-linux.tar.bz2" \ -t pascom-client .
Use the pascom-client.sh launcher script. It wires display, audio, D-Bus, GPU and camera into the container and starts the client with your UID:
./pascom-client.shOn first start, log in as usual: the client opens the PASCOM login page in your host's default browser. Client configuration and login persist across runs in ~/.local/share/oci-pascom-client/ on the host (change via the PASCOM_DATA_DIR environment variable; PASCOM_IMAGE overrides the image name).
All command line arguments are passed through to the PASCOM client.
To get a normal application launcher entry:
# Make the launcher script available in your PATH
mkdir -p ~/.local/bin
cp pascom-client.sh ~/.local/bin/
chmod +x ~/.local/bin/pascom-client.sh
# Extract the client icon from the image
mkdir -p ~/.local/share/icons/hicolor/256x256/apps
podman run --rm --entrypoint cat localhost/pascom-client:latest \
/opt/pascom_Client/client.png \
> ~/.local/share/icons/hicolor/256x256/apps/pascom-client.png
# Install the desktop entry (with an absolute Exec path: the desktop
# session's PATH often does not include ~/.local/bin, e.g. on Fedora)
mkdir -p ~/.local/share/applications
sed "s|^Exec=.*|Exec=${HOME}/.local/bin/pascom-client.sh|" pascom-client.desktop \
> ~/.local/share/applications/pascom-client.desktop
desktop-file-validate ~/.local/share/applications/pascom-client.desktop
update-desktop-database ~/.local/share/applications/Notes:
- The tray icon uses the StatusNotifier D-Bus protocol. On GNOME, this additionally requires an extension like AppIndicator and KStatusNotifierItem Support (as it does for the client on Ubuntu, too).
- Closing the window only hides the client (it keeps running for incoming calls). Quit it via the tray icon's context menu, or run
podman stop pascom-clientif no tray icon is available.
The client's built-in self-updater is intentionally disabled (the application directory in the image is read-only for the executing user). To update the client, simply rebuild the image; the download URL always delivers the latest release:
podman build --no-cache -t pascom-client .- No audio devices in the client: Check that the host socket exists (
ls "${XDG_RUNTIME_DIR}/pulse/native") and that audio works inside the container:(while the client is running; the container is namedpodman exec pascom-client pactl infopascom-client). - Login page does not open: The URL is also printed to the terminal by the container's
xdg-openshim if the XDG desktop portal is not reachable; open it manually in that case. - Login page opens, but the browser then shows "Unable to connect" to
localhost:3008while the client keeps "Waiting for credentials": The container was started without host networking. The login flow redirects the browser to an OAuth callback server the client runs on the host'slocalhost:3008, so the container must share the host's network namespace. Use the shipped launcher script (it passes--network=host). - SELinux denials: The launcher script disables SELinux label separation for the container (
--security-opt label=disable) because it must access sockets in${XDG_RUNTIME_DIR}. Do not replace this with:z/:Zvolume options, as relabeling${XDG_RUNTIME_DIR}breaks the host session. - Verbose logs: The client writes logs to stdout; start it from a terminal via
./pascom-client.sh.
This is an community effort; there is no official support by PASCOM running the client this way, but the forum might help you out when there are problems.
This project is a pragmatic wrapper to run the official PASCOM client on non-Ubuntu hosts. It does not provide:
- Guaranteed compatibility with container runtimes other than Podman. We do not support Docker (but it might work).
- USB HID device integration for headset call control (e.g. Jabra busy light and call buttons) or Kuando Busylights. Plain audio via any headset works; the extra HID features would need
/dev/hidraw*passthrough and udev rules (seeDEVELOPMENT.md). - Automatic client updates (rebuild the image instead, see above).
Copyright (c) 2026 foundata GmbH (https://foundata.com)
This project is licensed under the GNU General Public License v3.0 or later (SPDX-License-Identifier: GPL-3.0-or-later), see LICENSES/GPL-3.0-or-later.txt for the full text.
The REUSE.toml file provides detailed licensing and copyright information in a human- and machine-readable format. This includes parts that may be subject to different licensing or usage terms, such as third-party components. The repository conforms to the REUSE specification. You can use reuse spdx to create a SPDX software bill of materials (SBOM).
An image built from this repository bundles various software components along with direct and indirect dependencies, which are subject to their respective licenses. When using it, you are responsible for ensuring that your usage complies with all relevant licenses for the software contained within the image.
For further licensing information about the software contained in an image built from this repository, please refer to the following resources:
Do not push or otherwise redistribute the built image (e.g. to a public registry) as an image built from this repository contains the proprietary PASCOM client (downloaded from PASCOM's official servers at build time).
- PASCOM® is a word and figurative trademark of PASCOM GmbH, registered in Germany and probably other countries.
This project was created and is maintained by foundata.
The PASCOM client OCI project is not associated with PASCOM GmbH.