I work remote and I’m constantly on a Teams meeting while working. My colleagues have been complaining for a while that they can hear my youtube video, if I have it a bit loud. I always figured my microphone was picking it up and never paid much attention to it. Reducing the video volume or the microphone volume would fix it.
Today I accidentally unplugged my headset and they could still hear the video. Nothing is plugged into the computer, yet they can listen to my video. Something is causing a loopback or something, I can’t figure out what.
My system:
- EndeavourOS
- Pipewire 1.2.7
- The folders
/etc/pipewire/pipewire.conf.d/and~/.config/pipewire/pipewire.conf.d/are empty, so I assume no filters are being used
I attached the output of qpwgraph. I’m not really an audio expert but it looks normal?
Let me know how I can fix this! Thanks!
Report it on the pipewire repo or search for it there. I think it’s a problem with pipewire and the 3.5mm connection. I’ve observed it on 3 different linux distros on 3 different devices. As soon as pure USB audio was used, the issue was resolved. If you have the means, do try USB audio only and report back.
I actually do own an external usb sound card, this problem doesn’t happen there. I don’t use it because it has a severe crackling/static noise constantly playing, I could also never figure it out. My luck with audio in Linux is just not there. EDIT: after further testing, it also happens there but I REALLY have to boost both the mic and sound volume. But it happens, which is scary.
I was imprecise in the description of my connection. My headset only has one of 3.5mm who has both micro + headphone combined, like the one you use on your smartphone. I think it’s called TRSS. I then use the Y cable that came from with my headphones to split it into two separate 3.5mm connections, one for input and another for output. When I disconnected my headphones, the Y cable remained connected to audio card. It appears that the Y cable is the source of the problem.
If I only use the microphone jack of my Y cable, and connect my speakers to the sound card output, it works fine. The should outputs the the speakers, the input comes from my microphone and it doesn’t loopback.
I’ve tried a second pair of Y cable but the same is happening. Both are oficial Beyerdynamic cables, maybe swapping to another brand could fix it?
At least now I can make some sense out of the problem, even if I’m unable to fix it. I opened a bug report on pipewire as you suggested but I doubt anything will come out of it. I think I’ll just buy a non-ancient USB sound card and see how that works out for me.
Have you checked your shell for ghosts? That’s an odd one
What headset do you have? Where do you connect it?
I use a Beyerdynamic Custom One Pro with a Vmoda Boom ProX microphone. It connects to my internal audio card via a normal 3.5mm jack. The problem happens even after I unplug them.
This might be a shot in the dark but maybe it is some sort of induction? The audio may still be generated and somehow it is creating a current in the mic electronics
I’m not a electrical engineer so this could be horribly wrong
Any idea on how I could possibly debug that?
@pathief I’m not an expert, but maybe try muting the “Monitor of Built-in Audio Analog Stereo”. That would be an audio input, but from the image I can’t tell how it would be used by Chromium. Maybe it is being mixed in together somehow.
This software doesn’t allow you to mute the monitors, only to establish “connections” and nothing is connected to it. I’m not sure how I would mute those…
@pathief I still use pavucontrol with pipewire, but apparently there’s a pwvucontrol software out there now too.
I tried it but it doesn’t seem to be any different from
pavucontrol.
