19

I want to hear the sound that goes into the notebook's mic from the notebook's speaker itself.

I am on Ubuntu 9.10

2
  • I think this should happen by default. Make sure volume levels are up and channels are unmuted.
    – alfplayer
    Dec 25, 2009 at 17:36
  • volume is up but i really don't hear what i am speaking in mic..
    – ashishsony
    Dec 26, 2009 at 18:55

4 Answers 4

16

The global fix for this issue (i.e. not a piped solution running in the foreground) is more or less described in the article linked from Archon, but I keep forgetting and ending up back at this page so I'll provide a summary:

pactl load-module module-loopback latency_msec=1

This command will load the loopback module and enable global loopback of all input devices through your output (I believe, though I've only used it to solve routing my sound card's input through its output, so YMMV... not sure if this picks up all bluetooth inputs).

To permanently load this each time you restart your session (I believe pulseaudio works based on user login, so session restart not machine restart) add the following to your pulse audio config file. I chose the default config affecting all users, which is '/etc/pulse/default.pa' on my Ubuntu machine. Add the following line to the bottom:

load-module module-loopback latency_msec=1
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  • 2
    I found on Ubuntu 12.10 adding the latency value I get lots of static noise in the audio but running just pactl load-module module-loopback works perfectly, thanks.
    – Cas
    Dec 23, 2012 at 19:19
  • 1
    Excellent. Line In was non-functional for me. Fortunately with this, two Mic In now can serve as general Line In, and, what's more, the one Mic In is at the front of the computer! After executing the pactl command, a number is output. This is the module number that may be used to unload the module with later. pactl unload-module n. A script that can unload modules by name is here: umonkey-tools.googlecode.com/hg/bin/pactl-unload-by-name
    – kbulgrien
    Mar 9, 2013 at 23:03
  • This seems to be the best solution. Should be the accepted answer IMHO.
    – RolandiXor
    Aug 31, 2013 at 16:49
  • Things like this (I mean, the fact that this is the simplest way to achieve such a simple task, with no GUI at all when it would only imply a checkbox) makes linux distros be lightyears away from becoming a decent desktop environment.
    – Esteban
    Oct 12, 2013 at 16:00
  • @peterporter can we change the channel map of particular device so that we can hear the live audio from that particular channel like right or left Apr 28, 2014 at 8:20
10

I use the following command (found at: http://efreedom.com/Question/3-127276/Play-Mic-Speakers-Ubuntu-Karmic):

pacat -r --latency-msec=1 -d alsa_input.pci-0000_00_1b.0.analog-stereo | pacat -p --latency-msec=1 -d alsa_output.pci-0000_00_1b.0.analog-stereo

Where:

  • alsa_input.pci-0000_00_1b.0.analog-stereo is your input device
  • alsa_output.pci-0000_00_1b.0.analog-stereo is your output device

Use paman to find these device names.

1
  • My solution however was simpler. If you use the audio settings gui to specify the input and output, then you just need to use the following: pacat -r | pacat -p --fix-rate --latency-msec=10
    – qwerty9967
    Aug 23, 2013 at 2:13
6

This is a problem with pulseaudio. See this thread for a cludgy fix.

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2
#To stop sound loop find module number e.g. 4 and unload.
=========================================================
# pactl list | grep "Source\|loopback"
# pactl unload-module 4
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    $ pactl unload-module $(pactl list short modules | awk '$2 == "module-loopback" { print $1 }' - )
    – kbulgrien
    Mar 9, 2013 at 23:39

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