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I’m facing a persistent microphone issue on Kubuntu under Wayland. The hardware and ALSA layer appear to work correctly, but browsers fail to create an input stream.

I would appreciate guidance on structured debugging.

System Information

  • Distro: Kubuntu (Plasma)

  • echo $XDG_SESSION_TYPE → wayland

  • Audio stack: PipeWire 1.2.7 + WirePlumber

  • Chipset: HDA Intel PCH

  • Codec: Realtek ALC257

Output of:

cat /proc/asound/cards

0 [PCH]: HDA-Intel - HDA Intel PCH
HDA Intel PCH at 0x6001140000 irq 171

Problem Description

  • During calls, people cannot hear me.

  • I can hear them perfectly.

  • Happens in Chrome, Firefox, and Brave.

  • Sometimes browser shows “Mic not found”.

  • Happens with and without headphones.

  • Restarting PipeWire sometimes temporarily fixes it.

  • Issue is inconsistent.

Current PipeWire State

Output of:

wpctl status

Audio devices:

  • Built-in Audio detected

  • Sink and Source both present

  • Default sink and source correctly set to built-in analog stereo

However, when Chrome is open, under “Streams” I only see:

output_FL
output_FR

There are no input_FL / input_FR streams created for Chrome.

So:

  • ALSA sees capture device

  • PipeWire sees source

  • Default source is correctly configured

  • Browser does not create input stream

What I’ve Tried

  1. Restarted services:

    systemctl --user restart pipewire pipewire-pulse wireplumber
systemctl --user restart xdg-desktop-portal

  2. Verified capture device exists:

    arecord -l

  3. Verified duplex profile enabled (Analog Stereo Duplex).

  4. Set default sink/source manually:

    wpctl set-default <sink-id>
wpctl set-default <source-id>

  5. Checked in pavucontrol:

    • Mic visible

    • Not muted

    • Volume normal

  6. Disabled ALSA power saving:
    Created /etc/modprobe.d/disable-hda-powersave.conf with:

    options snd_hda_intel power_save=0 power_save_controller=N

    Rebuilt initramfs and rebooted.

  7. Verified xdg-desktop-portal and xdg-desktop-portal-kde are installed.

None of these resolved the issue permanently.

Observations

  • Hardware appears functional.

  • ALSA layer is functional.

  • PipeWire source node exists.

  • Browser does not create capture stream.

  • Restarting services sometimes restores mic temporarily.

  • System is running under Wayland.

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  • Which version of Ubuntu are you using? How did you install PipeWire 1.2.7? Commented Feb 13 at 2:15

1 Answer 1

Reset to default
2

I faced the exact same issue in Kubuntu 25.10 (questing). Looking at my APT log file I found that I recently updated Linux kernel 6.17.0-12-generic to 6.17.0-14-generic. Reverting the update brought back my microphone.

After researching audio related issues with Linux 6.17.0-14-generic I found this thread. Apparently the newer kernels load the driver snd_soc_avs instead of snd_hda_intel. This command will prevent snd_soc_avs from being loaded:

echo "blacklist snd_soc_avs" | sudo tee /etc/modprobe.d/soundfix.conf
sudo update-initramfs -u -k all

If for some reason you need snd_soc_avs again this command will undo the previous command:

sudo rm /etc/modprobe.d/soundfix.conf
sudo update-initramfs -u -k all

You can test your microphone in your browser here.

I just tried going back and forth between the two commands (restarting my computer in between) and the issue is reproducible (it comes back at some point when I remove the workaround).

If you too can reproduce this issue, you can report it with Linux bug #2141723 on Launchpad (click on "Does this bug affect you?").

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