External mic not working on manjaro kde

so, microphone shows as “disconnected” (or another english equivalent) even though it’s connected and I can’t record or test any audio with it. Built-in mic works fine, but all my external mics won’t work

Edit: mic only works with that dongle that “forks” headphone signal and microphone into one (sorry I don’t know the name for that). If I only plug the external microphone into the 3.5mm jack without a headphone plugged in it doesn’t work. Isn’t there a way to use onboard audio to play stuff and then use the mic to record?
Edit2: I installed pavucontrol and I think it recognizes the microphone as a headphone, thus explaining why it shows “speakers” as “disconnected” when I try to use the mic. The answer is the software is recognizing an input device as an output device. Is there a way to change that, I mean, reverse it?

inxi --admin --verbosity=7 --filter --no-host --width 
System:
  Kernel: 5.9.16-1-MANJARO x86_64 bits: 64 compiler: gcc v: 10.2.1 
  parameters: BOOT_IMAGE=/boot/vmlinuz-5.9-x86_64 
  root=UUID=e5e15574-5804-4e04-aff5-1f17b25486b5 rw quiet apparmor=1 
  security=apparmor resume=UUID=0fdeb131-dde4-464b-91ca-8a7bea6b72d8 
  udev.log_priority=3 
  Desktop: KDE Plasma 5.20.5 tk: Qt 5.15.2 wm: kwin_x11 dm: SDDM 
  Distro: Manjaro Linux 
Machine:
  Type: Laptop System: LENOVO product: 80JE v: Lenovo G40-80 serial: <filter> 
  Chassis: type: 10 v: Lenovo G40-80 serial: <filter> 
  Mobo: LENOVO model: Lancer 4A1 v: SDK0E50515 STD serial: <filter> 
  UEFI: LENOVO v: B0CN79WW date: 05/07/2015 
Battery:
  ID-1: BAT0 charge: 28.3 Wh condition: 29.3/32.6 Wh (90%) volts: 16.3/14.8 
  model: Lenovo IdeaPad type: Unknown serial: <filter> status: Charging 
Memory:
  RAM: total: 7.69 GiB used: 2.11 GiB (27.4%) 
  RAM Report: permissions: Unable to run dmidecode. Root privileges required. 
CPU:
  Info: Dual Core model: Intel Core i5-5200U bits: 64 type: MT MCP 
  arch: Broadwell family: 6 model-id: 3D (61) stepping: 4 microcode: 2F 
  L2 cache: 3 MiB bogomips: 17567 
  Speed: 1333 MHz min/max: 500/2700 MHz Core speeds (MHz): 1: 1333 2: 1335 
  3: 1333 4: 1342 
  Flags: 3dnowprefetch abm acpi adx aes aperfmperf apic arat arch_perfmon avx 
  avx2 bmi1 bmi2 bts clflush cmov constant_tsc cpuid cpuid_fault cx16 cx8 de 
  ds_cpl dtes64 dtherm dts epb ept ept_ad erms est f16c flexpriority flush_l1d 
  fma fpu fsgsbase fxsr ht ibpb ibrs ida intel_pt invpcid invpcid_single 
  lahf_lm lm mca mce md_clear mmx monitor movbe msr mtrr nonstop_tsc nopl nx 
  pae pat pbe pcid pclmulqdq pdcm pdpe1gb pebs pge pln pni popcnt pse pse36 
  pti pts rdrand rdseed rdtscp rep_good sdbg sep smap smep ss ssbd sse sse2 
  sse4_1 sse4_2 ssse3 stibp syscall tm tm2 tpr_shadow tsc tsc_adjust 
  tsc_deadline_timer vme vmx vnmi vpid x2apic xsave xsaveopt xtopology xtpr 
  Vulnerabilities: Type: itlb_multihit status: KVM: VMX disabled 
  Type: l1tf 
  mitigation: PTE Inversion; VMX: conditional cache flushes, SMT vulnerable 
  Type: mds mitigation: Clear CPU buffers; SMT vulnerable 
  Type: meltdown mitigation: PTI 
  Type: spec_store_bypass 
  mitigation: Speculative Store Bypass disabled via prctl and seccomp 
  Type: spectre_v1 
  mitigation: usercopy/swapgs barriers and __user pointer sanitization 
  Type: spectre_v2 mitigation: Full generic retpoline, IBPB: conditional, 
  IBRS_FW, STIBP: conditional, RSB filling 
  Type: srbds mitigation: Microcode 
  Type: tsx_async_abort status: Not affected 
Graphics:
  Device-1: Intel HD Graphics 5500 vendor: Lenovo driver: i915 v: kernel 
  bus ID: 00:02.0 chip ID: 8086:1616 
  Device-2: AMD Sun LE [Radeon HD 8550M / R5 M230] vendor: Lenovo 
  driver: radeon v: kernel alternate: amdgpu bus ID: 04:00.0 
  chip ID: 1002:666f 
  Device-3: Acer Lenovo EasyCamera type: USB driver: uvcvideo bus ID: 1-6:4 
  chip ID: 5986:0652 serial: <filter> 
  Display: x11 server: X.Org 1.20.10 compositor: kwin_x11 driver: 
  loaded: ati,intel,radeon unloaded: modesetting alternate: fbdev,vesa 
  display ID: :0 screens: 1 
  Screen-1: 0 s-res: 1366x768 s-dpi: 96 s-size: 361x203mm (14.2x8.0") 
  s-diag: 414mm (16.3") 
  Monitor-1: eDP1 res: 1366x768 hz: 60 dpi: 112 size: 310x170mm (12.2x6.7") 
  diag: 354mm (13.9") 
  OpenGL: renderer: Mesa Intel HD Graphics 5500 (BDW GT2) v: 4.6 Mesa 20.3.3 
  direct render: Yes 
Audio:
  Device-1: Intel Broadwell-U Audio vendor: Lenovo driver: snd_hda_intel 
  v: kernel bus ID: 00:03.0 chip ID: 8086:160c 
  Device-2: Intel Wildcat Point-LP High Definition Audio vendor: Lenovo 
  driver: snd_hda_intel v: kernel bus ID: 00:1b.0 chip ID: 8086:9ca0 
  Sound Server: ALSA v: k5.9.16-1-MANJARO 
Network:
  Device-1: Realtek RTL8111/8168/8411 PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet 
  vendor: Lenovo driver: r8169 v: kernel port: 4000 bus ID: 02:00.0 
  chip ID: 10ec:8168 
  IF: enp2s0 state: down mac: <filter> 
  Device-2: Qualcomm Atheros QCA9565 / AR9565 Wireless Network Adapter 
  vendor: Lenovo driver: ath9k v: kernel port: 4000 bus ID: 03:00.0 
  chip ID: 168c:0036 
  IF: wlp3s0 state: up mac: <filter> 
  IP v4: <filter> type: dynamic noprefixroute scope: global 
  broadcast: <filter> 
  IP v6: <filter> type: noprefixroute scope: link 
  Device-3: Qualcomm Atheros AR3012 Bluetooth 4.0 type: USB driver: btusb 
  bus ID: 1-7:6 chip ID: 0cf3:3004 
  WAN IP: <filter> 
RAID:
  Message: No RAID data was found. 
Drives:
  Local Storage: total: 1.13 TiB used: 142.47 GiB (12.3%) 
  SMART Message: Unable to run smartctl. Root privileges required. 
  ID-1: /dev/sda maj-min: 8:0 vendor: Hikvision model: HS-SSD-C100 240G 
  size: 223.57 GiB block size: physical: 512 B logical: 512 B speed: 6.0 Gb/s 
  serial: <filter> rev: E1.3 
  ID-2: /dev/sdb maj-min: 8:16 vendor: Western Digital model: WD10JPCX-24UE4T0 
  size: 931.51 GiB block size: physical: 4096 B logical: 512 B speed: 6.0 Gb/s 
  serial: <filter> rev: 1A01 
  Message: No Optical or Floppy data was found. 
Partition:
  ID-1: / raw size: 214.47 GiB size: 210.11 GiB (97.96%) 
  used: 85.04 GiB (40.5%) fs: ext4 dev: /dev/sda2 maj-min: 8:2 label: N/A 
  uuid: e5e15574-5804-4e04-aff5-1f17b25486b5 
  ID-2: /boot/efi raw size: 300 MiB size: 299.4 MiB (99.80%) 
  used: 312 KiB (0.1%) fs: vfat dev: /dev/sda1 maj-min: 8:1 label: N/A 
  uuid: 5374-C4D5 
  ID-3: /media/HD raw size: 931.51 GiB size: 915.89 GiB (98.32%) 
  used: 57.43 GiB (6.3%) fs: ext4 dev: /dev/sdb1 maj-min: 8:17 label: HD 
  uuid: bd614be2-63d9-42aa-b5d3-b0876fc354e6 
Swap:
  Kernel: swappiness: 10 (default 60) cache pressure: 50 (default 100) 
  ID-1: swap-1 type: partition size: 8.8 GiB used: 0 KiB (0.0%) priority: -2 
  dev: /dev/sda3 maj-min: 8:3 label: N/A 
  uuid: 0fdeb131-dde4-464b-91ca-8a7bea6b72d8 
Unmounted:
  Message: No Unmounted partitions found. 
USB:
  Hub-1: 1-0:1 info: Full speed (or root) Hub ports: 11 rev: 2.0 
  speed: 480 Mb/s chip ID: 1d6b:0002 
  Device-1: 1-3:2 info: Pixart Imaging Optical Mouse type: Mouse 
  driver: hid-generic,usbhid interfaces: 1 rev: 2.0 speed: 1.5 Mb/s 
  chip ID: 093a:2510 
  Device-2: 1-4:3 info: Realtek RTS5129 Card Reader Controller 
  type: <vendor specific> driver: rtsx_usb,rtsx_usb_ms,rtsx_usb_sdmmc 
  interfaces: 1 rev: 2.0 speed: 480 Mb/s chip ID: 0bda:0129 serial: <filter> 
  Device-3: 1-6:4 info: Acer Lenovo EasyCamera type: Video driver: uvcvideo 
  interfaces: 2 rev: 2.0 speed: 480 Mb/s chip ID: 5986:0652 serial: <filter> 
  Device-4: 1-7:6 info: Qualcomm Atheros AR3012 Bluetooth 4.0 type: Bluetooth 
  driver: btusb interfaces: 2 rev: 1.1 speed: 12 Mb/s chip ID: 0cf3:3004 
  Hub-2: 2-0:1 info: Full speed (or root) Hub ports: 4 rev: 3.0 speed: 5 Gb/s 
  chip ID: 1d6b:0003 
Sensors:
  System Temperatures: cpu: 51.0 C mobo: N/A gpu: radeon temp: 44.0 C 
  Fan Speeds (RPM): N/A 
Info:
  Processes: 193 Uptime: 8m wakeups: 1 Init: systemd v: 247 Compilers: 
  gcc: 10.2.0 Packages: pacman: 1372 lib: 387 flatpak: 0 Shell: Bash v: 5.1.0 
  running in: konsole inxi: 3.2.02

Maybe that 3.5mm plug only works for headphones? If using a desktop, check if your motherboard have a specific plug for mic in the back, because mine does. The front of my computer also has a separate mic and headphone 3.5mm plug.

I personally use a usb mic (Fifine) these days though.

1 Like

I’ve learnt how to use it, and i need the dongle if i want to use only the mic. thanks for the answer

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