In this tutorial, we guide you through the process of testing a microphone on Manjaro Linux. Microphones should work out of the box on Manjaro and other user-friendly Linux distributions, but sometimes you may need to select the right device from the audio settings menu. This guide will also show how to record sound with a GUI application.
In this tutorial you will learn:
- How to test microphone and select input device
- How to record audio clips
| Category | Requirements, Conventions or Software Version Used |
|---|---|
| System | Manjaro Linux |
| Software | Gnome Sound Recorder |
| Other | Privileged access to your Linux system as root or via the sudo command. |
| Conventions |
# – requires given linux commands to be executed with root privileges either directly as a root user or by use of sudo command$ – requires given linux commands to be executed as a regular non-privileged user |
Test Microphone and Select Input Device
The steps in this section will show how to test a microphone and select the correct input device via GUI, specifically in the XFCE desktop environment. If you’re using KDE, GNOME, or some other desktop environment on Manjaro, the steps will vary a little. The idea is still the same though: you need to open the audio settings application and select your microphone.
- Open the “PulseAudio Volume Control” application from the app menu.
Open the audio settings application from the app launcher - Click on the “input devices” tab. With any luck, your microphone will be automatically selected and you’ll see a red bar appear whenever you speak into the microphone, like in the screenshot below.
You can test your microphone here, if you see a red bar that means its working
- If that’s not the case for you, try selecting a different port until you land on the right one your mic is plugged into.
That’s all there is to it. Also make sure that your microphone is plugged in and unmuted if the above steps didn’t help.
You can also use the command line to see whether or not Manjaro is detecting your microphone by opening a terminal and issuing the following command:
$ sudo arecord -l **** List of CAPTURE Hardware Devices **** card 0: I82801AAICH [Intel 82801AA-ICH], device 0: Intel ICH [Intel 82801AA-ICH] Subdevices: 1/1 Subdevice #0: subdevice #0 card 0: I82801AAICH [Intel 82801AA-ICH], device 1: Intel ICH - MIC ADC [Intel 82801AA-ICH - MIC ADC] Subdevices: 1/1 Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
How to Record Audio from GUI
There are tons of applications that can be used to record audio from your microphone. Gnome Sound Recorder is a very sleek and simple one that can be installed with this command in terminal (it works with any GUI, despite having Gnome in the name):
$ sudo pacman -S gnome-sound-recorder
Open it from the app launcher.
Now you can use the Sound Recorder application to create audio clips. Just click “record” to get started. This is a great way to make sure your mic works in practical application.
Conclusion
In this guide, we saw how to test a microphone on Manjaro Linux. We also saw how to record audio clips. Manjaro has good support for microphones, so it should be as simple as plugging in the microphone and ensuring that you have the correct input device selected inside settings. You can also use the command line to see if Manjaro is detecting your microphone at all.
