Is there a means in software to permanently prevent the operation of my laptops microphone? I had this working on a previous install but I don't remember what I removed from the system.
As an alternative to physically disconnecting it.
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2As a possible alternative to a software solution, the laptop firmware may have an option to disable the microphone, which will usually result in it being functionally disconnected at the hardware level but trivially ‘reconnected’ by resetting the firmware option.– Austin HemmelgarnCommented 2 days ago
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3What's the reason you want to do this? If you want protection against malware listening in on your conversations, any of the software answers will likely be easy to revert by software unknown to you, so the reason would be important.– pipeCommented 2 days ago
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3 Answers
Install PulseAudio Volume Control.
sudo apt install pavucontrolLaunch pavucontrol from the terminal with
pavucontrolor by clicking its icon in the Dash.Select the Input Devices tab.
Unfold the Port: dropdown menu by clicking the inverted caret ⌄ and select the laptop's microphone.
Mute the microphone by moving the volume slider all the way to the left to where it says Silence.
Depends on the level of paranoia you want - just muting the microphone is very easily undone if someone gets an access to your computer.
Slightly more reliable way is to remove kernel modules (or to pass incorrect parameters), this is hardware dependent, but if you do not need the speakers working, rm -f /lib/modules/*/kernel/sound/soc/intel/skylake should do (replace intel/skylate with whatever chipset you have) and reboot. Since the modules will be reinstalled during a kernel upgrade, set a cron job and/or a startup script that does the removal.
Even better is to pass incorrect module parameters, e.g. for intel add to the file /etc/modprobe.d/alsa-base.conf the line:
options snd-hda-intel model=thinkpad
assuming your laptop is NOT a Thinkpad. Some experimentation would be needed, you might even get the speakers working. This way, the attacker generally has to reboot to enable the modules with the correct parameters (since they would be usually in use). If s/he finds the issue at all.
But anyway, a piece of duct tape over the microphone would be way more reliable and fireproof (and simpler).
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1This answer better addresses (what seems to be) the spirit of the question better than "just mute it". A note on disabling it in firmware along the lines of the comment by @AustinHemmelgarn might be a good addition. One question on the last part of your advice: how effective is a piece of tape for reliably disabling the mic? I'm not sure it would provide sufficient attenuation– bertiebCommented yesterday
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@bertieb re duct tape - likely depends on the mic sensitivity and thickness of the tape. I was helping a family member to debug her her mobile phone (voice intelligible only when shouting), she used duct tape to hold broken battery and inadvertently taped over the microphone... I imagine in her case it would help against listening to background conversations, but close speech would be recoverable with some audio processing. Commented yesterday
You can mute the microphone with this command:
amixer -D pulse sset Capture nocap
For the command to work whenever you log in to your account, you can set it in your Startup Applications:
Save it and your microphone will be muted from the moment you log in.
If you don't want some software to record audio using the microphone, then disabling it with software is fine. But bear in mind that a software (non-physical) method to disable a microphone can generally be trivially reversed.
If you are genuinely concerned that something might be able to record and extract audio from your computer, then I suggest physically disconnecting or removing the microphone from your system.
