How can I identify this new audio input item I see in Ubuntu 20.04?

Question

A new input shows up in my Ubuntu 20.04 install, but can’t seem to identify it.

Where this input(microphone) come from?

Answer 1

Run the following command to get a list of connected audio input devices.

aplay -l

The output should be like something like (example taken from my laptop).

**** List of PLAYBACK Hardware Devices ****
card 0: HDMI [HDA ATI HDMI], device 3: HDMI 0 [HDMI 0]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 1: Generic [HD-Audio Generic], device 0: ALC3234 Analog [ALC3234 Analog]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0

Answer 2

That is more than likely just the microphone input from your onboard audio, especially because it is listed as "Built In Audio". Even if nothing is plugged in it will show up.

to get more specific detail Along with ttimasdf answer you can also use pactl list sources to find where pulse is getting the device from as there often isnt a clean map between the pulse name and ALSA.

There may also be a chance that the device is from pipewire, however it seems like ubuntu is not using this new audio routing method, so it is unlikely.

Answer 3

It is not clear what do you mean by "identify", but I will post a few commands that might help getting there.

inxi -SA
cat /proc/asound/cards
lspci -nnk | grep -A 1 Audio
lshw -C multimedia

If you post the results of these commands in the OP, we could provide further information.