Hi, I use Fedora 40 with Gnome on my Thinkpad x270. When earphones (combined with a little mic) are plugged into the input/output 3.5 mm port, all mic input switches to the little mic on the earphones. It is seemingly a system-wide change.
I cannot find a settting to switch to the webcam mic, which is better.
With the earphones unplugged, the webcam mic works just fine.
It should appear under Settings > Sound > Input > Input device.
For some reason, it does not.
Here are the corresponding settings with the earphones/mic unplugged:
Here they are after I plug in the earphones/mic:
Does your BIOS/UEFI happen to have a setting which disables the internal mic (assuming that’s what you’re referring to) when an external one is plugged in?
Settings like these are meant to helper “other operating systems and their users” so that they don’t get confused 
Not really. I haven’t found any settings related to audio at all.
It’s weird, but I did some searching and similar problems do occur from time to time. One guy managed to disable an unwanted mic with the help of pavucontrol (simple gtk app, you have to dnf install it first). See if it shows both microphones under input devices tab. There are some other, odder solutions also, but I’d try this first. HTH
Edit: I wrote dnf install, but I don’t know is it workstation or silverblue fedora?
I have installed pavucontrol but still cannot get the webcam mic working with the earphones plugged in.
The mics 1 and 3 are marked “unplugged”. Still, when I choose them and tap on the earphones built-in mic, they react.
When I choose any of the sources and tap on the webcam mic, there’s no reaction.
Alright, I rummaged through my trusty shoebox with digital cruft collection and found USB audio adapter to make a screenshot more informative. On the upper side of picture is Gnome settings, and the bottom is “Volume Control” (pavucontrol). When I plug & unplug USB adapter, they’re immediately aware of change. Make sure that You have disabled unwanted mics in pavucontrol (circles), that You’ve chosen right one in settings, and that input volume slider is not all the way left (silent).
Thank you!
But this has not helped. When I switch between various input sources in pavucontrol and keep on tapping on the earphones’ built-in mic, there is non-stopping input from the earphones’ mic. The webcam mic does not work at that time.
Perhaps the laptop’s sound card cuts off other input sources after a 3.5 jack mic is detected?
Yes, I’ve heard about switches on input jacks. If that is your case, maybe the simplest solution would be a USB sound card with separate mic & phones jacks. It’s an additional piece of hw and a small investment, but comes handy.
This, or microphone-less earphones.
Once again, thank you!
