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madchine

Member

From: Denmark

Registered: 2009-11-04

Posts: 62

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[SOLVED sorta] Can't find device file for built-in microphone

I have a Lenovo ThinkPad X200 with a built-in webcam and microphone. I want to be able to record video and sound using mencoder and other commandline applications. Therefore I (think that I) need to know my microphone's device file.

The problem is that none of the usual device files are there (no /dev/dsp*, no /dev/audio*, no /dev/mix* -- and according to 'find' no similarly named files in the subdirs either) The microphone is there and working as evidenced by PulseAudio settings apps and a test I just did using the Gnome application Sound Recorder. PulseAudio refers to the input/output devices as "Built-in Audio Analog Stereo" but doesn't give up anything like device files.

Any suggestions?

EDIT: Using VLC to access the devices seems to reveal that Pulseaudio has thrown out the idea of using files to represent hardware. While the webcam has a file (/dev/video0 or something like that) the microphone is refered to as "hw0:0". I still don't know how I would direct mencoder to use "hw0:0" but VLC represents good enough alternative for my needs.

Last edited by madchine (2012-10-12 21:23:45)

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brebs

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Registered: 2007-04-03

Posts: 3,742

Re: [SOLVED sorta] Can't find device file for built-in microphone

Look in /dev/snd/ (for ALSA, anyway).

But one does not record directly from those "files". Use an app, e.g.:

arecord -vv -d 4 /tmp/test-mic.wav && aplay /tmp/test-mic.wav