This solution should work for all Thinkpads with a mute button which also has a built-in light. It may also work for other Thinkpads.
Apart from the notification bubbles:
There are two possible "hardware" indicators (to show that mute is on or off):
- The Power button light (green) will blink to show when mute is on
The Mic mute button light (orange) will be on or off to show mute status (just like in Windows)
Solution 2 requires a patched thinkpad_acpi
kernel module, and is only recommended for advanced users who know what they are doing. This is because the patch is not included by the thinkpad_acpi developers by default, (See this discussion for more details).
Common Steps
a. Determining the Mic-Mute hotkey code and Mic input device
- Open terminal with
Ctrl+Alt+T
- Run
acpi_listen
, and press the mute key
Note the result, which should be something like:
ibm/hotkey HKEY 00000080 0000101b
Then run amixer scontrols
, you should see one of the following in the output:
Simple mixer control 'Internal Mic',0
or
Simple mixer control 'Capture',0
Depending on what you see, "Internal Mic" or "Capture" is your input device.
b. Create the Mic-Mute ACPI event handler
Choosing either the Power Light or Mic Mute indicators
c-1. Mic-Mute script with Power Button indicator
- Do this if you want an easy solution and do not want to use the patched kernel module (see C-2).
- Open terminal, type
gksudo gedit /etc/acpi/lenovo-mutemic.sh
In the editor, paste:
#!/bin/bash
INPUT_DEVICE="'Internal Mic'"
YOUR_USERNAME="place_your_username_here"
if amixer sget $INPUT_DEVICE,0 | grep '\[on\]' ; then
amixer sset $INPUT_DEVICE,0 toggle
echo "0 blink" > /proc/acpi/ibm/led
su $YOUR_USERNAME -c 'DISPLAY=":0.0" notify-send -t 50 \
-i microphone-sensitivity-muted-symbolic "Mic MUTED"'
else
amixer sset $INPUT_DEVICE,0 toggle
su $YOUR_USERNAME -c 'DISPLAY=":0.0" notify-send -t 50 \
-i microphone-sensitivity-high-symbolic "Mic ON"'
echo "0 on" > /proc/acpi/ibm/led
fi
Replace value of INPUT_DEVICE variable with Capture
if that is your input device name (leave all the ticks intact).
- Replace value of YOUR_USERNAME variable with the account name of the user you want to send notifications to
- Save and exit the editor.
- Now run the following (from the terminal):
sudo chmod +x /etc/acpi/lenovo-mutemic.sh
sudo service acpid restart
- Jump to the Testing section (d) to confirm that it works.
c-2. Mic-mute with official Mic-mute Indicator Light
Setting up the script
- Please do not use this method if you are not familiar with the terminal/shell.
- This will require compiling a patched
thinkpad_acpi
module and has been verified to work with Ubuntu Precise 12.04 and Quantal 12.10, kernels 3.2.0-23 and 3.2.0-24 and 3.5.0-21.
Let's create the script first: /etc/acpi/lenovo-mutemic.sh
should be as in section c-1, with the following additions:
Insert this line after the header (#!/bin/bash
):
MICMUTE=/sys/devices/platform/thinkpad_acpi/leds/tpacpi::micmute/brightness
After the first echo...
line, insert:
echo 1 > $MICMUTE
And after the second echo...
line, insert:
echo 0 > $MICMUTE
You can find an example of what the full script should look like in this paste
Then:
sudo chmod +x /etc/acpi/lenovo-mutemic.sh
sudo service acpid restart
Confirm that pressing the mute button results in a blinking power light; pressing again gives a steady power light.
Building, testing and installing the kernel module
Install (or ensure) you have the headers and built tools for your currently running kernel with:
sudo apt-get install linux-headers-$(uname -r) build-essential
Make a temporary directory and change to it:
mkdir ~/tpacpi && cd ~/tpacpi
Download the source file thinkpad_acpi.c
from the Ubuntu Kernel git repository:
wget -Othinkpad_acpi.c "http://kernel.ubuntu.com/git?p=ubuntu/ubuntu-$(lsb_release -sc).git;\
a=blob_plain;f=drivers/platform/x86/thinkpad_acpi.c;hb=HEAD"
Patch it with (copy and paste the full line):
sed -i -e 's/"tpacpi::thinkvantage",/"tpacpi::thinkvantage",\n\t"tpacpi::unknown_led4",\n\t"tpacpi::micmute",/g' -e 's/0x1081U/0x5081U/g' -e 's/0x1fffU/0x5fffU/g' thinkpad_acpi.c
In the same folder where thinkpad_acpi.c
has been downloaded, you will need a "Makefile". You can download it directly from this Pastebin, using:
wget -OMakefile http://pastebin.com/raw.php?i=ybpnxeUT
OR paste the below into a file called Makefile
:
obj-m += thinkpad_acpi.o
all:
make -C /lib/modules/$(shell uname -r)/build M=$(PWD) modules
clean:
make -C /lib/modules/$(shell uname -r)/build M=$(PWD) clean
Now type make
to create the module; you will see a thinkpad_acpi.ko
file in the folder when done.
Test the patched module after loading it with:
sudo rmmod thinkpad_acpi && sudo insmod thinkpad_acpi.ko
Now confirm that pressing the mic button will turn the orange mic light on/off AND the power light blinking/steady.
If confirmed, do the following to replace your current thinkpad_acpi
module:
TPDIR=/lib/modules/$(uname -r)/kernel/drivers/platform/x86
sudo mv $TPDIR/thinkpad_acpi.ko $TPDIR/thinkpad_acpi.ko.stock
sudo mv /where/you/built/it/tpacpi_micmute/thinkpad_acpi.ko $TPDIR/thinkpad_acpi.ko
Comment out or delete the power led lines in lenovo-micmute.sh
d. Testing
- Apart from your choice of indicator, you can also confirm mute via the following:
Answer found on Enabling Mic Mute button and light on Lenovo Thinkpads
acpi_listen
. I get events withxev
tho.