[LAU] How to prevent applications from changing my mic level?

[Jacek Konieczny]

On 06.05.2020 14:45, S. wrote:
> Len Ovens wrote
>> Use jack as the back end for pulse and unload the alsa and udev modules
>> from pulse.
> 
> Hmm, that's an interesting idea, I hadn't thought about Jack. (I use it Jack
> on another machine for music production, but not on my main workstation.)
> 
> So you seem to be suggesting that Pulse is directly responsible for
> manipulating the levels? I assumed that it was Chromium and its spinoffs
> (Chrome and Electron apps), using an AGC function specifically as part of
> the WebRTC protocol:

That is probably the source of the level change requests, but it is 
PulseAudio that forwards this to the hardware (via ALSA drivers).

Without the direct hardware access PulseAudio can still fulfill the 
request, but only by the digital signal manipulation which should be 
less invasive.

I guess it might be possible to stop PA from using ALSA mixer controls 
even without unloading ALSA support all together.

Jacek