Bug 505725

Summary:	Using mute button on microphone hardware causes mute status to flicker / toggle on/off forever
Product:	[Plasma] plasmashell	Reporter:	krzmbrzl
Component:	Microphone Indicator widget	Assignee:	Plasma Bugs List <plasma-bugs-null>
Status:	CONFIRMED ---
Severity:	normal	CC:	kde, nate
Priority:	NOR
Version First Reported In:	6.4.0
Target Milestone:	1.0
Platform:	Neon
OS:	Linux
Latest Commit:		Version Fixed/Implemented In:
Sentry Crash Report:

Description krzmbrzl 2025-06-18 07:34:42 UTC

SUMMARY
I have a Logitech G25 headset, which has a physical mute button for the microphone on it. Additionally, it automatically mutes the mic, if it is rotated away from the mouth and unmutes automatically when moving in the reverse direction.

For quite some time I wouldn't see any kind of status change / notification in the desktop when I (un)muted my microphone in either of these ways. However, not too long ago (maybe a couple of months), I started seeing a reflection of the mute status in KDE. However, as soon as that started to happen, every time I change the mute state of my mic, the indicator of the desktop seems to run into a sort of endless loop in which it will continually mute and unmute the microphone in short succession. This will also persist if I change a different input device in the audio settings and only stops once I unplug my headset.

STEPS TO REPRODUCE
1. Plug in the Logitech G35 in a muted state (mic rotated away from mouth)
2. Unmute the mic (by rotating the mic towards the mouth)

Pluggin in the headset in an unmuted state also triggers the issue (I assume that the headset sends an explicit unmute event in this case, but that's just a guess)

OBSERVED RESULT
The flickering starts. Note that while this happens the audio is actually muted (or at least I can't seem to record any audio while the flickering happens).

EXPECTED RESULT
Mute changes via the headset should only yield a single toggling of the icon on the desktop.

SOFTWARE/OS VERSIONS
Operating System: KDE neon User Edition
KDE Plasma Version: 6.4.0
KDE Frameworks Version: 6.15.0
Qt Version: 6.9.0
Kernel Version: 6.11.0-26-generic (64-bit)
Graphics Platform: X11
Processors: 8 × Intel® Core™ i7-4770 CPU @ 3.40GHz
Memory: 16 GiB of RAM (15,6 GiB usable)
Graphics Processor: AMD Radeon RX 6600
Manufacturer: ASUS
Product Name: All Series

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
I tested with a different headset (Jabra) which doesn't have this problem. However, its mute status is also not reflected in the UI and back when this wasn't the case with my G35 I didn't have any issues with it either.

If there is a reasonably easy way to bisect the commit history (e.g. in a VM), I could probably do that if someone tells me what the best approach for compiling KDE Plasma in a way so it can be easily tested.

Comment 1 Nate Graham 2025-06-18 16:40:27 UTC

Are you saying this didn't happen in Plasma 6.3?

Comment 2 krzmbrzl 2025-06-19 07:00:34 UTC

(In reply to Nate Graham from comment #1)
> Are you saying this didn't happen in Plasma 6.3?

No, it definitely happened before 6.4. As I (tried to) mention in my initial post, I have been observing this issue for a couple of months now (all while being on KDE Neon).
Looking at the release history, it is possible that this started happening after the 6.3 release but that's just a guess. I don't recall when exactly this started to happen. Initially I thought this would get fixed in one of the subsequent updates but apparently this issue is rare enough that I seem to be the first one to report it now.

Comment 3 Nate Graham 2025-10-23 18:26:43 UTC

Is it still happening in Plasma 6.5?

Comment 4 krzmbrzl 2025-10-24 06:17:36 UTC

(In reply to Nate Graham from comment #3)
> Is it still happening in Plasma 6.5?

I just tested and yes, this is still happening with Plasma 6.5