Cradle

Troubleshooting

Microphone permission on Linux

How to confirm Cradle can use your microphone on Linux: sound-server routing in pavucontrol, mute state, and the limits of our Linux support.

Linux handles microphone access differently from Windows and macOS. There's no per-app permission system in the OS. The sound server (PipeWire or PulseAudio) decides which application gets the microphone. That means there's nothing to "grant" in the traditional sense.

Cradle on Linux ships as either an AppImage or a .deb, and both use the standard sound server. There's no sandboxed Cradle build on Linux, so the questions are always "is the device muted?", "is Cradle routed to the right input?", and (rarely) "does my distro have an extra layer on top?".

Confirm the microphone in pavucontrol

  1. Open your distro's sound settings, or run pavucontrol from a terminal.
  2. Switch to the Input Devices tab.
  3. Confirm your microphone is unmuted (no red mute icon) and has its level above zero.
  4. Make or take a test call so Cradle creates an audio stream.
  5. Switch to the Recording tab. Cradle should be there, with its input source set to the right microphone. Change it if not.

If your distro adds an extra layer

Some distros layer additional access controls on top of the sound server, such as Fedora's polkit or distro-specific privacy settings panels (GNOME Settings → Apps, KDE System Settings → Applications). These rarely apply to AppImage and .deb installs, but if pavucontrol looks correct and the microphone meter still doesn't move, check your distro's documentation for "microphone permission" plus your sound server name.

What you should see

  • The microphone level moves in your sound settings (or pavucontrol) as you speak.
  • Cradle appears in the Recording tab of pavucontrol during a call.
  • The caller can hear you.

If it still doesn't work

  • Other apps can hear the microphone. That's a Cradle-specific routing problem. Check pavucontrol's Recording tab for what device Cradle is using.
  • No app can hear the microphone. That's a sound-server or hardware problem. Restart the sound server: systemctl --user restart pipewire pipewire-pulse on PipeWire systems.
  • Microphone is in the list but level doesn't move. Hardware-level mute. Some laptops have a physical microphone-mute key; check yours.

For broader Linux audio troubleshooting, see Audio issues on Linux.

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