GNOME mic indicator permanently lit

[CR0CKER]

Bug description

On Asahi Fedora (GNOME), the orange microphone privacy indicator in the
menu bar stays permanently lit, even when no app is recording.

This is noted as a known bug in the Asahi docs
(https://asahilinux.org/docs/sw/audio-userspace/) but there is no
issue to track it or collect workarounds, so I am opening one.

Probable root cause (may be wrong — happy to be corrected)

My best guess is that WirePlumber creates a PipeWire filter-chain to
process raw Apple Silicon microphone audio (beamforming, EQ, gain), and
that this node ends up visible through PipeWire's PulseAudio
compatibility layer as a permanent source-output:

pactl list source-outputs short
# → 83  4294967295  78  PipeWire  float32le 3ch 48000Hz

GNOME Shell's _maybeShowInput lights the indicator for any
source-output whose application.id is not in a hard-coded skip list.
The node in question has no application.id and a stream name of
"WirePlumber", so it is never skipped → indicator always on.

The stream appears corked/inactive when nothing is recording:

pactl list source-outputs | grep Corked
# → Corked: yes

I have not verified this at the PipeWire/WirePlumber level — if the
actual cause is different I would appreciate a pointer.

Affected systems

All Apple Silicon Macs running Fedora Asahi Remix with microphone
support enabled. Confirmed on my machine; model identifiers likely
include j293, j313, j314, j316, j413, j414, j415, j416, j493 and
others.

Possible upstream fixes

• WirePlumber: stop registering the filter-chain input node as a visible
  PulseAudio source-output, or annotate it so GNOME/Plasma can skip it
• GNOME Shell: skip corked/non-running source-outputs (note: the
  PipeWire PA compat layer appears to return state INVALID for all
  source-outputs via GVC, so corked-state detection via get_state()
  is unreliable — see workaround comment for details)

A local GNOME Shell extension workaround is working for me — see the
comment below.

[CR0CKER]

Workaround: GNOME Shell extension (working for me)

I investigated this with Claude Code and deployed a local GNOME Shell
extension. It is working correctly on my machine: the indicator stays
dark when no app is recording and turns orange when a real app uses
the mic.

Identifying the DSP node

The Asahi DSP filter-chain node can be identified through the GVC API
by two properties:

• application_id === null — real recording apps always have one
• stream name === "WirePlumber" — real apps use their own name

The extension patches InputStreamSlider._maybeShowInput to skip any
source-output matching both criteria.

Extension files

~/.local/share/gnome-shell/extensions/fix-asahi-mic-indicator@local/metadata.json

{
  "name": "Fix Asahi Mic Indicator",
  "description": "Prevents the WirePlumber DSP filter-chain from keeping the mic indicator permanently lit",
  "uuid": "fix-asahi-mic-indicator@local",
  "shell-version": ["45", "46", "47", "48", "49"],
  "version": 1
}

extension.js

import * as Main from 'resource:///org/gnome/shell/ui/main.js';
import GLib from 'gi://GLib';

const SKIPPED_APPS = ['org.gnome.VolumeControl', 'org.PulseAudio.pavucontrol'];

let _timeoutId = null;

export function enable() {
    _timeoutId = GLib.timeout_add(GLib.PRIORITY_DEFAULT, 500, () => {
        const qs = Main.panel.statusArea.quickSettings;
        const inputSlider = qs?._volumeInput?._input;
        if (!inputSlider) return GLib.SOURCE_CONTINUE;

        inputSlider._maybeShowInput = () => {
            let showInput = false;
            if (inputSlider._stream) {
                showInput = inputSlider._control.get_source_outputs().some(output => {
                    const appId = output.get_application_id();
                    if (SKIPPED_APPS.includes(appId)) return false;
                    // Skip the WirePlumber Asahi DSP node: no application.id,
                    // stream name is "WirePlumber". Real apps differ on at least one.
                    if (appId === null && (output.get_name?.() ?? '') === 'WirePlumber')
                        return false;
                    return true;
                });
            }
            inputSlider._showInput = showInput;
            inputSlider._sync();
        };

        inputSlider._maybeShowInput();
        console.log('[fix-asahi-mic-indicator] Patched InputStreamSlider._maybeShowInput');
        _timeoutId = null;
        return GLib.SOURCE_REMOVE;
    });
}

export function disable() {
    if (_timeoutId) { GLib.source_remove(_timeoutId); _timeoutId = null; }
}

Gotchas encountered

• get_state() always returns INVALID: PipeWire's PA compat layer
  does not surface corked/active state through GVC — get_state() returns
  0 (INVALID) for all source-outputs. The stream-name check is the
  reliable discriminator.
• GNOME 49 object path: the slider lives at
  Main.panel.statusArea.quickSettings._volumeInput._input.
  _setupIndicators() is async, so the extension retries every 500ms
  until the slider is available.
• A log-out / log-in is required on Wayland.

Enable with:

gnome-extensions enable fix-asahi-mic-indicator@local

Investigated and deployed using Claude Code.