Openai/6965e6ad-3360-8002-8595-a24e4bc1fbe0

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gpt-5-2

Assistant: This is a very common CachyOS plus Discord plus PipeWire issue, and the symptoms you described line up cleanly.

This is a very common CachyOS plus Discord plus PipeWire issue, and the symptoms you described line up cleanly. Here is a structured way to diagnose and fix it, starting with the most likely causes.

What is probably happening

1. CachyOS uses PipeWire by default.
2. Discord on Linux is extremely sensitive to PipeWire state and permissions.
3. Error 3002 usually means Discord cannot access the audio graph, not that the mic is broken.
4. Vesktop showing no input devices at all indicates PipeWire is either: - not running correctly, or - running but missing the ALSA bridge, or - blocked by a stale Discord permission cache.

The “mic sounds like a microwave” comment earlier strongly suggests PipeWire was already misconfigured or running with wrong sample rates.

Step 1: Verify PipeWire is actually healthy

Run these commands:

systemctl --user status pipewire pipewire-pulse wireplumber

You should see all three as active (running).

If any are missing or failed:

systemctl --user restart pipewire pipewire-pulse wireplumber

Then log out and log back in.

Step 2: Make sure required audio packages are installed

On CachyOS, these must exist:

sudo pacman -S --needed pipewire pipewire-alsa pipewire-pulse wireplumber

If pipewire-alsa is missing, microphones often vanish entirely.

Step 3: Check if the system sees your microphone at all

Run:

pw-cli ls Node | grep -i input

or

arecord -l

If no capture devices appear, this is not a Discord issue yet. It means the kernel or PipeWire does not see the mic.

If the mic does appear here but not in Discord or Vesktop, continue.

Step 4: Reset Discord and Vesktop audio permissions

Discord caches broken permissions aggressively.

Close Discord and Vesktop completely.

Then delete their configs:

rm -rf ~/.config/discord
rm -rf ~/.config/Vesktop
rm -rf ~/.cache/discord
rm -rf ~/.cache/Vesktop

Now relaunch only one of them first. Prefer Vesktop initially.

Step 5: Force correct audio backend in Vesktop

In Vesktop settings:

• Audio subsystem: PipeWire
• Disable all noise suppression
• Disable echo cancellation
• Set input device explicitly, not “Default”

If Vesktop still shows zero devices after Step 3 succeeded, PipeWire permissions are broken.

Step 6: Check WirePlumber permissions

Run:

ls ~/.local/state/wireplumber

If this directory exists but looks empty or corrupted, reset it:

rm -rf ~/.local/state/wireplumber
systemctl --user restart wireplumber

Log out and back in again.

Step 7: Sample rate fix for robotic audio

If the mic comes back but sounds distorted:

Create or edit:

~/.config/pipewire/pipewire.conf.d/99-samplerate.conf

Add:

context.properties = {
    default.clock.rate = 48000
    default.clock.allowed-rates = [ 48000 ]
}

Then restart audio:

systemctl --user restart pipewire pipewire-pulse wireplumber

Discord hates mismatched sample rates.

Step 8: Wayland specific note

If you are on KDE Wayland, ensure:

• Discord is not launched with --enable-features=WebRTCPipeWireCapturer
• Vesktop is preferred, since it handles Wayland better

Also check KDE mic permissions:

kcmshell6 kcm_privacy

Make sure microphone access is enabled globally.

Summary of most likely fix

In order of probability:

1. Missing pipewire-alsa
2. Corrupt WirePlumber state
3. Discord cached broken PipeWire permissions
4. Sample rate mismatch

If you want, tell me:

• USB mic vs onboard audio
• KDE X11 or Wayland
• Output of arecord -l

I can narrow this down to a single fix instead of shotgun troubleshooting.