Devel Digest, Vol 32, Issue 11

[Mitch Bradley]

>
> From: Mikus Grinbergs <mikus at bga.com>
> Subject: OFW should turn off microphone
> To: devel at lists.laptop.org
> Message-ID: <48E6E631.7050303 at bga.com>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed
>
> Noticed there's a new q2e19.  But it, like its predecessors, leaves 
> the microphone "alive" (to be turned off, at about the fourth dot, 
> by the loading of the os).
>   


No.

The only case in which OFW turns on the microphone is during an 
explicitly-invoked selftest operation - a test-all from the keyboard or 
the game button, or "test /audio".  That is not part of the normal boot 
sequence.

The microphone light does come on during the OS startup sequence.  It 
appears to correspond to the point at which the codec driver is 
initialized and some ALSA messages appear.  On one of my machines, with 
OS build 703, the light blinks on briefly then goes back off almost 
immediately.  On another one, with build 759, it stays on for several 
seconds.

> I deliberately avoid saying anything while the XO boots, in case it 
> is surreptitiously recording me.  But I *wish* OFW 

I *wish* people wouldn't jump to conclusions about which software 
component is responsible for a given problem.

> would turn the 
> microphone off when done - to me the caution: "when booting, watch 
> what you say"  is an unnecessary responsibility for OLPC users.
>
> mikus
>