how to hear mic sound over speakers- Ubuntu karmic

The global fix for this issue (i.e. not a piped solution running in the foreground) is more or less described in the article linked from Archon, but I keep forgetting and ending up back at this page so I'll provide a summary:

pactl load-module module-loopback latency_msec=1

This command will load the loopback module and enable global loopback of all input devices through your output (I believe, though I've only used it to solve routing my sound card's input through its output, so YMMV... not sure if this picks up all bluetooth inputs).

To permanently load this each time you restart your session (I believe pulseaudio works based on user login, so session restart not machine restart) add the following to your pulse audio config file. I chose the default config affecting all users, which is '/etc/pulse/default.pa' on my Ubuntu machine. Add the following line to the bottom:

load-module module-loopback latency_msec=1

I use the following command (found at: http://efreedom.com/Question/3-127276/Play-Mic-Speakers-Ubuntu-Karmic):

pacat -r --latency-msec=1 -d alsa_input.pci-0000_00_1b.0.analog-stereo | pacat -p --latency-msec=1 -d alsa_output.pci-0000_00_1b.0.analog-stereo

Where:

• alsa_input.pci-0000_00_1b.0.analog-stereo is your input device
• alsa_output.pci-0000_00_1b.0.analog-stereo is your output device

Use paman to find these device names.

This is a problem with pulseaudio. See this thread for a cludgy fix.