Microphone does not work in Feisty or Gutsy

Asked by ASH

Linux/Ubunutu newbie here. I'm desperate to get my mic working and I hope someone can help me because I've posted numerous times to Ubuntu forum with no luck, and tried most of the guides/solutions posted there.

I cannot get a microphone to work--neither the internal mic with the built-in webcam (camera works ok, Ricoh with restricted driver), nor an external mic plugged into line input. I had been using Feisty, and recently upgraded to Gutsy with the hope that this would solve the problem. Nope.

I have everything in my volume control unmuted and volumes raised. I tried recompiling ALSA, with no luck. My volume control options appear to be quite different than those discussed in various Ubuntu Forum posts. Under volume control>>edit>>preferences I have options for: headphones; PCM; PCM2; Mic Bypass; Mic Gain; IEC958; Capture; Digital; and Speaker.

I am unable to get any signals in using Skype or the Sound Recorder application. I have tested my external mic on another (Windows Vista) computer, and it works.

I am attaching a text file with sound diagnostic output suggested by the Ubuntu comprehensive sound troubleshooting page: https://help.ubuntu.com/community/SoundTroubleshooting

I am on an HP dv1000t; Intel Core Duo 2GHz; Intel on board sound card; etc., etc.

Please let me know if I can provide any more information.

Thank you for your help!

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ASH (ahersh) said :
#1

$ aplay --list-devices
**** List of PLAYBACK Hardware Devices ****
card 0: Intel [HDA Intel], device 0: CONEXANT Analog [CONEXANT Analog]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 0: Intel [HDA Intel], device 1: Conexant Digital [Conexant Digital]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0

$ lspci -vvnn
...
00:1b.0 Audio device [0403]: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) High Definition Audio Controller [8086:27d8] (rev 02)
        Subsystem: Hewlett-Packard Company Unknown device [103c:30a0]
        Control: I/O- Mem+ BusMaster+ SpecCycle- MemWINV- VGASnoop- ParErr- Stepping- SERR- FastB2B-
        Status: Cap+ 66MHz- UDF- FastB2B- ParErr- DEVSEL=fast >TAbort- <TAbort- <MAbort- >SERR- <PERR-
        Latency: 0, Cache Line Size: 64 bytes
        Interrupt: pin A routed to IRQ 23
        Region 0: Memory at d8240000 (64-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=16K]
        Capabilities: <access denied>

$ tail -2 /proc/asound/oss/sndstat
Mixers:
0: Conexant CX20551 (Waikiki)

$ amixer
Simple mixer control 'Headphone',0
  Capabilities: pvolume pswitch
  Playback channels: Front Left - Front Right
  Limits: Playback 0 - 30
  Mono:
  Front Left: Playback 21 [70%] [-15.00dB] [on]
  Front Right: Playback 21 [70%] [-15.00dB] [on]
Simple mixer control 'PCM',0
  Capabilities: pvolume pswitch
  Playback channels: Front Left - Front Right
  Limits: Playback 0 - 255
  Mono:
  Front Left: Playback 194 [76%] [-12.20dB] [on]
  Front Right: Playback 194 [76%] [-12.20dB] [on]
Simple mixer control 'PCM-2',0
  Capabilities: volume pswitch
  Playback channels: Front Left - Front Right
  Capture channels: Front Left - Front Right
  Limits: 0 - 30
  Front Left: 30 [100%] [10.50dB] Playback [on]
  Front Right: 30 [100%] [10.50dB] Playback [on]
Simple mixer control 'Mic Bypass',0
  Capabilities: cvolume cswitch
  Capture channels: Front Left - Front Right
  Limits: Capture 0 - 30
  Front Left: Capture 30 [100%] [10.50dB] [on]
  Front Right: Capture 30 [100%] [10.50dB] [on]
Simple mixer control 'Mic Gain',0
  Capabilities: volume pswitch
  Playback channels: Front Left - Front Right
  Capture channels: Front Left - Front Right
  Limits: 0 - 3
  Front Left: 3 [100%] [24.00dB] Playback [on]
  Front Right: 3 [100%] [24.00dB] Playback [on]
Simple mixer control 'IEC958',0
  Capabilities: pswitch pswitch-joined
  Playback channels: Mono
  Mono: Playback [on]
Simple mixer control 'Capture',0
  Capabilities: cvolume cswitch
  Capture channels: Front Left - Front Right
  Limits: Capture 0 - 14
  Front Left: Capture 14 [100%] [21.00dB] [on]
  Front Right: Capture 14 [100%] [21.00dB] [on]
Simple mixer control 'Digital',0
  Capabilities: cvolume
  Capture channels: Front Left - Front Right
  Limits: Capture 0 - 120
  Front Left: Capture 120 [100%] [30.00dB]
  Front Right: Capture 120 [100%] [30.00dB]
Simple mixer control 'Speaker',0
  Capabilities: pvolume pswitch
  Playback channels: Front Left - Front Right
  Limits: Playback 0 - 30
  Mono:
  Front Left: Playback 7 [23%] [-36.00dB] [on]
  Front Right: Playback 7 [23%] [-36.00dB] [on]

$ asoundconf list
Names of available sound cards:
Intel

~$ cat /etc/asound.conf ~/.asoundrc*
cat: /etc/asound.conf: No such file or directory
# ALSA library configuration file

# Include settings that are under the control of asoundconf(1).
# (To disable these settings, comment out this line.)
</home/ash/.asoundrc.asoundconf>

# ALSA library configuration file managed by asoundconf(1).
#
# MANUAL CHANGES TO THIS FILE WILL BE OVERWRITTEN!
#
# Manual changes to the ALSA library configuration should be implemented
# by editing the ~/.asoundrc file, not by editing this file.
!defaults.pcm.card Intel
defaults.ctl.card Intel
defaults.pcm.device 0
defaults.pcm.subdevice -1
defaults.pcm.nonblock 1
defaults.pcm.ipc_key 5678293
defaults.pcm.ipc_gid audio
defaults.pcm.ipc_perm 0660
defaults.pcm.dmix.max_periods 0
defaults.pcm.dmix.rate 48000
defaults.pcm.dmix.format S16_LE
defaults.pcm.dmix.card defaults.pcm.card
defaults.pcm.dmix.device defaults.pcm.device
defaults.pcm.dsnoop.card defaults.pcm.card
defaults.pcm.dsnoop.device defaults.pcm.device
defaults.pcm.front.card defaults.pcm.card
defaults.pcm.front.device defaults.pcm.device
defaults.pcm.rear.card defaults.pcm.card
defaults.pcm.rear.device defaults.pcm.device
defaults.pcm.center_lfe.card defaults.pcm.card
defaults.pcm.center_lfe.device defaults.pcm.device
defaults.pcm.side.card defaults.pcm.card
defaults.pcm.side.device defaults.pcm.device
defaults.pcm.surround40.card defaults.pcm.card
defaults.pcm.surround40.device defaults.pcm.device
defaults.pcm.surround41.card defaults.pcm.card
defaults.pcm.surround41.device defaults.pcm.device
defaults.pcm.surround50.card defaults.pcm.card
defaults.pcm.surround50.device defaults.pcm.device
defaults.pcm.surround51.card defaults.pcm.card
defaults.pcm.surround51.device defaults.pcm.device
defaults.pcm.surround71.card defaults.pcm.card
defaults.pcm.surround71.device defaults.pcm.device
defaults.pcm.iec958.card defaults.pcm.card
defaults.pcm.iec958.device defaults.pcm.device
defaults.pcm.modem.card defaults.pcm.card
defaults.pcm.modem.device defaults.pcm.device
defaults.rawmidi.card 0
defaults.rawmidi.device 0
defaults.rawmidi.subdevice -1
defaults.hwdep.card 0
defaults.hwdep.device 0
defaults.timer.class 2
defaults.timer.sclass 0
defaults.timer.card 0
defaults.timer.device 0
defaults.timer.subdevice 0
defaults.namehint.showall off
defaults.namehint.basic on
defaults.namehint.extended off

~$ cat /proc/interrupts
           CPU0 CPU1
  0: 892203 129 IO-APIC-edge timer
  1: 2311 0 IO-APIC-edge i8042
  8: 30 0 IO-APIC-edge rtc
  9: 21550 84 IO-APIC-fasteoi acpi
 12: 511870 197 IO-APIC-edge i8042
 14: 24620 0 IO-APIC-edge libata
 15: 0 0 IO-APIC-edge libata
 17: 351651 124 IO-APIC-fasteoi uhci_hcd:usb4, ipw3945, i915@pci:0000:00:02.0
 18: 10 0 IO-APIC-fasteoi uhci_hcd:usb1, ehci_hcd:usb5
 19: 22100 0 IO-APIC-fasteoi uhci_hcd:usb2, ahci
 20: 0 0 IO-APIC-fasteoi uhci_hcd:usb3
 21: 1120 0 IO-APIC-fasteoi ohci1394, eth0
 22: 0 0 IO-APIC-fasteoi sdhci:slot0
 23: 23260 0 IO-APIC-fasteoi HDA Intel
NMI: 0 0
LOC: 78900 670168
ERR: 1
MIS: 0

Revision history for this message
mr.goose (editor-garfnet) said :
#2

This is when you try to use it to record from the microphone - or for something like Skype, right? Seems I am having a similar problem.

I have Lenovo laptop 3000c200 c/w Intel High Definition Audio Controller [8086:27d8]

I got my soundcard working reasonably well with Feisty using a hack published elsewhere on the Ubuntu site. With Gutsy all seemed to be well. I did not need to do the hack. But then I tried using skype. It was then that we noticed the mic sound was distorted badly. Seems the input volume control is not the "mic" one as you would expect but one marked "digital". When you turn this up you can actually get sound but it sounds bloody awful!

Does adjusting the "digital" slider do anything for you Ash? I need to fix this microphone issue too because I use Skype all the time.

Best wishes, G.

Revision history for this message
Edward Dunagin (edunagin) said :
#3

Hi to all,

I have picked up ekiga which is the Ubuntu telephoney version. You can
get it with an apt-get..

On Nov 6, 2007 5:14 PM, mr.goose <email address hidden> wrote:
> Question #16469 on Ubuntu changed:
> https://answers.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+question/16469
>
> Status: Open => Answered
>
> mr.goose proposed the following answer:
> This is when you try to use it to record from the microphone - or for
> something like Skype, right? Seems I am having a similar problem.
>
> I have Lenovo laptop 3000c200 c/w Intel High Definition Audio
> Controller [8086:27d8]
>
> I got my soundcard working reasonably well with Feisty using a hack
> published elsewhere on the Ubuntu site. With Gutsy all seemed to be
> well. I did not need to do the hack. But then I tried using skype. It
> was then that we noticed the mic sound was distorted badly. Seems the
> input volume control is not the "mic" one as you would expect but one
> marked "digital". When you turn this up you can actually get sound but
> it sounds bloody awful!
>
> Does adjusting the "digital" slider do anything for you Ash? I need to
> fix this microphone issue too because I use Skype all the time.
>
> Best wishes, G.
>
> --
> You received this question notification because you are an answer
> contact for Ubuntu.
>

--
Edward Dunagin-Dunigan-Dunnigan
4646 Glenwood Drive
Bozeman, MT 59718
mobile 406-570-0992
Landline 406-556-7282
http://doas.montanalinux.org

Revision history for this message
vnieto (vnieto) said :
#4

I Have the same problem, Work plugger mic, but the incorporate don't work

Revision history for this message
Shang Wu (shangwu) said :
#5

in the /etc/modprobe.d/alsa-base

add the new line

option snd-hda-intel model=auto

reboot and test it again.

Revision history for this message
Edward Dunagin (edunagin) said :
#6

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Revision history for this message
Edward Dunagin (edunagin) said :
#7

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