[Feisty] Microphone not working

[Jean-Christophe Baptiste]

With Edgy, it did not work so well : it happened that the microphone muted by itself, but at least I could get it working sometimes.

With Feisty, nothing works.
It sounds like my microphone is not recognized anymore.
For instance, I open the sound-recorder program, start record but when it comes to play nothing happens : not sound was caught.

I downloaded the sources of Alsa and compiled it. It did not change anything.
I also tried many of the tricks that one can find about microphone related issues. None worked for me.

My hardware is a laptop chipset :
00:1b.0 Audio device: Intel Corporation 82801FB/FBM/FR/FW/FRW (ICH6 Family) High Definition Audio Controller (rev 03)

Thanks in advance for your help, because it is quite annoying not to be able to give a call.

JC

[dean (dean-oliver)]

We are testing this on Dell XPS410 and also dimension e520, this was working in beta feisty 7.04 but has stopped working since gold.

[Daniel T Chen (crimsun)]

Please read http://www.linux-sound.info/alsa/index.php?task=support and tell me the URL of the paste generated by the script linked from that page.

[dean (dean-oliver)]

http://pastebin.ca/458529

[John A. Hull (john-hull)]

The XPS 410 and E520 are essentially the same system, so this issue affects both.

Front and rear mics are not working in ubuntu gold 7.04 desktop. (2.6.20-15). Front speaker also not working, but rear is ok.

Both mics and speakers connection were working correctly in 7.04 beta with the 2.6.20-12 kernel.

Found this patch from late March specific to the E520: http://git.kernel.org/?p=linux/kernel/git/bcollins/ubuntu-feisty.git;a=commitdiff;h=de4755b3b5e905194d9a9d06eb86a9200c28c864

Not sure why it was added, but this could be what is causing the problem. Was there a specific reason this quirk was added to the tree for this system?

[Daniel T Chen (crimsun)]

The person referred to in the commit verified it worked (mics and speakers were tested). Does reverting that changeset restore the previous behavior from 7.04 Beta?

[dean (dean-oliver)]

this issue is essentially closed from our end.. we were testing here on older platforms of xps410 and e520, along with invalid config of sound system.. We have retesrted on 2 new platforms of e520 and 2 new platforms of xps410 and this sound problem is not an issue..
additional sound config notes:

1) e520 -- once install sound works on both front and back speaker ports.
a) open the alsa-mixer gui and then edit-->preferences..
b) added capture, input source.
c) Enable mic on capture and bring up volume.
d) check input source for corresponding "mic" or "front mic".
e) open applications-->sound & video-->sound recorder...
f) record and "save as" an ogg file, then play it back.

2)xps410 -- once install sound works on both front and back speaker ports.
a) open the alsa-mixer gui and then edit-->preferences..
b) add adcmux, invol, inmux, input source, front
c) in recording tab enable mic and vols on inmux and invol.
d) in switches tab enable adcmux
e) in options tab choose corresponding "mic" or "front mic"
f) open applications-->sound & video-->sound recorder...
g) record and "save as" an ogg file, then play it back.

[Daniel T Chen (crimsun)]

Thanks for the feedback.

[Jean-Christophe Baptiste (jc-baptiste)]

Rejected ? What has been done ? It still does not work for me and no workaround helped.

[Andrew Ash (ash211)]

Sorry JCB, I think Daniel thought that the information that dean provided - https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/alsa-driver/+bug/108563/comments/6 - was verbose enough for you to get this figured out.

Please test exactly what he said there and let us know if it works correctly or not. Thanks

[Jean-Christophe Baptiste (jc-baptiste)]

No luck, it does not work.

As in my description, I already tried all the workarounds from the forums and even recompiled Alsa.

I think I am not alone in that situation... I believe that it is related to the latest kernel...

[Daniel T Chen (crimsun)]

JCB, we're missing your alsa-info.sh output. Without it, we can't proceed. Had you answered earlier, we would have moved faster.

[Kurt Huwig (k-huwig)]

Bug #110599 seems related; I added there how I got it working on my machine.

[Nicola Ferralis (feranick)]

I am not sure if it is related. I am running feisty on a Dell Latitude D620 with the intel HD sound card. The internal and external mics work only after a fresh boot. When resuming from suspend any application that requires input from the microphone hangs badly. I can provide more info if necessary.

[NewNerd (abhilash-miranda)]

I have a Compaq nc6320 and I have the same problem described by feranick viz. sound capture works after a fresh boot. The moment I touch any of the sound settings, the microphone does not work anymore.
In addition, I have the problem described in
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/sound-recorder/+bug/119274

"ubuntu microphone problem" generates a million google hits ... long live ubuntu.

[Schmirrwurst (schmirrwurst)]

After searching some hours on the net, I find out the solution somewhere, you have only to unmute the mic booster, in alsamixer :
open a terminal,
type alsamixer or sudo alsomixer (if your not root)
and then go to "mic boos" and type "m" to unmute it : "00" should appear if it is unmuted
the press escape, and it should work better !!

I don't know why it is unmuted by default, I hope it will be in next version ! I found a lot of people wondering about that on the net, and only few sites giving the solution !

Good luck

[NewNerd (abhilash-miranda)]

I checked the solution from Schmirrwurst, the problem of no sound capture persists even after "mic boos" has been unmuted.
On another observed phenomenon:I have noticed that the "capture" falls back from any high value to 1.5dB upon a sound capture process. For ex: I tested with Skype Test Call and everything is fine till the moment the recording begins upon which the capture falls back to 1.5dB. It goes back to whatever value it was originally once the recording time has elapsed. Is this normal?
I still have the problem of the shivering volume control with a tooltip saying "Microphone 100%". Check my post above.
Thanks for the active discussion, it really helps.

[JonPayne (jppaynesr-deactivatedaccount)]

Brand new Dell Inspiron E1505 with preloaded Ubuntu Feisty. Internal Microphone does not work. $ alsamixer shows no adjustable scale for input source MIC. It's as if it does not exist.
http://pastebin.ca/586779
Any ideas?

[JonPayne (jppaynesr-deactivatedaccount)]

oops, This pastebin might be more helpful
http://pastebin.ca/586802

[Daniel T Chen (crimsun)]

alsa-driver (1.0.14-1ubuntu1) gutsy; urgency=low

  * Merge from Debian unstable, remaining changes:
    - debian/alsa-base.modprobe: Load snd-seq,
    - debian/alsa-base.postinst: Forcibly remove /etc/modprobe.d/sound
      on dist-upgrade,
    - debian/control: Don't Depend on modutils, and adhere to
      DebianMaintainerField,
    - debian/linux-sound-base.dirs: Don't create modutils or discover,
    - debian/rules: Enable MPU for snd-cmipci,
    - Only ship modprobe configuration,
    - Remove default mode,
    - Invoke modprobe with -Qb and command line options,
    - Remove modprobe post-install script in favour of using udev,
    - Continue to ship the initscript in the apm scripts dir.
  * New upstream version closes LP: #45841, LP: #51357, LP: #57294,
    LP: #59569, LP: #63971, LP: #66843, LP: #68930, LP: #75725,
    LP: #77024, LP: #77099, LP: #77101, LP: #83015, LP: #87195,
    LP: #88546, LP: #88570, LP: #90417, LP: #91721, LP: #92307,
    LP: #92358, LP: #95597, LP: #108563, LP: #110599, LP: #115186,
    LP: #118173, LP: #119086.

alsa-driver (1.0.14-1) unstable; urgency=low

  * New upstream release. (closes: #391991, #401074, #421853)

  [ Jordi Mallach ]
  * debian/control: add XS-Vcs-Browser and XS-Vcs-Svn headers.

  [ Elimar Riesebieter ]

  * Patch management switched to quilt. This is more comfortable.
  * Updated alsa-drivers debconf templates.
    Thanks, debian-l10n-english contributors (closes: #425208).
  * Updated alsa-drivers debconf translations:
    Galician: Jacobo Tarrio (closes: #425804).
    Japanese: Kenshi Muto (closes: #426007).
    Portuguese: Traduz (closes: #426111).
    Malayalam: Praveen A (closes: #426241).
    German: Helge Kreutzmann (closes: #426375).
    Czech: Miroslav Kure (closes: #426427).
    Vietnamese: Clytie Siddall (closes: #427148).
    Dutch: Bart Cornelis (closes: #428032).
    Russian: Yuri Kozlov (closes: #428136).
    Spanish: Carlos Galisteo de Cabo (closes: #428572)
    Swedish: Daniel Nylander (closes: #426202)
    Catalan: Jordi Mallach (closes: #428224)
  * Added alsa-drivers debconf templates translations:
    Basque: Piarres Beobide (closes: #425810).
    Bulgarian: Damyan Ivanov (closes: #425854).
    Tamil: Tirumurti Vasudevan (closes: #426081).
    Italian: Luca Monducci (closes: #426152).
    Korean: Sunjae Park (closes: #426618).
    Arabic: Ossama Khayat (closes: #428264)

alsa-driver (1.0.14~rc4-1) experimental; urgency=low

  [ Elimar Riesebieter ]
  * New upstream release candidate.
  * Added Malayalam translation. Thanks Santhosh Thottingal. (closes: #419524)

alsa-driver (1.0.14~rc3-1) experimental; urgency=low

  [ Elimar Riesebieter ]
  * New upstream release candidate
  * Merged etch changes

alsa-driver (1.0.14~rc1-1) experimental; urgency=low

  [ Elimar Riesebieter ]
  * New upstream release candidate
  * Removed debian/patches/98_ens1371_inaudible_sound_def.dpatch. Applied
    different from upstream

alsa-driver (1.0.13-5) unstable; urgency=medium

  [ Elimar Riesebieter ]
  * Added snd-seq-midi as an optional load above generic modules (snd-rawmidi)
    Thanks Eduard Dumitrescu for testing. (closes: #408036)
  * Added "cx88_alsa (PCI: TV cards...." to d...

[Rene Hasekamp (hasekamp)]

There is no bug here. The solution seems simple to me:

Both e-mike and i-mike are muted in Ubuntu 9.04 by default:
Click on the loudspeaker icon near the clock, choose "volume control" and see if the mikes are muted (little red cross over them). Click on the crossed mikes and they will work. (i-mike is the internalone, e-mike is the external one). That's it!

[Timothy R. Chavez (timrchavez)]

The bug task for the somerville project has been removed by an automated script. This bug has been cloned on that project and is available here: https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/1305750