Xubuntu 15.10 low and poor sound on USB headset

[smartcatxxx]

Running Xubuntu 15.10 64 bits kernel 4.2.0-18 in Oracle Virtualbox 5.0.8. Using a Microsoft USB headset. Sound is very low and if I crank up the volume to the max is sort of audible but distorted and noisy. I have a 14.04 Xubuntu and a 15.04 Xubuntu instance on the same Virtualbox, using the same headset, and the sound is perfect. I also have an Arch instance with kernel 4.2.5-1 on the same Virtualbox and the sonud on that one is also good. This issue seems particular to Xubuntu 15.10.

I posted this on the forums about 3-4 weeks ago in the hope that someone may have figured a way to fix this. No answer yet.

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 15.10
Package: alsa-base 1.0.25+dfsg-0ubuntu5
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 4.2.0-18.22-generic 4.2.3
Uname: Linux 4.2.0-18-generic x86_64
ApportVersion: 2.19.1-0ubuntu5
Architecture: amd64
AudioDevicesInUse:
 USER PID ACCESS COMMAND
 /dev/snd/controlC0: cat 1274 F.... pulseaudio
CurrentDesktop: XFCE
Date: Fri Nov 27 07:27:39 2015
InstallationDate: Installed on 2015-10-31 (26 days ago)
InstallationMedia: Xubuntu 15.10 "Wily Werewolf" - Release amd64 (20151021)
PackageArchitecture: all
SourcePackage: alsa-driver
Symptom: audio
Title: USB sound card not detected
UpgradeStatus: No upgrade log present (probably fresh install)
dmi.bios.date: 12/01/2006
dmi.bios.vendor: innotek GmbH
dmi.bios.version: VirtualBox
dmi.board.name: VirtualBox
dmi.board.vendor: Oracle Corporation
dmi.board.version: 1.2
dmi.chassis.type: 1
dmi.chassis.vendor: Oracle Corporation
dmi.modalias: dmi:bvninnotekGmbH:bvrVirtualBox:bd12/01/2006:svninnotekGmbH:pnVirtualBox:pvr1.2:rvnOracleCorporation:rnVirtualBox:rvr1.2:cvnOracleCorporation:ct1:cvr:
dmi.product.name: VirtualBox
dmi.product.version: 1.2
dmi.sys.vendor: innotek GmbH

[Raymond (superquad-vortex2)]

It is a bug of virtual 5.0 which change the emulated ac97 codec from stac9200 to ad1980

https://www.virtualbox.org/report/27?sort=modified&asc=0&page=1

[smartcatxxx (smartcatxxx)]

I am running Xubuntu 14.04 and 15.04, as well as latest Arch on the same VirtualBox 5.0, and sound is good with all. Xubuntu 15.10 is the only one having the problem.

[Raymond (superquad-vortex2)]

Are you running linux host or windows host?

Your info only show the enumerated sound card inside virtualbox

[Raymond (superquad-vortex2)]

3168.666583] vboxguest: module verification failed: signature and/or required key missing - tainting kernel
[ 3168.671599] vgdrvHeartbeatInit: Setting up heartbeat to trigger every 2000 milliseconds
[ 3168.672097] input: Unspecified device as /devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:04.0/input/input7
[ 3168.673418] vboxguest: misc device minor 56, IRQ 20, I/O port d020, MMIO at 00000000f0400000 (size 0x400000)
[ 3168.673419] vboxguest: Successfully loaded version 5.0.10_Ubuntu (interface 0x00010004)
 [ 3168.689728] [drm] Initialized drm 1.1.0 20060810
[ 3168.694728] piix4_smbus 0000:00:07.0: SMBus base address uninitialized - upgrade BIOS or use force_addr=0xaddr
[ 3168.846991] [drm] Initialized vboxvideo 1.0.0 20090303 for 0000:00:02.0 on minor 0
[ 3168.903905] AVX version of gcm_enc/dec engaged.
[ 3168.903907] AES CTR mode by8 optimization enabled
[ 3169.198110] intel_rapl: no valid rapl domains found in package 0
[ 3169.332374] snd_intel8x0 0000:00:05.0: disable (unknown or VT-d) VM optimization
[ 3169.556116] Adding 975868k swap on /dev/sda1. Priority:-1 extents:1 across:975868k FS
[ 3169.621817] snd_intel8x0 0000:00:05.0: white list rate for 1028:0177 is 48000

[smartcatxxx (smartcatxxx)]

Apologies I should have provided that information right upfront. I am running Windows 8.1 64 bits as host (Intel i7 4 cores CPU, 16 GB RAM) and VirtualBox 5.0.10. I run on it a bunch of Linux guests. Microsoft USB headset.

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

[Expired for alsa-driver (Ubuntu) because there has been no activity for 60 days.]

[Edison Gustavo Muenz (edisongustavo)]

I can confirm this is happening to me too. However, I'm running a Linux host instead of Virtualbox

[smartcatxxx (smartcatxxx)]

Same problem using Xubuntu 16.04 64 bits beta 1, on VirtualBox.

[smartcatxxx (smartcatxxx)]

Same problem using Xubuntu 16.04 LTS on VIrtualBox.