[Acer Aspire 8943G] Internal Microphone not work

[dreKion]

Hi, the internal microphone on my Acer Aspire 8943G does not work.

I've tried to unmute the microphone input.

I recently installed "alsa-hda-diwic-acer-8943g-dkms_1.0.23.diwic_all.deb" to solve the problem of disabling the subwoofer when connecting the headphones. But the microphone still does not work (before installing this did not work).

My chip is: ALC670

[Lukáš Chmela (lukaschmela)]

I can confirm that the internal microphone doesn't work.
I have Acer Aspire 8943G as well.

I have also tried the package linux-alsa-driver-modules-2.6.38-8-generic version 2.6.38-8.201105230750 from Ubuntu Audio Dev PPA and a bunch of "model" options for snd-hda-intel in /etc/modprobe.d/alsa-base.conf (among others to get the 5.1 surround built-in speakers to work - Ubuntu only recognizes them as 4.0 and the center speaker and subwoofer are not functional at all then) but with absolutely no result.

As dreKion wrote, the chip is ALC670.
I am using Ubuntu natty.

If you need any additional info, please let me know.
Thanks.

[dreKion (drekion)]

You can try the record of Ubuntu (works for me), in Skype not work the microphone you can try this (works fine for me)

sudo apt-get install paman padevchooser paprefs pavucontrol pavumeter

In pavucontrol unmute microphone and try.

I try this in Ubuntu 10.10, maybe in 11.04 works

[Lukáš Chmela (lukaschmela)]

Wow, you're right - the Ubuntu sound recorder really DOES work with the microphone.
However, it seems to be the only program that is able to record sound using the internal microphone.

I have previously tried to install only the pavucontrol package, as it is not dependent on the others, but the internal microphone input was already unmuted and set to 100%, however, the status bar didn't react at any noise at all - just as in the Ubuntu sound settings manager.

I tried then to install the other packages you mentioned above but with no difference. I also tried pavucontrol again after reboot but it still didn't help in any way. For me, the microphone doesn't work in the Ubuntu sound settings manager nor in Skype (where I originally discovered this issue). Does it work in Ubuntu Maverick?

By the way, is the 5.1 surround sound functional on your laptop? On mine it isn't - I am only able to get it working as 4.0 (the two stereo speakers - front left and right - and rear left and right speakers in the bottom of the laptop), the center speaker nor the subwoofer doesn't make any sound (except configuring it in sound settings in Ubuntu which shows Analog Surround 4.0 Output you can try "speaker-test -Dplug:surround51 -c6 -l1 -twav"). I have already filled in a bug report yesterday - see bug #802660

And thanks for reply

[dreKion (drekion)]

Hello, in Ubuntu 10.10 pavucontrol solve the microphone problem (works for me when I had installed)

I can't try the 5.1 in Ubuntu 11.04 because now I'm using openSuse 11.4 (In Ubuntu 11.04 the laptop is very hot, more 100ºC and it shutdown (maybe kernel?)... go back to Ubuntu when 11.10 will be aviable)

In openSuse I have the same problem with 5.1, I only have 4.0 :(

Is your laptop very hot with ubuntu 11.04???

[Lukáš Chmela (lukaschmela)]

Hello! :-) It's great to hear a person with exactly the same laptop and problems as I have.

It is strange that pavucontrol solved the problem in Ubuntu 10.10 and is not able to do it again in 11.04. I will probably digg a little bit more around it to try to get it fixed.

Regarding your temperature problem, I have never had such a problem with this laptop (or any other computer with Ubuntu installed) yet. However, I bought that laptop last Wednesday, so I don't own it even a week and during the installation it was connected to the Internet so it downloaded the most recent packages available. I searched on packages.ubuntu.com, read Ubuntu changelog for the kernel package and I have discovered that the kernel package has been updated several times in the Ubuntu 11.04 repository so if you had a problem with overheating in the past that could really be caused by the kernel, it is probably already fixed. I am not able to find the actual temperature of the processor in Ubuntu (I tried hardinfo but it doesn't show any temperature sensor) but using "aticonfig --odgt" I can show at least the temperature of the graphics card - and it is pretty low, right now when I have pidgin, evolution, firefox with many tabs and synaptic opened, it shows 45°C and the fan is almost inaudible. With a fulHD game it is still about 55°C.

Also, as I hated the Unity interface on my 17" workstation with 1280x1024 resolution and changed it after a few minutes to classic GNOME interface, I got used to it on the laptop's fullHD screen and now I can clearly say that I love the Unity interface that is really a time-saver, that is simple and that uses the Win logo button in the best way :-)

The only other problem except the audio that I have discovered regards the graphics. When I start a full screen game (full screen totem player and other normal programs work fine) it freezes the laptop and I have to restart it by keeping the power button pressed for a while and then turn it on again. A strange thing happens also with the hibernation to RAM (or maybe it concerns also hibernation to HDD, I haven't tired it yet) just by simply closing the laptop. According to the system log, it seems like the X server crashes and fglrx then crashes too I think (or in reverse order) - after opening the laptop again, I see the login screen as if I have just turned it on, so I log in and I am not able to use the Internet connection (neither wireless nor by a cable) and possibly a few other things. Also, the fglrx driver is not able to change the screen's brightness for some reason. I am using Catalyst 11.6 now, downgrading to 11.5 or the version from Ubuntu 11.04 repository didn't work, Catalyst 11.4 from AMD sites wasn't even installable.

Sorry for so long off thread message.

[Lukáš Chmela (lukaschmela)]

Well, I have tried the pavucontrol from Ubuntu 10.10 repository but there was no difference. The internal microphone is unmuted, volume set to 100% and audio meters shake a little at the beginning of the meters and do not react on outer noise.

Hopefully somebody will fix that soon.

[Lukáš Chmela (lukaschmela)]

I have searched on the net and found this post on Ubuntuforums:
http://ubuntuforums.org/showpost.php?p=10910372&postcount=3

Disabling the second channel of the internal microphone in pavucontrol really made it working. With turning the volume of the "muted" channel more and more close to the other, the audio meter shows less and less signal. It just seems interesting to me.. it surely isn't the right behavior as the laptop has an internal stereo microphone.

Regarding the 5.1 surround sound, I was not able to fix that. I already edited the file /etc/pulse/daemon.conf like in the howto that I have found in the past by adding an uncommented line "default-sample-channels = 6" - didn't help.

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

Status changed to 'Confirmed' because the bug affects multiple users.

[penalvch (penalvch)]

dreKion, this bug was reported a while ago and there hasn't been any activity in it recently. We were wondering if this is still an issue? If so, could you please test for this with the latest development release of Ubuntu? ISO images are available from http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/daily-live/current/ .

If it remains an issue, could you please run the following command in the development release from a Terminal (Applications->Accessories->Terminal), as it will automatically gather and attach updated debug information to this report:

apport-collect -p linux <replace-with-bug-number>

Also, could you please test the latest upstream kernel available (not the daily folder) following https://wiki.ubuntu.com/KernelMainlineBuilds ? It will allow additional upstream developers to examine the issue. Once you've tested the upstream kernel, please comment on which kernel version specifically you tested. If this bug is fixed in the mainline kernel, please add the following tags:
kernel-fixed-upstream
kernel-fixed-upstream-VERSION-NUMBER

where VERSION-NUMBER is the version number of the kernel you tested. For example:
kernel-fixed-upstream-v3.12

This can be done by clicking on the yellow circle with a black pencil icon next to the word Tags located at the bottom of the bug description. As well, please remove the tag:
needs-upstream-testing

If the mainline kernel does not fix this bug, please add the following tags:
kernel-bug-exists-upstream
kernel-bug-exists-upstream-VERSION-NUMBER

As well, please remove the tag:
needs-upstream-testing

Once testing of the upstream kernel is complete, please mark this bug's Status as Confirmed. Please let us know your results. Thank you for your understanding.

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

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