Choppy and jerky recorded sound with snd-hda-intel

[Benjamin Delagoutte]

On a Lenovo Thinkpad X60, the microphone sound captured within Ekiga is jerky and choppy, unless we reload sound module snd-hda-intel.

Step to reproduce :
Normally boot the laptop,
Launch ekiga and go through the assistant, and do the audio test
--> ekiga records mic input and plays it with a 3-second delay
--> the sound should be *choppy*
Quit ekiga and quit all applications using sound (including gnome-mixer)
$ sudo modprobe -r snd-hda-intel
$ sudo modprobe snd-hda-intel
Launch ekiga and go through the assistant, and do the audio test
--> the sound should be *clear*

Conditions :
Brand new edgy installation.
ESD disabled.

[Brian Murray (brian-murray)]

Thank you for taking the time to report this bug and helping to make Ubuntu better. We are currently reviewing bug reports regarding older kernel versions. After review we feel this bug does not meet the criteria for a stable release update and are setting this bug's status to "Won't Fix". For more information regarding stable release updates, please refer to https://wiki.ubuntu.com/StableReleaseUpdates .

However, now that the 7.10, codename Gutsy Gibbon, release of Ubuntu is out, we were wondering if you can still reproduce this issue. Could you please download and try the new version of Ubuntu from http://www.ubuntu.com/getubuntu/download and report back your results? If the issue is still present in the new release, please attach the output from the following commands:

* uname -a > uname-a.log
* cat /proc/version_signature > version.log
* after a fresh boot execute - dmesg > dmesg.log
* sudo lspci -vvnn > lspci-vvnn.log

Please be sure to attach each file as a separate attachment. For more information regarding the kernel team bug policy, please refer to https://wiki.ubuntu.com/KernelTeamBugPolicies . I have subscribed to the bug report and if you do recreate the bug please set the bug's status to Incomplete so we can proceed with the triaging process. Thanks again and we appreciate your help and feedback.

[sibidiba (sibidiba)]

reopening: the name and description still fits, probably the same issue

[sibidiba (sibidiba)]

On Lenovo Thinkpad R61i (Conexant CX20549 (Venice)), running Hardy (8.04) sound input does not work at all.

Using any microphone there is a _huge_ noise in the background, and the sound is extremely choppy and jerky.

It is impossible to use VoIP!

$ uname -a
Linux Kamorka 2.6.24-19-generic #1 SMP Fri Jul 11 23:41:49 UTC 2008 i686 GNU/Linux

$ cat /proc/version_signature
Linux version 2.6.24-19-generic (buildd@terranova) (gcc version 4.2.3 (Ubuntu 4.2.3-2ubuntu7)) #1 SMP Fri Jul 11 23:41:49 UTC 2008

At some point using "HDA intel (hw:Intel,0)" instead of "Defailt device (default)" solved the problem for some programs (Skype, ekiga), but now I'm unable to reproduce any working configuration.

According to the kernel documentation (/usr/src/linux-source-2.6.24/Documentation/sound/alsa/ALSA-Configuration.txt) there is no specific model option for this chipset.

[sibidiba (sibidiba)]

As the internal microphone is also not working at all, at the current state sound input does not work at all.

[Daniel T Chen (crimsun)]

1) Please ensure you're using the latest hardy-proposed kernel.
2) Please run the alsa-info.sh script (see my profile) and attach output (contents or URL) here.

[sibidiba (sibidiba)]

Here is the output of alsa-info.sh:

http://www.alsa-project.org/db/?f=2fa082c485afdcefadcecbe179b0f199b7f3ce70

I would appreciate any help and would be glad to be able to help resolving this issue too. I can't use any sort of VoIP now.

[sibidiba (sibidiba)]

Please note, that I'm unable to reload snd_hda_intel ! Right from the beginning, snd_hda_intel is in use as reported by lsmod. (Even after killing sound daemons.) This way the recording sound is always unusable, I can't try the supposed fix.

[sibidiba (sibidiba)]

Finally I managed to reload the module, but no change: the recording sound is still extremely jerky.

[Skiold (skiold-nino)]

Look at this bug #188972 they have the same trouble.

[sibidiba (sibidiba)]

I will try to mark all problems related to sound input with snd-hda-intel as duplicate of this bug.

The suggested workaround in the bug found by Skiold (making at least the internal mic working) is maybe applyable for Dell (Vostro) laptops. But for example in my case, according to /usr/share/doc/alsa-base/driver/ALSA-Configuration.txt.gz there is even no option available for my chipset: CONEXANT Analog CX20549 (Venice).
(Nevertheless I tried some options like, laptop or lenovo, but without any effect).

[Tormod Volden (tormodvolden)]

Gabor, is it the right idea to mark any bug as duplicate? That would mean there is one fix that will solve all these bugs.

[Brian Murray (brian-murray)]

As I understand it sound hardware and bug reports are distinguished not only by the driver used but also the codec. That is why the alsa-info.sh script reports information in a sound codec section. Subsequently, any bug reports that were marked as a duplicate of this bug that do not use the exact same driver and codec should be unmarked as duplicates.

[jk (jens-kager)]

My observations with this module (as of Ubuntu 2.6.24-19.41-generic), maybe something of it is helpful:

   * Recording from an external microphone works ok, if I don't set the control "Digital" to a higher value than 84 (70%). Above it, there's only a sound like "tak-tak-tak-tak-tak..."
  * Recording from the internal microphone kind of works, but only very faint and noisy (though this may be a limitation of the microphone itself, since it depends at lot from the distance - volume is ok if I speak some centimeters away from the microphone, but from a normal working distance, about 50 cm away, it's very low). Also, if I set "Digital" to a value above 108 (90%) or "Capture,0" to more than 15 (48%), the "tak-tak-tak" noise described above appears.

Reloading the module changes nothing about that behavior.

I use the following amixer settings for more-or-less working microphone operation:

Internal:
amixer -q set "Capture,0" "15"
amixer -q set "Digital" "108"
amixer -q set "Input Source,0" "Front Mic"
amixer -q set "Input Source,1" "Mic"

External:
amixer -q set "Capture,0" "26"
amixer -q set "Digital" "84"
amixer -q set "Input Source,0" "Mic"
amixer -q set "Input Source,1" "Front Mic"

According to lspci, my audio device is.
00:1b.0 Audio device [0403]: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) HD Audio Controller [8086:284b] (rev 03)

[sibidiba (sibidiba)]

Brian, Tormod you are absolutely right.

I am going to restore this bug, and clear the duplicate entries if it is not the same issue for the same driver and codec.
I also reported my own problem as a separate bug #278648.

Moreover I have set up this wiki page to keep track of similar issues related to snd-hda-intel:

https://wiki.ubuntu.com/SndHdaIntelSoundProblems

I will try to list similar bugreporst there.

[EAB (adair-boder)]

I have the Thinkpad R61 with the exact same chipset and the exact same problems with the mic.
Will this be fixed anytime soon?

I really need the use of my mic!

[EAB (adair-boder)]

I would like to mention that I tried booting up with Ubuntu 8.10 to see if the issue was gone there and was disappointed to find it was worse than in Hardy.

Will this issue be fixed pretty soon? 'cause if not I will need to get a new laptop ... sigh.

[mogwai (scruffy-mogwai)]

I am running a Lenovo/IBM R61/R61i Laptop and am having trouble with Input as well.
Sound output works as it should, but I try plugging in my headset microphone and it (the mic) does not work.
I remember in a previous version (feisty or gutsy) I had to enable -backports and -proposed then installed -backports-modules, change the volume control to enable the mic boost option, and I was away laughing.
Problem is I cannot get the mic boost option, as I think this could be same as it was then.
Anyway, here is some info:

alsa-info: http://www.alsa-project.org/db/?f=fec11b379fc7501c4c72d3ec16a36b9eb90de5fe

[mogwai (scruffy-mogwai)]

And on Intrepid:
http://www.alsa-project.org/db/?f=2a75874374ce25150e854149c365bed9c20b1410

[mogwai (scruffy-mogwai)]

Need my head screwed on, or just another coffee.
Here are the logs as per instructions.

[mogwai (scruffy-mogwai)]

And for hardy.

[Mark Dickie (blaeberries)]

Macbook 2.1 no internal microphone

info at http://www.alsa-project.org/db/?f=d6bdaf87d19a357860d7952dd0d4175c71e8c4de

[Leann Ogasawara (leannogasawara)]

During the Intrepid development cycle the linux-ubuntu-modules package was merged with the linux kernel package. I'm moving this bug forward to target the linux kernel package. Thanks.

[mogwai (scruffy-mogwai)]

I have an Intel HDA (ICH8) CONEXANT Analog CX20549 (Venice), am on Intrepid (kernel 2.6.27.14), and this bug still continues to plague me. I still have no Microphone.

[penalvch (penalvch)]

Benjamin Delagoutte, thank you for reporting this and helping make Ubuntu. 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? Can you try with the latest development release of Ubuntu? ISO CD images are available from http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/releases/ .

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

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

Also, if you could test the latest upstream kernel available that would be great. It will allow additional upstream developers to examine the issue. Refer to https://wiki.ubuntu.com/KernelMainlineBuilds . Once you've tested the upstream kernel, please remove the 'needs-upstream-testing' tag. This can be done by clicking on the yellow pencil icon next to the tag located at the bottom of the bug description and deleting the 'needs-upstream-testing' text. Please let us know your results.

Thanks in advance.

[dino99 (9d9)]

This version has expired