Internal microphone not working with certain programs

[David O'C]

Binary package hint: pulseaudio

I am running Ubuntu 9.10 on my Acer Aspire One A150L and I find that in some programs, the internal microphone won't record/output anything due to a problem with pulseaudio. I've tried the following programs to see whether the microphone works or not:

Sound Recorder -- records clearly
Sound Preferences, Input tab -- volume meter shows little to no response (Only responds slightly to extemely loud sounds and only when is amplified to max [which I think is 400%])
Pulseaudio Volume Meter (Recording) -- responds correctly (On eee 1005ha - alot of background noise so the meter jumps up and down, but seems to pick up louder sounds)
Pulseaudio Volume Control, Input Devices and Recording tabs -- volume meter shows little to no response, only get a response when I tap the microphone sharply
Skype 2.1 beta -- Does not recieve any microphone input on internal microphone.
arecord -- volume meter responds

I've made sure to keep the recording volume to 100 before testing these programs. This bug is non-existent in Ubuntu 9.04.
(Exists in Karmic/9.10)

Bug also existant on Eee 1005ha - most likely is a problem on all or most Intel HDA devices with internal microphones.

ProblemType: Bug
AplayDevices:
 **** List of PLAYBACK Hardware Devices ****
 card 0: Intel [HDA Intel], device 0: ALC268 Analog [ALC268 Analog]
   Subdevices: 1/1
   Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
Architecture: i386
ArecordDevices:
 **** List of CAPTURE Hardware Devices ****
 card 0: Intel [HDA Intel], device 0: ALC268 Analog [ALC268 Analog]
   Subdevices: 1/1
   Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
AudioDevicesInUse:
 USER PID ACCESS COMMAND
 /dev/snd/controlC0: davidoc 1489 F.... pulseaudio
Card0.Amixer.info:
 Card hw:0 'Intel'/'HDA Intel at 0x38540000 irq 29'
   Mixer name : 'Realtek ALC268'
   Components : 'HDA:10ec0268,1025015b,00100101'
   Controls : 8
   Simple ctrls : 5
Date: Fri Oct 9 15:15:24 2009
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 9.10
Package: pulseaudio 1:0.9.18-0ubuntu3
ProcEnviron:
 LANG=en_IE.UTF-8
 SHELL=/bin/bash
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 2.6.31-12.41-generic
SourcePackage: pulseaudio
Tags: ubuntu-unr
Uname: Linux 2.6.31-12-generic i686

[Raúl de Pablos Martín (raulmerlin)]

I'm working with an Aspire One D250 and I have the exactly same problem

[Denis.K (dkorkut)]

This also occurs with the Eee 1005ha, im pretty sure it also has an Intel HDA for the audio as well.

Internal mic works with sound recorder, although it is very noisy and picks up alot of background noise instead of voices.

The problem is solved by using ALSA, but it causes problems, like for example on my eee 1005, it creates a static sound which does not go away unless you mute the output. In skype it can be solved by using the command < /bin/sh -c "PULSE_SERVER=127.0.0.1 skype" >, but sometimes causes the static sound to appear.

This bug is LONG over due in being fixed, and is in my honest opinion, a HUGE bug, since programs like skype do not work. Many people rely on skype or other programs to call overseas, as well as family and friends, and since audio does not work, it is a major drawback for ubuntu.

A non-working internal mic will make ALOT of laptop users not use ubuntu. This MUST be fixed for lucid, especially since its an LTS release - _everything_ should be expected to work, other than relatively new systems.

[Daniel T Chen (crimsun)]

On Mon, Dec 14, 2009 at 7:30 PM, Denis.K <email address hidden> wrote:
> A non-working internal mic will make ALOT of laptop users not use
> ubuntu. This MUST be fixed for lucid, especially since its an LTS
> release - _everything_ should be expected to work, other than relatively
> new systems.

We'll be making this somewhat easier with builds (in a PPA) of daily
alsa-driver stable spins. Daily PA spins don't really make much sense.

[Denis.K (dkorkut)]

But is it really an ALSA problem? The mic works fine with ALSA, but it doesn't when PA is supposed to use the mic.

I just really hope this gets fixed for 10.04 because it seems like it isn't terribly hard to fix, since it's already half-working (with alsa but not PA), I wish I knew more to help, but unfortunately I don't..

[Daniel T Chen (crimsun)]

On Mon, Dec 14, 2009 at 8:05 PM, Denis.K <email address hidden> wrote:
> But is it really an ALSA problem? The mic works fine with ALSA, but it
> doesn't when PA is supposed to use the mic.

Are you using PA 0.9.21 [from the ubuntu-audio-dev PPA]?

[Denis.K (dkorkut)]

No, you think that would help?

[Quespan (eric-guilloux)]

It seems I have a similar problem.

I've got an acer aspireOne AOA150 with realteck ALC268 chipset. I was using Ubuntu 9.10 and after a standard update around March 3rd 2010, my front microphone stop working. First I tried every tip I found by googleing but none of them has worked. So I decided to take my chance and upgrading to Lucid but with the same result. After a week of tries It seems that it is more a problem of alsa than a pulseaudio problem. Indeed I can't record anything with any app. And after trying model=acer-one, model=3stack ... and every config for the ALC268 chipset I'm still not able to record anything.

It seems that the acer-one config is not recongnize anymore because the front mic in Alsamixer does not appear anymore. Even if I use a config where I can choose between internal or external recording I can only record some pulsing noise.

Well I'm not sure what you need to help to solve the trouble. But I would try to help you ! just note that I'm not a power user of ubuntu and I'm not sure to have enough knowledge to give you what you need.

anyway thx

[Denis.K (dkorkut)]

Worst case scenario (for when Lucid is released), you'd have to go buy a mic. I bought a small $3 one off ebay and it works fine :P

[Quespan (eric-guilloux)]

As I don't have an external mic I can't confirm you if and external mic would work or not with Lucid but I doubt of it. I advice you stay away from Lucid for now.

Anyway it seems that the same kind of trouble has afflected my other laptop an XPS 1330 at the early state of lucid and it seems to have been fixed. So I don't really see why it could'nt be fixed for the realtek 268 as well. If it have worked fine before on karmic it should be working on lucid as well.

I have read elsewhere that some people have the same kind of trouble on debian release too since Kernel 2.6.29

[Philippe Nicolai-Dashwood (philippe-nicolai)]

Architecture: i386
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 9.10
Package: gnome-power-manager 2.28.1-0ubuntu1.3
PackageArchitecture: i386
ProcEnviron:
 SHELL=/bin/bash
 LANG=en_GB.UTF-8
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 2.6.31-20.58-generic
Tags: ubuntu-unr
Uname: Linux 2.6.31-20-generic i686
UserGroups: adm admin cdrom dialout lpadmin plugdev sambashare

[Philippe Nicolai-Dashwood (philippe-nicolai)]

AplayDevices:
 **** List of PLAYBACK Hardware Devices ****
 card 0: Intel [HDA Intel], device 0: ALC268 Analog [ALC268 Analog]
   Subdevices: 1/1
   Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
Architecture: i386
ArecordDevices:
 **** List of CAPTURE Hardware Devices ****
 card 0: Intel [HDA Intel], device 0: ALC268 Analog [ALC268 Analog]
   Subdevices: 1/1
   Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
AudioDevicesInUse:
 USER PID ACCESS COMMAND
 /dev/snd/controlC0: philippe 1979 F.... pulseaudio
Card0.Amixer.info:
 Card hw:0 'Intel'/'HDA Intel at 0x78540000 irq 16'
   Mixer name : 'Realtek ALC268'
   Components : 'HDA:10ec0268,1025015b,00100101'
   Controls : 9
   Simple ctrls : 6
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 9.10
Package: pulseaudio 1:0.9.20-0ubuntu1
PackageArchitecture: i386
ProcEnviron:
 SHELL=/bin/bash
 LANG=en_GB.UTF-8
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 2.6.31-20.58-generic
Tags: ubuntu-unr
Uname: Linux 2.6.31-20-generic i686
UserGroups: adm admin cdrom dialout lpadmin plugdev sambashare

[Fabián Rodríguez (magicfab)]

Using Lucid with a ALC268 chipset sound works, however the internal microphone does not. I've logged a new bug for that:
Bug #555978

[Piers Titus van der Torren (ptt)]

I have exactly the same problem on an Acer Aspire 1810TZ, using Lucid. The internal microphone has very little response in Skype and in the volume meters of Sound preferences and Pulseaudio volume meter (recording). When an external mic is plugged in everything is working OK.

aplay -l
**** List of PLAYBACK Hardware Devices ****
card 0: Intel [HDA Intel], device 0: ALC269 Analog [ALC269 Analog]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 0: Intel [HDA Intel], device 1: ALC269 Digital [ALC269 Digital]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 0: Intel [HDA Intel], device 3: INTEL HDMI [INTEL HDMI]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
arecord -l
**** List of CAPTURE Hardware Devices ****
card 0: Intel [HDA Intel], device 0: ALC269 Analog [ALC269 Analog]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0

[Hassan (hsn-zamani)]

Same problem with acer 3810T on Lucid,
I can use internal mic with sound-recorder but not in empathy.
I found that if changing hardware profile in sound preferences to "Analog Stereo Input" it works even in empathy but then there is no out put device!

[Hassan (hsn-zamani)]

sorry for my bad English!

[Floop (floop)]

The same problem with my Dell XPS m1530. Uninstalling Pulseaudio makes Alsamixer show it's <Digital> volume bar at <Capture> settings and microphone is working properly. I tried Ubuntu 10.04 and Kubuntu 10.10. Both suffer from this problem.

[Ben Robinson (brobinson-trg)]

I just installed Ubuntu 10.10 Maverick Meerkat on my Gateway KAV60 (essentially an acer D250) and am having the exact same problem. The internal microphone does not seem to work. I noticed this using skype.

[Ben Robinson (brobinson-trg)]

I found the below solution (at least to my Skype problem) on another forum. It allowed the internal mic work for me. Why PA is having this issue I have no idea. Definitely still a set of bugs that could use some attention. Hope this works for everyone as well as it has so far for me.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

1. Install the package 'pavucontrol' using Synaptic Package Manager, or by
Code:

sudo apt-get install pavucontrol

2. Find 'PulseAudio Volume Control' on the 'Sound & video' applications menu, and start it.
3. Click on the 'input devices' tab.
4. Click on the padlock icon to uncouple the sliders for 'Internal Audio Analog Stereo'.
5. Move one of the sliders all the way to the left, and one all the way to the right. (I minimised the Front Left slider, and maximised the Front Right.)
6. Close the control and that's it!

The padlock icon gets reset every time you start pavucontrol, but the sliders stay as set unless you touch them again so that's all right.

[Marcus (marcus-liljedahl)]

This workaround is great and it works for me too. I have an acer 4810t. Im using alsamixer to do the same thing.

The input level from the microphone is fine with this workaround but I get some bad noise which I didn't get when I was using "PULSE_SERVER=..." workaround in skype.

Anyone facing the same problem?

[madbiologist (me-again)]

Floop - as you have non-Acer hardware, you should file a separate bug.

[João Miguel Lopes Moreira (jmlm-1970)]

The only solution to make microphone work is to install linux-backports-modules-alsa-generic...

Just go to:

Menu / System / Administration / Synaptic Package Manager

And search and mark for installation:

linux-backports-modules-alsa-generic

tip: if you have multiple versions click on the first and read the description which should inform what name to install...

If after the reboot and mic mute is off, still does not work, just go to terminal and type:

sudo nano /etc/modprobe.d/alsa-base.conf

and add or change the following:

options snd-hda-intel model=auto enable=yes

Then Ctrl+X, type Y to write and exit, reboot and mic will work.

Bye and have lots of fun with Ubuntu (the best).

[dino99 (9d9)]

That version is no more supported