Comment 24 for bug 1315911

Fixed it using this bug report: #1331915 https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/linux/+bug/1331915.

Basically:
1) Make sure there are no alsa daily builds installed on that laptop, including any oem-audio daily build packages.
2) modify the alsa-base.conf file (edit /etc/modprobe.d/alsa-base.conf and add the line
“options snd-hda-intel model=,dell-headset-multi”), careful at the comma "," before dell
3) reboot
4) Plug in your headeset
5) you'll get the pop-up dialog confirming what you just plugged in.
6) Select headset

Quote about the comma: "That should get the mic going for you on that machine. David told me that the comma is needed because HDMI audio became the first sound card in the case of this laptop."

The hdajackretask software is a nice get-out-of-jail card, but couldn't figure out the correct pin assignments myself (or maybe some more settings were needed to get it working equivalently with the above alsa setting).

Thank you for your time. On to solve the acpi setting for getting the brightness keys to work :)