Acer TravelMate 8371 internal microphone does not work

[Punkadiddle]

HDA Intel with Realtek ALC269

All sound options except for the internal microphone work.

I tried both "basic" and "auto" models for the HDA Intel configuration.
http://www.kernel.org/doc/Documentation/sound/alsa/HD-Audio-Models.txt

I used alsamixer to unmute and setup all audio controls.

ProblemType: Bug
Architecture: amd64
ArecordDevices:
 **** List of CAPTURE Hardware Devices ****
 card 0: Intel [HDA Intel], device 0: ALC269 Analog [ALC269 Analog]
   Subdevices: 0/1
   Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
AudioDevicesInUse:
 USER PID ACCESS COMMAND
 /dev/snd/controlC0: michael 2370 F.... pulseaudio
 /dev/snd/pcmC0D0c: michael 2370 F...m pulseaudio
Card0.Amixer.info:
 Card hw:0 'Intel'/'HDA Intel at 0xa4500000 irq 22'
   Mixer name : 'Intel G45 DEVCTG'
   Components : 'HDA:10ec0269,10250283,00100004 HDA:80862802,80860101,00100000'
   Controls : 24
   Simple ctrls : 14
CheckboxCommand: alsa_record_playback
CheckboxTest: alsa_record_playback_alternates
Date: Wed Oct 7 18:39:35 2009
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 9.10
Package: alsa-base 1.0.20+dfsg-1ubuntu4
PackageArchitecture: all
ProcEnviron:
 SHELL=/bin/bash
 LANG=de_DE.UTF-8
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 2.6.31-12.40-generic
SourcePackage: alsa-driver
Tags: checkbox-bug
Uname: Linux 2.6.31-12-generic x86_64

[Luke Yelavich (themuso)]

Try right clicking on the volume control applet, and going into the settings window. Then go to the hardware tab, and click the drop down box you see towards the bottom of the window. Make sure that you have a profile selected that includes input of some kind, usually analog output + analog input duplex. Once this has been selected, try using your mic again.

[Marc Rene Schädler (suaefar)]

Still doesn't work (on karmic 64bit). The "Analog Stereo Duplex" mode is selected by default.

[Punkadiddle (punkadiddle)]

I tried with an external microphone which did work on the same settings.

[Maverick (i-elenskiy)]

Confirmed. Found no way of bringing my internal mic to life on my fresh ubuntu 9.04 on tm8371 (no linux freak.. yet.. so no advanced infos for now :) )

[Maverick (i-elenskiy)]

he's not alone with the problem, so guess it's confirmed now.

[Björn Ruberg (bjoern-ruberg-wegener)]

Confirmed. Played around with the mixer controls. You can boost microphone loundness, but all you get recorded is garbish.

[Punkadiddle (punkadiddle)]

still not working in current lucid beta

[Tefnet Developers (developers-tefnet)]

... and still not working in current maverick beta

[Tefnet Developers (developers-tefnet)]

I found a solution/workaround on the Internet that nobody mentioned here, so I will share with you guys.

First make sure that you have selected "Analog Stereo Duplex" as Luke Yelavich stated above and then:
1. Install pavucontrol (apt-get install pavucontrol) if you don't have it already.
2. start pauvcontrol from console
3. Select tab "Input Devices"
4. Port: "Microphone 2"
5. Unmute (1st icon)
6. Set as fallback sink (3rd icon)
7. Unlock channels (2nd icon)
8. Set "Front Left" channel to 0% and "Front Right" channel to about ~80-90%

They also said that linux-backports-modules-alsa-(maverick/lucid/karmic)-generic should be installed, but I'm not sure if it is necessary.

[David Henningsson (diwic)]

Given the info from "Tefnet Developers", I think I might be able to have this working out-of-the-box. Is anyone with at TM 8371 still active and would be willing to test a fix for it, and if so, what release are you currently running?

[tschoie (tschoie)]

Hi,
I guess I could give it a shot. I do believe though, that my internal mic is broken beyond the problem reported in this bug, as I have tried the manual method described above and got some weird results: from time to time it seems to work, on other occasions any input is overlaid with a flat random noise of varying volume.
But if you do think it's worth a try, I'm running natty, 64-bit.
Cheers.

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

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