Microphone does not work on Acer Aspire 5050

[Ramón Rocha]

While running through "System Testing", none of the microphone tests worked. When I hooked up a headset, I could hear sounds through the headphones but could not hear my voice played back after hitting the "Test" button.

ProblemType: Bug
Architecture: i386
AudioDevicesInUse:
 USER PID ACCESS COMMAND
 /dev/snd/controlC0: ramon 1468 F.... pulseaudio
 /dev/snd/pcmC0D0c: ramon 1468 F...m pulseaudio
Card0.Amixer.info:
 Card hw:0 'SB'/'HDA ATI SB at 0xc0000000 irq 16'
   Mixer name : 'Realtek ALC883'
   Components : 'HDA:14f12c06,1025010f,00100000 HDA:10ec0883,10250000,00100002'
   Controls : 28
   Simple ctrls : 16
CheckboxCommand: alsa_record_playback
CheckboxTest: alsa_record_playback_external
Date: Fri Oct 23 19:53:57 2009
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 9.10
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 9.10 "Karmic Koala" - Release Candidate i386 (20091020.3)
Package: alsa-base 1.0.20+dfsg-1ubuntu5
PackageArchitecture: all
ProcEnviron:
 SHELL=/bin/bash
 LANG=en_US.UTF-8
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 2.6.31-14.48-generic
SourcePackage: alsa-driver
Tags: checkbox-bug
Uname: Linux 2.6.31-14-generic i686
XsessionErrors:
 (gnome-settings-daemon:1517): GLib-CRITICAL **: g_propagate_error: assertion `src != NULL' failed
 (gnome-settings-daemon:1517): GLib-CRITICAL **: g_propagate_error: assertion `src != NULL' failed
 (nautilus:1625): Eel-CRITICAL **: eel_preferences_get_boolean: assertion `preferences_is_initialized ()' failed
 (polkit-gnome-authentication-agent-1:1654): GLib-CRITICAL **: g_once_init_leave: assertion `initialization_value != 0' failed
---
AlsaVersion: Advanced Linux Sound Architecture Driver Version 1.0.21.
Architecture: i386
AudioDevicesInUse:
 USER PID ACCESS COMMAND
 /dev/snd/controlC0: ramon 1167 F.... pulseaudio
Card0.Amixer.info:
 Card hw:0 'SB'/'HDA ATI SB at 0xc0000000 irq 16'
   Mixer name : 'Realtek ALC883'
   Components : 'HDA:14f12c06,1025010f,00100000 HDA:10ec0883,10250000,00100002'
   Controls : 29
   Simple ctrls : 17
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 10.04
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 10.04 "Lucid Lynx" - Alpha i386 (20100313.1)
Package: alsa-base 1.0.22.1+dfsg-0ubuntu3
PackageArchitecture: all
ProcEnviron:
 LANG=en_US.utf8
 SHELL=/bin/bash
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 2.6.32-18.27-generic 2.6.32.10+drm33.1
Tags: lucid
Uname: Linux 2.6.32-18-generic i686
UserGroups: adm admin cdrom dialout lpadmin plugdev sambashare

[Luke Yelavich (themuso)]

Please make sure you have selected an output + input profile from the hardware tab in the volume control preferences, and also make sure you have the correct input device selected under the input tab in the same volume control preferences. Please report back with the results once these settings are changed.

[Ramón Rocha (ramon.rocha)]

I confirmed I have a profile selected and have tried all available input devices.

It turns out this bug https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/checkbox/+bug/459606 was affecting my tests results. The scripts to record audio were not actually being executed. The scripts run now, but they never end.

The "activity" bar appears, the temporary directory and wave file are created, but the bar never goes away and the sound does not play. I have to manually kill the gts process to make checkbox responsive again.

[Brad Figg (brad-figg)]

Hi Ramón,

Please, if you are still having issues, test 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 alsa-base 459499

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.

    [This is an automated message. Apologies if it has reached you inappropriately; please just reply to this message indicating so.]

[Ramón Rocha (ramon.rocha)]

apport information

[Ramón Rocha (ramon.rocha)]

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[Ramón Rocha (ramon.rocha)]

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[Ramón Rocha (ramon.rocha)]

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[Ramón Rocha (ramon.rocha)]

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[Ramón Rocha (ramon.rocha)]

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[Ramón Rocha (ramon.rocha)]

apport information

[Ramón Rocha (ramon.rocha)]

apport information

[Ramón Rocha (ramon.rocha)]

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[Ramón Rocha (ramon.rocha)]

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[Ramón Rocha (ramon.rocha)]

apport information

[Ramón Rocha (ramon.rocha)]

The issue persists with the latest upstream kernel.

[Daniel T Chen (crimsun)]

Simple mixer control 'Front Mic Boost',0
  Capabilities: volume penum
  Playback channels: Front Left - Front Right
  Capture channels: Front Left - Front Right
  Limits: 0 - 3
  Front Left: 0 [0%]
  Front Right: 0 [0%]
^^^^^^ needs to be raised to max

Simple mixer control 'Mic Boost',0
  Capabilities: volume penum
  Playback channels: Front Left - Front Right
  Capture channels: Front Left - Front Right
  Limits: 0 - 3
  Front Left: 0 [0%]
  Front Right: 0 [0%]
^^^^^^ needs to be raised to max

Simple mixer control 'IEC958',0
  Capabilities: pswitch pswitch-joined penum
  Playback channels: Mono
  Mono: Playback [on]
^^^^^^ needs to be muted

Simple mixer control 'IEC958 Default PCM',0
  Capabilities: pswitch pswitch-joined penum
  Playback channels: Mono
  Mono: Playback [on]
Simple mixer control 'Beep',0
  Capabilities: pvolume pswitch penum
  Playback channels: Front Left - Front Right
  Limits: Playback 0 - 31
  Mono:
  Front Left: Playback 0 [0%] [-34.50dB] [off]
  Front Right: Playback 0 [0%] [-34.50dB] [off]
Simple mixer control 'Capture',0
  Capabilities: cvolume cswitch penum
  Capture channels: Front Left - Front Right
  Limits: Capture 0 - 31
  Front Left: Capture 0 [0%] [-12.00dB] [on]
  Front Right: Capture 0 [0%] [-12.00dB] [on]
^^^^^^ needs to be raised to max

Simple mixer control 'Capture',1
  Capabilities: cvolume cswitch penum
  Capture channels: Front Left - Front Right
  Limits: Capture 0 - 31
  Front Left: Capture 0 [0%] [-12.00dB] [on]
  Front Right: Capture 0 [0%] [-12.00dB] [on]
^^^^^^ needs to be raised to max

Simple mixer control 'Digital',0
  Capabilities: cvolume penum
  Capture channels: Front Left - Front Right
  Limits: Capture 0 - 120
  Front Left: Capture 60 [50%] [0.00dB]
  Front Right: Capture 60 [50%] [0.00dB]
^^^^^^ needs to be raised to max

Simple mixer control 'Input Source',0
  Capabilities: cenum
  Items: 'Mic' 'Front Mic' 'Line'
  Item0: 'Mic'
^^^^^^ needs to be set to desired mic

Simple mixer control 'Input Source',1
  Capabilities: cenum
  Items: 'Mic' 'Front Mic' 'Line'
  Item0: 'Mic'
^^^^^^ needs to be set to desired mic

[Ramón Rocha (ramon.rocha)]

Thanks for the response, Daniel. I set the values as you described and tried all three input sources but it still doesn't want to record.

What's weird is that the checkbox test never finishes and I have to kill the gst_pipeline_test process manually. When using Sound Recorder, I hit the record button and the Play button immediately becomes enabled but the Stop button remains disabled. A sound file is never generated. Could the bug be in a different package maybe?

[Daniel T Chen (crimsun)]

Ramón Rocha, can you reproduce this symptom using the latest linux-alsa-driver-modules-$(uname -r) from ppa:ubuntu-audio-dev?

[Ramón Rocha (ramon.rocha)]

Daniel, I added the ubuntu-audio-dev ppa and installed linux-alsa-driver-modules-2.6.32-22-generic. The results are the same.

[Eduardo (egmachado)]

I have the same problem... Iḿ running Ubuntu 10.04 LTS and I trying to deal with this problem since 8.10! I've tried all the possible solutions, but the results are the same! Maybe the bug is in another package!!!

The strange thing is that my microphone works perfectly when I run the system on LiveCD. It just stop working well after the instalation...

[Marcus Tomlinson (marcustomlinson)]

This release of Ubuntu is no longer receiving maintenance updates. If this is still an issue on a maintained version of Ubuntu please let us know.

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

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