[Realtek ALC269] internal mic does not work

[Mathieu Trudel-Lapierre]

On two separate, similarly featured Latitude 13 laptops, the internal mic does not work. However, plugging in an external microphone in the microphone jack allows audio recording to work just fine.

According to the chassis (the presence of a hole for the microphone), the documentation on the Dell website, etc. there should be an integrated microphone array on the system. However, there is nothing but static recorded using the integrated microphone input, even at high gain.

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 10.04
Package: alsa-base 1.0.22.1+dfsg-0ubuntu3
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 2.6.32-21.32-generic 2.6.32.11+drm33.2
Uname: Linux 2.6.32-21-generic x86_64
AlsaVersion: Advanced Linux Sound Architecture Driver Version 1.0.21.
AplayDevices:
 **** List of PLAYBACK Hardware Devices ****
 card 0: Intel [HDA Intel], device 0: ALC269 Analog [ALC269 Analog]
   Subdevices: 1/1
   Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
Architecture: amd64
ArecordDevices:
 **** List of CAPTURE Hardware Devices ****
 card 0: Intel [HDA Intel], device 0: ALC269 Analog [ALC269 Analog]
   Subdevices: 1/1
   Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
AudioDevicesInUse:
 USER PID ACCESS COMMAND
 /dev/snd/controlC0: ubuntu 1362 F.... pulseaudio
Card0.Amixer.info:
 Card hw:0 'Intel'/'HDA Intel at 0xf6afc000 irq 21'
   Mixer name : 'Realtek ALC269'
   Components : 'HDA:10ec0269,10280432,00100004'
   Controls : 12
   Simple ctrls : 7
Date: Wed May 26 03:59:01 2010
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 10.04 LTS "Lucid Lynx" - Release amd64 (20100429)
PackageArchitecture: all
ProcEnviron:
 LANG=en_US.UTF-8
 SHELL=/bin/bash
SelectedCard: 0 Intel HDA-Intel - HDA Intel
SourcePackage: alsa-driver
Symptom: audio
Title: [Realtek ALC269] Recording problem
dmi.bios.date: 01/06/2010
dmi.bios.vendor: Dell Inc.
dmi.bios.version: A00
dmi.board.name: 04GW4W
dmi.board.vendor: Dell Inc.
dmi.chassis.type: 8
dmi.chassis.vendor: Dell Inc.
dmi.modalias: dmi:bvnDellInc.:bvrA00:bd01/06/2010:svnDellInc.:pnLatitude13:pvr:rvnDellInc.:rn04GW4W:rvr:cvnDellInc.:ct8:cvr:
dmi.product.name: Latitude 13
dmi.sys.vendor: Dell Inc.

[Daniel T Chen (crimsun)]

Is this reproducible when adding:

options snd-hda-intel position_fix=1

to /etc/modprobe.d/alsa-base.conf ?

[Mathieu Trudel-Lapierre (cyphermox)]

Daniel,

I can confirm, it is reproducible with the position_fix=1 parameter.

[Daniel T Chen (crimsun)]

Okay, two additional tests, then:

1) remove the position_fix=1 quirk (just comment out the entire line)
and use linux-alsa-driver-modules-$(uname -r) from
ppa:ubuntu-audio-dev;
2) readd the position_fix=1 quirk *with* l-a-d-m installed.

A reboot is needed between each test.

[Mathieu Trudel-Lapierre (cyphermox)]

Daniel,

I've retested on Maverick, I can still reproduce the issue (with and without position_fix=1). Also, I cannot install linux-alsa-driver-modules-2.6.35-1-generic, it seems to fail to build on ppa:ubuntu-audio-dev.

[yanuzz (3000-janus)]

Hey, I'm using the Samsung N210, which also has the Realtek ALC269.
I had the same problem, played around with the HDA Analyzer and finally get it fixed. :)
What you need to do:
1. sudo -s wget http://ftp.kernel.org/pub/linux/kernel/people/tiwai/misc/hda-verb/hda-verb-0.3.tar.gz
2. Unpack hda-verb-0.3.tar.gz
3. Compile and install it.
3.1. cd hda-verb-0.3
3.2. make
3.3. sudo cp hda-verb /usr/bin
4. Open /etc/rc.local in an editor as root. (e.g. sudo gedit /etc/rc.local)
5. Add the following line:
/usr/bin/hda-verb /dev/snd/hwC0D0 0x19 SET_PIN_WIDGET_CONTROL 0x24
5. Save it and restart.

No warranty, but since it's the same codec, it's very probable to work. :)
In hope of a good response. :)

[David Henningsson (diwic)]

Your BIOS is broken and yanuzz comment seems reasonable.
If it works, using user_pin_configs would probably a better workaround for a broken BIOS.

The user_pin_config for an Internal Mic should be (if I'm calculating right) :
0x90A70011

That is, please try
  # echo 0x19 0x90A70011 > /sys/class/sound/hwC0D0/user_pin_configs
  # echo 1 > /sys/class/sound/hwC0D0/reconfig

Log out and log in again and try it. Thanks in advance!

[yanuzz (3000-janus)]

Oh thanks, yes that worked. :)
But tell me, why was it broken? Execpt the boot order I didn't changed anything.

[Thomas Meyssonnier (thomas-meyssonnier)]

I had the same bug with the same hardware on an Asus eeePc 1001ha and the fix seems to work too.
Thanks a lot !

[David Henningsson (diwic)]

yanuzz: Thanks for reporting back! To verify that you have the same hardware, can you please attach an alsa-info.sh script to this bug, according to https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Audio/AlsaInfo

[David Henningsson (diwic)]

yanuzz: BIOS is just another piece of software and just like everything else, it's not bug-free. It is the BIOS's job to tell the driver what kind of audio hardware you have, and in this case, it told the driver you had no internal mic.

[yanuzz (3000-janus)]

Ah, okay. I was just wondering because when I googled for that I didn't find anybody else having this bug.
I attached the output. :)

[Mathieu Trudel-Lapierre (cyphermox)]

It seems the system I am working with isn't equipped with a microphone at all (I checked, and hda-verb does nothing, and forcing a reconfigure fails with device busy).

I think the course of action from now would be to close this bug as invalid and for yanuzz and Thomas to open new bugs re: their specific hardware (using ubuntu-bug), so that their issue can be fixed.

[Ameet Paranjape (ameetp)]

Agree with Mathieu.

yanuzz and Thomas please open new bugs for your systems.