[ALC272] Lost contact: Video Call kills microphone

[Andriy Tsykholyas]

Binary package hint: empathy

Description: Ubuntu maverick (development branch)
Release: 10.10

empathy:
  Installed: 2.31.6-0ubuntu1
  Candidate: 2.31.6-0ubuntu1
  Version table:
 *** 2.31.6-0ubuntu1 0
        500 http://ua.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ maverick/main amd64 Packages
        100 /var/lib/dpkg/status

Hardware: Acer Aspire 5551G, audio chip: Realtek ALC272X

I've installed 10.10 alpha 3 and updated the system.
Unmuted speakers and microphone.
Checked sound input (Rhythmbox) and output (Sound Recorder). Everything works fine.
Launched Empathy and configured my Google Talk account. Started video call. And here problem starts: microphone is dead. It does not work in Empathy and in any sound recording application (e.g. Sound Recorded). I need to reboot the system to enable microphone again.

My ALSA information is here: http://www.alsa-project.org/db/?f=4649d53175e80d742d36191ec9e6971f14d0575b

Please, let me know if I can provide more info.

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 10.10
Package: empathy 2.31.6-0ubuntu1
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 2.6.35-14.20-generic 2.6.35
Uname: Linux 2.6.35-14-generic x86_64
Architecture: amd64
Date: Thu Aug 12 22:17:42 2010
ExecutablePath: /usr/bin/empathy
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 10.10 "Maverick Meerkat" - Alpha amd64 (20100803.1)
ProcEnviron:
 LANG=en_US.utf8
 SHELL=/bin/bash
SourcePackage: empathy

[Brian Curtis (bcurtiswx)]

Thanks for your bug report and helping to make Ubuntu better. This is a pulseaudio bug and I am marking as such.

[David Henningsson (diwic)]

Yep, lost contact with the chip:

[ 3483.500008] hda-intel: azx_get_response timeout, switching to polling mode: last cmd=0x001f000a
[ 3484.510006] hda_intel: azx_get_response timeout, switching to single_cmd mode: last cmd=0x001f000a

[Andriy Tsykholyas (andriy-tsykholyas)]

I've managed to solve the problem with following workaround:

   1. replace Empathy with Skype
   2. delete pulseaudio (this removes some things like sound indicator)

This is definitely a pulseaudio bug :)

[Daniel T Chen (crimsun)]

Hmm, no, this looks like an alsa-driver bug (as David H correctly triaged). Can you please follow https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Audio/InstallingLinuxAlsaDriverModules?

[Andriy Tsykholyas (andriy-tsykholyas)]

Daniel,
I'll check the alsa driver as you like when I'll have a chance to access the affected machine. This can happen in a few weeks or a few month.

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

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