hda sound records very poorly

[Susan Cragin]

Binary package hint: linux-image-2.6.24-15-rt

sound records at a very low level on my computer
Have checked alsamixer settings, all is turned to
normal volume there and nothing is muted.

[Susan Cragin (susancragin)]

Tried to run "Debugging Sound Problems" instructions, but they do not work.

susan@ubuntu:~/Desktop$ ./alsa-info.sh
bash: ./alsa-info.sh: Permission denied
susan@ubuntu:~/Desktop$ sudo ./alsa-info.sh
sudo: ./alsa-info.sh: command not found
susan@ubuntu:~/Desktop$ sudo sh alsa-info.sh
alsa-info.sh: 255: [[: not found
ALSA Information Script v 0.4.41
--------------------------------

This script will collect information about your ALSA installation and sound related hardware, to help diagnose your problem.

alsa-info.sh: 255: [[: not found
By default, the collected information will be AUTOMATICALLY uploaded to a pastebin site.
If you do not wish for this to occur, run the script with the --no-upload argument

Do you want to run this script? [y/n] : read: 255: Illegal option -e

Thank you for using the ALSA-Info Script
susan@ubuntu:~/Desktop$

[Susan Cragin (susancragin)]

whoops. worked with bash.

[Susan Cragin (susancragin)]

This is a short clip of me talking into my microphone with the sound turned up in alsamixer to 72.
I tried to play it back to myself. The recording was so weak I couldn't hear it through my speakers, and only very faintly through my headphones.

[Susan Cragin (susancragin)]

susan@ubuntu:~$ aplay --list-devices
**** List of PLAYBACK Hardware Devices ****
card 0: Intel [HDA Intel], device 0: ALC861VD Analog [ALC861VD Analog]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 0: Intel [HDA Intel], device 6: Si3054 Modem [Si3054 Modem]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
susan@ubuntu:~$

[Rob Byrd (byrdr-ikm)]

susan: what fixed my Dell Vostro 1700 Hardy 8.04 (upgrade from Gutsy) faint sound problem after trying every new kernel -rt, modifying config files, etc., was installing the simple gnome-alsamixer package

sudo apt-get install gnome-alsa-mixer

I think the faint sound is the xx decibel reduction because our system was actually muted.

  Tim Gardner wrote on 2007-10-01: (permalink)
If you want a temporary workaround, then run this command:
sudo echo "options snd-hda-intel model=5stack" >> /etc/modprobe.d/alsa-base
Make sure your speakers and microphone are not muted. I think the best mixer for that is gnome-alsamixer.

I didn't do any of the modprobe stuff; only installed the gnome-alsamixer package.

Thank you Tim Gardner.

[Susan Cragin (susancragin)]

That did not work for me. I tried Gnome-alsamixer, but it's commands are also available by running alsamixer from a terminal window, and that's what I had been using. All inputs were turned up properly.
Sound is still poor.

[Robert McMeekin (rrm3)]

I have the same problem with the sound in my HP Pavilion dv2815nr.

$ aplay --l
**** List of PLAYBACK Hardware Devices ****
card 0: NVidia [HDA NVidia], device 0: CONEXANT Analog [CONEXANT Analog]
  Subdevices: 0/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 0: NVidia [HDA NVidia], device 1: Conexant Digital [Conexant Digital]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0

[Leann Ogasawara (leannogasawara)]

The Ubuntu Kernel Team is planning to move to the 2.6.27 kernel for the upcoming Intrepid Ibex 8.10 release. As a result, the kernel team would appreciate it if you could please test this newer 2.6.27 Ubuntu kernel. There are one of two ways you should be able to test:

1) If you are comfortable installing packages on your own, the linux-image-2.6.27-* package is currently available for you to install and test.

--or--

2) The upcoming Alpha5 for Intrepid Ibex 8.10 will contain this newer 2.6.27 Ubuntu kernel. Alpha5 is set to be released Thursday Sept 4. Please watch http://www.ubuntu.com/testing for Alpha5 to be announced. You should then be able to test via a LiveCD.

Please let us know immediately if this newer 2.6.27 kernel resolves the bug reported here or if the issue remains. More importantly, please open a new bug report for each new bug/regression introduced by the 2.6.27 kernel and tag the bug report with 'linux-2.6.27'. Also, please specifically note if the issue does or does not appear in the 2.6.26 kernel. Thanks again, we really appreicate your help and feedback.

[Susan Cragin (susancragin)]

Sound quality still poor for me.
Sound recording level is low / faint, and quality is poor.
Having said that, please note that this bug is probably a duplicate of 223750

[Leann Ogasawara (leannogasawara)]

Hi Susan,

I think this is correctly reported as it's own bug report as bug 223750 has a different sound card than you and has commented it was an issue with mixer settings. So lets continue to track your specific issue here.

[Michel (millot)]

My sound card is HDA Inte, l Realtek ALC883

 I apply "Debugging sound problems"

I have sound in my headphone but no sound in my loudspeakers !

I chek that all my level controls are not 0 in alsamixer and in gnome-alsamixer !!

I am lost !!

[Silviu Julean (sjulean)]

I can confirm this bug on Intrepid on a Dell M1330:

$ uname -a
Linux pegasus 2.6.27-7-generic #1 SMP Fri Oct 24 06:40:41 UTC 2008 x86_64 GNU/Linux

$ lspci | grep Audio
00:1b.0 Audio device: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) HD Audio Controller (rev 02)

$ head -5 /proc/asound/card0/codec#0
Codec: SigmaTel STAC9228
Address: 0
Vendor Id: 0x83847616
Subsystem Id: 0x10280209
Revision Id: 0x100201

However, I have noticed that killing pulseaudio solves the problem for me.

- With PulseAudio running and either "HDA Intel STAC92xx Analog (ALSA)" or "PulseAudio Sound Server" selected for sound capture in gnome-sound-properties, gnome-sound-recorder shows a single recording channel (Capture) and the recorded sound is faint.

- With PulseAudio running and any other sound capture device selected in gnome-sound-properties (HDA Intel OSS, ALSA, or OSS), gnome-sound-recorder reports recording 15 minutes of sound per second. (Then I usually kill it.)

- After issuing "pactl exit", the settings in gnome-sound-properties do not matter anymore. Now, gnome-sound-recorder always lists all ALSA recording channels (in my case they are Capture, Capture 1, Capture 2, Digital, Mux, Mux 1 and Mux 2). Then, I can turn up the Digital channel in alsamixer (I'm recording from the built-in microphone), after which the recording is fine (from the Capture channel).

[Susan Cragin (susancragin)]

Well, killing pulseaudio for me makes the difference between almost no sound and poor sound.
I run my program using pasuspender, which should give the same result.
pasuspender env WINEPREFIX="/home/susan/.wine" wine "C:\Program Files\Nuance\NaturallySpeaking10\Program\natspeak.exe"

[Michel (millot)]

After installation of the release Gnome 2.24.1 (Ubuntu 2008-10-24 ) Kernel2.6.24-21-generic

Miracle !!

 I have sound in one Loud speaker, but...... only in one !!

Stereo don't run

Probably I have to expect the next version of Ubundu to have usage of the two speakers, only 6 month to wait ;-)

Cordialement

[Daniel T Chen (crimsun)]

Is this symptom still reproducible in 8.10 or 9.04?

[Silviu Julean (sjulean)]

I am still running Intrepid (up-to-date) and the problem is still there (see comment #15 above). My current workaround is stopping pulseaudio and turning up the ALSA "Digital" channel whenever I need to use my microphone. I don't know about Jaunty yet, although I will upgrade as soon as I have the time to test it a little.

As for comment #16, one could take that as a confirmation that this is, in fact, related to pulseaudio. Is it too soon to promote the pulseaudio bug to Confirmed?

[Daniel T Chen (crimsun)]

On 12/10/2008 03:33 AM, Silviu Julean wrote:
>
> As for comment #16, one could take that as a confirmation that this is,
> in fact, related to pulseaudio. Is it too soon to promote the pulseaudio
> bug to Confirmed?
>

Only if the symptom is confirmed in jaunty- that task tracks the current
development version.

[Silviu Julean (sjulean)]

I have just upgraded to Jaunty and can confirm that the problem is still there (same symptoms, same workaround). Could any other Jaunty user confirm this?

I am also attaching the result of running alsa-info.sh.