Comment 3 for bug 683901

Wow, you're right - the Ubuntu sound recorder really DOES work with the microphone.
However, it seems to be the only program that is able to record sound using the internal microphone.

I have previously tried to install only the pavucontrol package, as it is not dependent on the others, but the internal microphone input was already unmuted and set to 100%, however, the status bar didn't react at any noise at all - just as in the Ubuntu sound settings manager.

I tried then to install the other packages you mentioned above but with no difference. I also tried pavucontrol again after reboot but it still didn't help in any way. For me, the microphone doesn't work in the Ubuntu sound settings manager nor in Skype (where I originally discovered this issue). Does it work in Ubuntu Maverick?

By the way, is the 5.1 surround sound functional on your laptop? On mine it isn't - I am only able to get it working as 4.0 (the two stereo speakers - front left and right - and rear left and right speakers in the bottom of the laptop), the center speaker nor the subwoofer doesn't make any sound (except configuring it in sound settings in Ubuntu which shows Analog Surround 4.0 Output you can try "speaker-test -Dplug:surround51 -c6 -l1 -twav"). I have already filled in a bug report yesterday - see bug #802660

And thanks for reply