I too have the same problem, I noticed the same output when trying to load pulseaudio in verbose. I got my playstation eye's microphone to show up in the list of cards/devices (although not attatch to the mixer) by disabling the udev-loader in pulseaudio as found in this post http://ubuntuforums.org/showpost.php?p=7900438&postcount=10: comment /etc/pulse/default.pa file to: ### Automatically load driver modules depending on the hardware available #.ifexists module-udev-detect.so #load-module module-udev-detect #.else ### Alternatively use the static hardware detection module (for systems that ### lack udev support) load-module module-detect #.endif This leads me to believe this is a problem with pulseaudio and udev.. Here is the relevant output I'm getting from pulseaudio now showing the microphone device being setup but not being added to the mixer: D: [pulseaudio] alsa-util.c: Checking for superset analog-surround-40 (surround40:%f) D: [pulseaudio] alsa-util.c: Trying surround40:0 with SND_PCM_NO_AUTO_FORMAT ... D: [pulseaudio] alsa-util.c: Managed to open surround40:0 I: [pulseaudio] alsa-util.c: cannot disable ALSA period wakeups D: [pulseaudio] alsa-util.c: Maximum hw buffer size is 8192 ms D: [pulseaudio] alsa-util.c: Set buffer size first (to 32000 samples), period size second (to 32000 samples). I: [pulseaudio] alsa-util.c: Device surround40:0 doesn't support 44100 Hz, changed to 16000 Hz. I: [pulseaudio] alsa-util.c: ALSA period wakeups were not disabled I: [pulseaudio] alsa-source.c: Successfully opened device surround40:0. I: [pulseaudio] alsa-source.c: Selected mapping 'Analog Surround 4.0' (analog-surround-40). I: [pulseaudio] alsa-source.c: Successfully enabled mmap() mode. I: [pulseaudio] alsa-source.c: Successfully enabled timer-based scheduling mode. I: [pulseaudio] (alsa-lib)control.c: Invalid CTL surround40:0 I: [pulseaudio] alsa-mixer.c: Unable to attach to mixer surround40:0: No such file or directory W: [pulseaudio] alsa-mixer.c: Unable to load mixer: Invalid argument I: [pulseaudio] alsa-source.c: Failed to find a working mixer device. D: [pulseaudio] core-subscribe.c: Dropped redundant event due to change event. D: [pulseaudio] module-device-restore.c: Database contains invalid data for key: source:alsa_input.0.analog-surround-40 (probably pre-v1.0 data) D: [pulseaudio] module-device-restore.c: Attempting to load legacy (pre-v1.0) data for key: source:alsa_input.0.analog-surround-40 D: [pulseaudio] module-device-restore.c: Size does not match. D: [pulseaudio] module-device-restore.c: Unable to load legacy (pre-v1.0) data for key: source:alsa_input.0.analog-surround-40. Ignoring. D: [pulseaudio] module-device-restore.c: Database contains invalid data for key: source:alsa_input.0.analog-surround-40:null I: [pulseaudio] source.c: Created source 1 "alsa_input.0.analog-surround-40" with sample spec s16le 4ch 16000Hz and channel map front-left,front-right,rear-left,rear-right I: [pulseaudio] source.c: alsa.resolution_bits = "16" I: [pulseaudio] source.c: device.api = "alsa" I: [pulseaudio] source.c: device.class = "sound" I: [pulseaudio] source.c: alsa.class = "generic" I: [pulseaudio] source.c: alsa.subclass = "generic-mix" I: [pulseaudio] source.c: alsa.name = "USB Audio" I: [pulseaudio] source.c: alsa.id = "USB Audio" I: [pulseaudio] source.c: alsa.subdevice = "0" I: [pulseaudio] source.c: alsa.subdevice_name = "subdevice #0" I: [pulseaudio] source.c: alsa.device = "0" I: [pulseaudio] source.c: alsa.card = "0" I: [pulseaudio] source.c: alsa.card_name = "USB Camera-B4.09.24.1" I: [pulseaudio] source.c: alsa.long_card_name = "OmniVision Technologies, Inc. USB Camera-B4.09.24.1 at usb-0000:00:1d.0-1.2, hi" I: [pulseaudio] source.c: alsa.driver_name = "snd_usb_audio" I: [pulseaudio] source.c: device.bus_path = "pci-0000:00:1d.0-usb-0:1.2:1.1" I: [pulseaudio] source.c: sysfs.path = "/devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:1d.0/usb2/2-1/2-1.2/2-1.2:1.1/sound/card0" I: [pulseaudio] source.c: udev.id = "usb-OmniVision_Technologies__Inc._USB_Camera-B4.09.24.1-01-CameraB409241" I: [pulseaudio] source.c: device.bus = "usb" I: [pulseaudio] source.c: device.vendor.id = "1415" I: [pulseaudio] source.c: device.vendor.name = "Nam Tai E&E Products Ltd. or OmniVision Technologies, Inc." I: [pulseaudio] source.c: device.product.id = "2000" I: [pulseaudio] source.c: device.product.name = "Sony Playstation Eye" I: [pulseaudio] source.c: device.serial = "OmniVision_Technologies__Inc._USB_Camera-B4.09.24.1" I: [pulseaudio] source.c: device.string = "surround40:0" I: [pulseaudio] source.c: device.buffering.buffer_size = "256000" I: [pulseaudio] source.c: device.buffering.fragment_size = "128000" I: [pulseaudio] source.c: device.access_mode = "mmap+timer" I: [pulseaudio] source.c: device.profile.name = "analog-surround-40" I: [pulseaudio] source.c: device.profile.description = "Analog Surround 4.0" I: [pulseaudio] source.c: device.description = "Sony Playstation Eye Analog Surround 4.0" I: [pulseaudio] source.c: device.icon_name = "audio-input-microphone-analog-usb" I: [pulseaudio] alsa-source.c: Using 2.0 fragments of size 128000 bytes (1000.00ms), buffer size is 256000 bytes (2000.00ms) I: [pulseaudio] alsa-source.c: Time scheduling watermark is 20.00ms D: [pulseaudio] alsa-source.c: hwbuf_unused=0 D: [pulseaudio] alsa-source.c: setting avail_min=31681 D: [pulseaudio] alsa-util.c: snd_pcm_dump(): D: [pulseaudio] alsa-util.c: Hardware PCM card 0 'USB Camera-B4.09.24.1' device 0 subdevice 0 D: [pulseaudio] alsa-util.c: Its setup is: D: [pulseaudio] alsa-util.c: stream : CAPTURE D: [pulseaudio] alsa-util.c: access : MMAP_INTERLEAVED D: [pulseaudio] alsa-util.c: format : S16_LE D: [pulseaudio] alsa-util.c: subformat : STD D: [pulseaudio] alsa-util.c: channels : 4 D: [pulseaudio] alsa-util.c: rate : 16000 D: [pulseaudio] alsa-util.c: exact rate : 16000 (16000/1) D: [pulseaudio] alsa-util.c: msbits : 16 D: [pulseaudio] alsa-util.c: buffer_size : 32000 D: [pulseaudio] alsa-util.c: period_size : 16000 D: [pulseaudio] alsa-util.c: period_time : 1000000 D: [pulseaudio] alsa-util.c: tstamp_mode : ENABLE D: [pulseaudio] alsa-util.c: period_step : 1 D: [pulseaudio] alsa-util.c: avail_min : 31681 D: [pulseaudio] alsa-util.c: period_event : 0 D: [pulseaudio] alsa-util.c: start_threshold : -1 D: [pulseaudio] alsa-util.c: stop_threshold : 9007199254740992000 D: [pulseaudio] alsa-util.c: silence_threshold: 0 D: [pulseaudio] alsa-util.c: silence_size : 0 D: [pulseaudio] alsa-util.c: boundary : 9007199254740992000 D: [pulseaudio] alsa-util.c: appl_ptr : 0 D: [pulseaudio] alsa-util.c: hw_ptr : 0 D: [alsa-source] alsa-source.c: Thread starting up I: [alsa-source] core-util.c: Failed to acquire real-time scheduling: Permission denied I: [alsa-source] alsa-source.c: Starting capture.