[SOLVED] mic does not work

[Krampusz]

Hi,

I have a new Dell Adamo 13 and running Lucid.
The mic does not work under linux, but it does under windows. In fact I had the same problem on my previous machine a Dell Latitude E4200 running Karmic. I tried some of the suggestions on the forum but they did not help. I did not try all, because I didn't understand them.

Any suggestions??

Thanks,
Krampusz

[The Liquidator]

Re: mic does not work

I believe this to be linked with your other post

http://kubuntuforums.net/forums/inde...opic=3112887.0

[Krampusz]

Re: mic does not work

I believe this to be linked with your other post

http://kubuntuforums.net/forums/inde...opic=3112887.0

So, as I posted in said other post, the new card info helped. In addition to a new headphone volume control a new volume control for a mic appeared. I did not have enough time today to test that, but I am hopeful that the same thing solves this issue as well.

[For anyone reading this and need the info, the solution to the other issue was:
add “options snd-hda-intel model=dell-m6” to the end of /etc/modprobe.d/alsa-base.conf]

I will post the outcome of the mic test later today or tomorrow (when I get a chance to test it).

-K

[The Liquidator]

Re: mic does not work

Let us know whether the issue was solved please.

[Krampusz]

Re: mic does not work

Unfortunately no. The mic still does not work.

Here is what I gathered so far:

-- As I mentioned, the edit to alsa-base.conf brought up two new volume controls, one for a second headphone (which solved the headphone issue) and one for "Mic".

-- The "Mic" volume control had an option with choices "Mic in" and "Line in". I assumed that "Mic in" means the built in mic (which works under windows) and "Line in" means a mic attached to the jack.

-- I tried both separately and neither one worked.

---------

Note: for me personally this is much less of an issue than the headphone jack not working. I only use the mic for skype and I can manage with a bluetooth phone headset which (at least once) worked. At the same time, just for perfectionist reasons (and perhaps for a little simplicity) it would be nice to find out how to make the built in mic work.

[The Liquidator]

Re: mic does not work

Don't know whether this helps.

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1504774&page=2

The main point is (and it's easy to overlook) that you need to have capture enabled otherwise it won't matter what volume you set- it just won't work.

[Krampusz]

Re: mic does not work

The main point is (and it's easy to overlook) that you need to have capture enabled otherwise it won't matter what volume you set- it just won't work.

I've had two capture controls from the beginning and had enabled both. So, this isn't that.

[The Liquidator]

Re: mic does not work

Have you seen this thread?

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1373498

[Krampusz]

Re: mic does not work

OK, so I didn't have much time to fiddle with this until today. Somewhat surprisingly the issue is now FIXED.
To be entirely honest I am not totally sure what made it work exactly. I've been playing around with various things and then it just worked.

One thing I can say is that I *did not* uninstall pulseaudio as suggested by one of the links sent by The Liquidator.

Another thing that may or may not be useful for others is that I have tested various mixer settings and I can tell you about that:

1) Currently there are 3 Mic controls available for me (they appeared after setting the correct sound card with
adding “options snd-hda-intel model=dell-m6” to the end of /etc/modprobe.d/alsa-base.conf):
Digital Mic
Front Mic
Mic
Observations:
i) the controls make absolutely no difference in recording
ii) Skype thinks the control for "Mic" controls the mic, but I am sure it does not (see later)
ii*) it may be useful to uncheck Skype's automatic volume control if you are testing it with that, or have a Mixer window open while running Skype, you can see which controls it is trying to adjust.

2) There are 2 "Capture" controls with both a checkbox and a slide. This is the important control (at least for me)
i) Capture 2 does nothing in any variation of the settings
ii) Capture is the real thing. It has to be checked and the slide controls the mic's volume, but even in the lowest setting it records, so for testing you only need the checkbox checked

3) There are two more choices in the Mixer and this may have been where my solution was done. I just don't remember how these controls were set when it did not work.
So, there is an "Input Source" and an "Input Source 2" where in each one can choose which of the 3 Mics (see above) one wants. The winning setting is that "Input Source" has to be "Digital Mic" and the other does not matter. I think I used to have "Input Source 2" set to "Digital Mic" and "Input Source" to either "Mic" or "Front Mic", but apparently just as with "Capture 2", "Input Source 2" is also useless.

Anyway, it is now working, so I am happy. I don't know how useful this is for others, but perhaps it is. The Mixer seems to be a bit confused, but not too bad.

Thanks for everyone's help!

-Krampusz