Unmuting Mic? or best way to restore Kmix or get alternative?

[pwrcul]

I have looked over prior Kmix discussions and tried some things to get my Mic on my headset to work (I can hear fine in Skype). None have worked and I am looking for a more sure path to restoring what used to be possible with Kmix.

I did not notice problem with Kmix until now because on my desktop system I had to do a motherboard replacement to restore it to working. (Win XP dual boot is still damaged from prior MB problems and I have not tried to revive it yet.) New MB is ASUS A8N-SLI-Premium with Realtek ALC850 audio chip.

I just upgraded to Kubuntu 10.10 amd64 and got Skype installed. I tried echo123 in Skype and my voice did not come through. (Same thing happens if I use Phonon to make my webcam mic pick up my voice.)

alsamixer starts up, but I have not found what will let me make the mic volume control active. I press F4 to get to the right spot, but have no luck there.

Kmix Mixer has only 4 tabs. Playback Devices & Capture Devices have "internal audio analog stereo" sliders at reasonable settings. Playback Streams has Event Sounds and a slider. None are muted. Capture Streams is blank.

http://userbase.kde.org/KMix says the "The KMix interface has been significantly changed. This page does not reflect the current status of the program"--and it is dearly missed by this user.

I downloaded the ALSA Volume Control plasmoid 0.37 zip file from
kde-look.org/content/show.php?content=138990&forumpage=0
but was unsuccessful in following the instructions to get it unzipped and set up.

I have not tried pavucontrol, etc.

Was I close on any of the above and need to persist more?
Is there any hope for Kmix fixes (I already reinstalled, deleted some prior files in .kde4 etc., but I was shooting in the dark.)

[GreyGeek]

Re: Unmuting Mic? or best way to restore Kmix or get alternative?

Don't go outside the repository or launchpad to try and install zip or tar files. That usually isn't necessary.

Open Muon Package Center and search for "alsa", without the quotes.
There should be at least three of them:
alsa-base
alsa-utilites
alsamixergui (although this one is optional)

After installing them open a Konsole and issue
sudo alsamixer

If using that console based app isn't obvious then open another Konsole and run
man alsamixer
and put the two Konsoles side by side. Consult the man page while you set your mixer.

Basicly, either your mic is turn off or its volume is too low. IF you see an "M" beneath the Mic colum it is turned off (Muted). Touch the "M" key to toggle it to the on mode. Use your up or down arrows to set the volume. Use the left and right arrows to highlight a control. Not all the controls may be showing in the Konsole window, but continue using the right arrow until no more pop up. Ditto for the left arrow.
Hit esc when you are done in order to close the app.

[pwrcul]

Re: Unmuting Mic? or best way to restore Kmix or get alternative?

hi, GreyGeek,

Thanks.

I have the alsa files, and I went and checked out alsamixer more closely.

I adjusted the volume up for Register Mic at last. I fiddled with Mic boost and Front Mic. I got voice pickup from my headset mic coming out of my speakers, so at least that mic's hardware is working.

Skype does not pick up my voice. Using pavucontrol, I can see that my webcam is the main input, but neither it nor my headset mic have actual pickup in the Skype voice call test.

I will have to come back to this later.