Meaning of kmix microphone controls

[pwabrahams]

I'm trying to get my laptop microphone (Realtec ALC 883 chip, Acer Aspire laptop) working in Koala. There are lots of threads on this subject, but no solutions for me yet. So I'd like to go at this a different way: understanding just what the available controls do -- i.e., what the settings mean. I'm seeking wisdom, not recipes. A pointer to an available document or webpage would be fine.

kmix displays the following microphone controls:
Mic
Mic boost
Mic boost (capture)
Capture 1
Capture 2
The kmix help provides no information about what these mean.

Alsamixer has something similar:
Mic boost
Capture
Capture 1
Digital
Input source
Input source 1
The last two of these are on/off.

What do all of these mean, and how do the kmix settings correspond to the alsamixer settings? I assume that both mixers ultimately control the same parameters.

I assume that all this relates, somehow, to the existence of two microphone inputs: the socket on the front of my laptop, and the built-in microphone on the laptop.

I asked this question over at the Linux Questions forum, but no one has responded so I'm trying it here.

[dibl]

Re: Meaning of kmix microphone controls

If you have pulseaudio installed, try installing pavucontrol and paman. Use pavucontrol to un-mute things that you don't want muted, and to set the "sinks", i.e. the devices to be used for input and output. No guarantees, but it has helped on my netbook.