Ok thanks for that output.
It confirms openSUSE-11.4 with the 2.6.37.6-0.5-desktop on a HP xw9400 workstation with a Creative X-Fi 20K2 SB0880 and a HDA NVIDIA MCP HD Controller (ALC262). The alsa version 1.0.24.27.g22657.833.g351c8 is not consistent with the alsa rpms that you noted you have installed, and that tells me you performed a custom compilation. (note the next kernel update will likely break this).
For recording I note this from the script:
ARECORD
**** List of CAPTURE Hardware Devices ****
card 0: XFi [Creative X-Fi], device 0: ctxfi [Front/WaveIn]
Subdevices: 1/1
Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 1: NVidia [HDA NVidia], device 0: ALC262 Analog [ALC262 Analog]
Subdevices: 1/1
Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
which tells me you have two record devices. One associated with the X-Fi (hw:0 or hw:0,0) and one associated with the nVidia ALC262 (hw:1 or hw:1,0).
Knowing the Creative X-Fi is hw:0 might be useful to you in tuning pulse audio.
When I look at the Mic mixer controls from amixer (from the script) I note this:
!!Amixer output
!!-------------
!!-------Mixer controls for card 0 [XFi]
Card hw:0 'XFi'/'Creative X-Fi 20K2 SB0880'
**Simple mixer control 'Master',0**
Front Left: Playback 227 [89%] -7.25dB] Capture 250 [98%] -1.50dB]
Front Right: Playback 227 [89%] -7.25dB] Capture 250 [98%] -1.50dB]
**Simple mixer control 'PCM',0**
Front Left: Playback 256 [100%] [0.00dB] Capture 242 [95%] -3.50dB] **[off]**
Front Right: Playback 256 [100%] [0.00dB] Capture 242 [95%] -3.50dB] **[off]**
**Simple mixer control 'Line-in',0**
Front Left: Playback 256 [100%] [0.00dB] [on] Capture 0 [0%] -99999.99dB] [off]
Front Right: Playback 256 [100%] [0.00dB] [on] Capture 0 [0%] -99999.99dB] [off]
**Simple mixer control 'Mic',0**
Front Left: Playback 230 [90%] -6.50dB] Capture 234 [91%] -5.50dB] [on]
Front Right: Playback 230 [90%] -6.50dB] Capture 234 [91%] -5.50dB] [on]
**Simple mixer control 'S/PDIF-in',0**
Front Left: Playback 256 [100%] [0.00dB] [on] Capture 0 [0%] -99999.99dB] [on]
Front Right: Playback 256 [100%] [0.00dB] [on] Capture 0 **[0%]** -99999.99dB] [on]
… which tells me there is a Master and a PCM capture (which I have never seen before so I don’t know what they do - most other cards do not have a capture associated with them). The PCM capture is muted. There is Line-In capture which is muted. And there is a Mic capture. There is also a digital capture (S/PDIF-in) which is muted.
I note there is no longer a mic boost. That appears to be a characteristic of either the new alsa driver you installed, or it is because the alsa-utils with 11.4 is for the older version of alsa, and you have not upated alsa-utils which contains alsamixer and amixer. ie your update may have caused this problem of no boost. Note I say “may” have caused. It “may” not. Mayber there is no more a ‘boost’ in the latest alsa. I don’t know.
IMHO the digital capture may be important, and you may wish to unmute that. If the umute controls can not be found in your mixer and if they can not be found in pulse audio volume control (assuming you have the correct selection made in the configure TAB and in the Input Devices Tab (with SHOW all input devices selected) and in the Recording Tab (with SHOW all streams seelcted)) then you can unmute with amixer.
You can see the amixer controls for hw:0 (your X-Fi) by typing:
amixer -D hw:0 scontrols
On my simple PC, when I type that to learn the controls for the USB mic (which is hw:1 on my PC), that command gives me:
Simple mixer control 'Mic',0
Now since my USB mic is hw:1 and the USB mic is called ‘Mic’, then to unmute my USB Mic I use something like:
amixer -D hw:1 set 'Mic' 95% unmute
Or I could have tried:
amixer -c 1 set 'Mic' 95% unmute cap
where the ‘1’ is the card #. In your case ‘0’ is the X-Fi card number and for your digital mic, the command may be something like:
amixer -D hw:0 set 'S/PDIF-in' 95% unmute
or maybe
amixer -c 0 set 'S/PDIF-in' 95% unmute cap
or something like that.
pavucontrol should allow you to do this without those alsa amixer commands (IF we assume your alsa-utils is not broken). Note in pavucontrol Configuration TAB you MUST select the correct device. Note in pavucontrol Input Devices Tab (with SHOW selected to show ‘all input devices’ ) you MUST select the correct device. Note in pavucontrol recording Tab (with SHOW selected to show ‘all input streams’) you MUST select the correct device under the running application.
For testing the capability to record, I like using a simply application such as arecord.
For your X-fi it could be something like:
arecord -D hw:0 -vv -f cd mymicrecording.wav
and use < ctrl > < c > to stop the capture and then play back mymicrecording.wav with a media player. A simple:
aplay mymicrecording.wav
may play it back.
