I wanted to make Skype work on my laptop to talk to family friends scattered
around the world. I’m running opensuse 11.0/KDE 3.5 here. When I couldn’t
get the standard mic in jack to work, I picked up a Logitech USB
headset/mic.
I’ve installed it as the generic USB card, set it to primary in Yast. When
I’m in the Yast setup, I can test the sound system and I get speaker sounds
in headphones.
I can go into Kmix and change to the USB driver, but what I can’t get is
sound to and from the headset or mic .
“I’m not one of those who think Bill Gates is the devil. I simply suspect
that if Microsoft ever met up with the devil, it wouldn’t need an
interpreter.” - Nicholas Petreley
I do not have a USB headset, so I can not help there with more than speculation. I can review your current config with the headset plugged in, but that may be wasted effort. … I don’t know. … maybe someone else will chime in with information on a USB headset. If you don’t get any other replies, and you want to try with my speculations, then let me know and I’ll pass commands for the diagnostic scripts to run (where the diagnostic scripts provide detailed information).
Its possible I will have more luck trying to help you to get the Lenovo nominal external mic jack to work with an external headphone (not of type USB). Assuming you do not have a hardware problem, that should be functional (I believe it is an AD1984 in the Lenovo T61). AD1984 - ThinkWiki
>
> robertsmits;1912854 Wrote:
>> I wanted to make Skype work on my laptop to talk to family friends
>> scattered around the world. I’m running opensuse 11.0/KDE 3.5 here. When
>> I couldn’t get the standard mic in jack to work, I picked up a Logitech
>> USB
>> headset/mic.
>>
>> I’ve installed it as the generic USB card, set it to primary in Yast.
>> When
>> I’m in the Yast setup, I can test the sound system and I get speaker
>> sounds
>> in headphones.
>>
>> I can go into Kmix and change to the USB driver, but what I can’t get
>> is
>> sound to and from the headset or mic .
>>
>> Can anyone point me to some solutions here?
> I do not have a USB headset, so I can not help there with more than
> speculation. I can review your current config with the headset plugged
> in, but that may be wasted effort. … I don’t know. … maybe someone
> else will chime in with information on a USB headset. If you don’t get
> any other replies, and you want to try with my speculations, then let me
> know and I’ll pass commands for the diagnostic scripts to run (where the
> diagnostic scripts provide detailed information).
>
> Its possible I will have more luck trying to help you to get the Lenovo
> nominal external mic jack to work with an external headphone (not of
> type USB). Assuming you do not have a hardware problem, that should be
> functional (I believe it is an AD1984 in the Lenovo T61). ‘AD1984 -
> ThinkWiki’ (http://www.thinkwiki.org/wiki/AD1984)
>
>
Well I borrowed a headset with a miniphone jack and that didn’t work either,
which is why I bought a USB headset on the theory that I’ve usually had
good luck making usb sound applications work. Not yet, anyway.
I’ll go borrow the mini phone headset again, if you have suggestions about
making that work.
“I’m not one of those who think Bill Gates is the devil. I simply suspect
that if Microsoft ever met up with the devil, it wouldn’t need an
interpreter.” - Nicholas Petreley
Typically I find a microphone that plugs into a PC’s mic-in jack in Linux will not work for one of the following reasons:
a. it is not supported under their version of the alsa driver, or
b. one needs to configure their alsa driver better, or
c. one has their mixer wrong.
Most of the time it is option-c, because it is easy to get confused with all the mixer options.
I recommend users use the following command as their microphone test: arecord -d 10 myrecording.wavwhere the “10” specifies the length of the recording in seconds. I then a play back “myrecording.wav” with a nominal player.
In the case of both the headphone types, if one can not configure their mic properly then I need consistent configuration information in order to undertand one’s configuration, and make a guess as to what might solve the problem.
For openSUSE-10.3, I need to see the output of one running a diagnostic script with their PC connected to the internet (running the following command in a gnome-terminal or a kde konsole):
> Typically I find a microphone that plugs into a PC’s mic-in jack in
> Linux will not work for one of the following reasons:
> a. it is not supported under their version of the alsa driver, or
> b. one needs to configure their alsa driver better, or
> c. one has their mixer wrong.
> Most of the time it is option-c, because it is easy to get confused
> with all the mixer options.
>
I’m using 64bit suse 11.0 with kde 3 here. Do I need to install alsa? I’ve
always used kmix to make audio settings.
> I recommend users use the following command as their microphone test:
> ::arecord -d 10 myrecording.wav::where the “10”
> specifies the length of the recording in seconds. I then a play back
> “myrecording.wav” with a nominal player.
>
Is this a command line setting or something in alsa-mixer.
> In the case of both the headphone types, if one can not configure their
> mic properly then I need consistent configuration information in order
> to undertand one’s configuration, and make a guess as to what might
> solve the problem.
>
> For openSUSE-10.3, I need to see the output of one running a diagnostic
> script with their PC connected to the internet (running the following
> command in a gnome-terminal or a kde konsole):
> Code:
> --------------------
> wget -O alsa-info.sh http://www.alsa-project.org/alsa-info.sh && bash
> alsa-info.sh
> --------------------
>
> that will give you a URL. Please post that URL here.
Sorry, but that does not appear to occur, although the script seems to
suggest it should.
Should I post the output here of the result of the command? It’s quite long.
Or I could email it you directly, if you like.
>
> And also, in such a case, please copy and paste the following commands
> one at a time into a gnome-terminal or a kde konsole and post here the
> output:
>
> rpm -qa | grep alsa
> rpm -qa | grep pulse
> rpm -q libasound2
> uname -a
> cat /etc/modprobe.d/sound
>
>
“I’m not one of those who think Bill Gates is the devil. I simply suspect
that if Microsoft ever met up with the devil, it wouldn’t need an
interpreter.” - Nicholas Petreley
“I’m not one of those who think Bill Gates is the devil. I simply suspect
that if Microsoft ever met up with the devil, it wouldn’t need an
interpreter.” - Nicholas Petreley
“I’m not one of those who think Bill Gates is the devil. I simply suspect
that if Microsoft ever met up with the devil, it wouldn’t need an
interpreter.” - Nicholas Petreley
This was the URL without the USB connected. It takes me time to go through the URL and pull out the mixer information, editing things to be checked. I do not want spend a lot of time doing that, if you are not trying to test the input mic jack with the jack microphone. What is your plan there?
>
> robertsmits;1913847 Wrote:
>> ------
>>
>> I did it again, and this time I have a url for you
>>
>> Your ALSA information is located at
>> http://tinyurl.com/a55yay
>
> This was the URL without the USB connected. It takes me time to go
> through the URL and pull out the mixer information, editing things to be
> checked. I do not want spend a lot of time doing that, if you are not
> trying to test the input mic jack with the jack microphone. What is
> your plan there?
>
>
I’ll do it whichever way you suggest. What are the best conditions then?
With both input mic jack AND the USB headset plugged in? With only the plug
in mic connected?
I’ll be back at it tomorrow am after I get my wife to work through the snow.
“I’m not one of those who think Bill Gates is the devil. I simply suspect
that if Microsoft ever met up with the devil, it wouldn’t need an
interpreter.” - Nicholas Petreley
>
> robertsmits;1913838 Wrote:
>> Do I need to install alsa? I’ve
>> always used kmix to make audio settings. alsa is installed by default.
>
No, it was not. I had to manually install alsa mixer, etc.
> robertsmits;1913838 Wrote:
>>
>> > > > I recommend users use the following command as their microphone
>> > > > test:
>> > arecord -d 10 myrecording.wav
>> > where the “10” specifies the length of the recording in seconds. I then
>> > a play back “myrecording.wav” with a nominal player.> >
>> Is this a command line setting or something in alsa-mixer.It is a command
>> you type in a konsole (where a konsole looks like a dos
> window on windows).
>
>
“I’m not one of those who think Bill Gates is the devil. I simply suspect
that if Microsoft ever met up with the devil, it wouldn’t need an
interpreter.” - Nicholas Petreley
Not wanting to get into a yes it is, no it isn’t, yes it is, etc … discussion, … but if the alsa driver was not installed by default, then you had major installation problems.
As of recent kernels, I believe the sound driver alsa is built into your kernel, and it is supported directly by an rpm package called “alsa”. Other rpms that often accompany “alsa” are “alsa-utils”, “alsa-oss”, “alsa-tools”, etc … The application alsamixer comes with the package 'alsa-utils". It is possible alsamixer was not running by default, but it is most likely it was installed by default.
There are also GUI / front ends that one can install for alsamixer, and in the case of those (since as a KDE user I do not use alsamixer) I do not know if they are installed by default. For example, “alsamixer-gui” is a FLTK based front end for alsamixer. There is also the Packman packaged gmerlin-alsamixer which comes with the gmerlin multimedia architecture (of which I know nothing about).
OK, … I recommend you take a step back, and read up on some openSUSE Linux concepts: Concepts - openSUSE
As for a terminal, its a rather “loose” useage of the word, and it dates back to when there were dedicated hardware terminals (black and white, later colour monitors) used for accessing mainframe and mini-computers, where such devices had minimal to no graphics, and only text. Later more graphics were added.
In the case of micro-computers, such as our PCs, these “terminal” sessions have been basically virtualized, and they are presented as a window, in which commands can be directly sent to the computer and limited graphics can be displayed in turn, although typically one just see’s lots of text. Here is a wiki on this: Virtual console (PC - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Commanding via terminal is VERY powerful, but it also requires high precision in what one does.
To open a virtual terminal on kde, one just presses < ALT > < F2 > and types “konsole” (no quotes). I do not know what one types in gnome to run “gnome-terminal”. Maybe just “gnome-terminal” ? One can also type “xterm” to get a less capable virtual terminal. The virtual terminal can also be found by using one’s “start” / “application” menu.
A virtual terminal looks like a DOS window (if you are familiar with that) although in Linux the virtual terminal is significantly more powerful than the limited MS-DOS functionality.
There is also emulation of terminals, and it may have been more accurate for me to refer to the openSUSE Linux window terminal sessions as “emulated terminals” as opposed to “virtual terminals”. You can read more here: Terminal emulator - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
