Internal Mic not working with VoIP

English Multimedia
#1

Hello, I have problems to make my mic work for VoIP services (Google Hangouts/Skype).
My laptop model is Acer 4830TG, i’m using OpenSUSE 13.1, and I am using internal mic.
When I do arecord with -fdat option specified (48kHz sampling rate), I can record audio, but by default it is using 8kHz sampling rate, and the sound recorded is just some crackling and it is similar to one I get when using Skype/GoogleTalk.

I am not sure, but it looks that my audio card or mic driver doesn’t support low sample rate recording, which is used in VoIP apps.

Also have jack for use with external audio card which is not connected usually.

/usr/sbin/alsa-info.sh
http://www.alsa-project.org/db/?f=cb8127b3dcd30ee65cfd1e4d900f6878059c3e95

rpm -qa alsa


alsa-utils-1.0.27.2-4.2.1.x86_64alsa-plugins-jack-1.0.27-3.1.1.x86_64
alsa-devel-1.0.27.2-3.5.1.x86_64
alsa-tools-1.0.27-5.1.3.x86_64
alsa-1.0.27.2-3.5.1.x86_64
alsa-plugins-pulse-32bit-1.0.27-3.1.1.x86_64
alsa-oss-1.0.25-8.1.2.x86_64
alsa-firmware-1.0.27-2.1.2.noarch
alsamixergui-0.9.0rc1-763.1.3.x86_64
alsa-plugins-1.0.27-3.1.1.x86_64
alsa-oss-32bit-1.0.25-8.1.2.x86_64
alsa-plugins-pulse-1.0.27-3.1.1.x86_64

rpm -qa pulse


pulseaudio-module-bluetooth-4.0.git.270.g9490a-1.1.x86_64
libpulse-mainloop-glib0-4.0.git.270.g9490a-1.1.x86_64
pulseaudio-4.0.git.270.g9490a-1.1.x86_64
pulseaudio-utils-4.0.git.270.g9490a-1.1.x86_64
libpulse0-4.0.git.270.g9490a-1.1.x86_64
alsa-plugins-pulse-32bit-1.0.27-3.1.1.x86_64
pulseaudio-module-jack-4.0.git.270.g9490a-1.1.x86_64
pulseaudio-lang-4.0.git.270.g9490a-1.1.noarch
libpulse0-32bit-4.0.git.270.g9490a-1.1.x86_64
pulseaudio-module-x11-4.0.git.270.g9490a-1.1.x86_64
libxine2-pulse-1.2.3-3.1.3.x86_64
pulseaudio-module-zeroconf-4.0.git.270.g9490a-1.1.x86_64
pulseaudio-module-lirc-4.0.git.270.g9490a-1.1.x86_64
alsa-plugins-pulse-1.0.27-3.1.1.x86_64

cat /etc/modprobe.d/50-sound.conf


options snd slots=snd-hda-intel
# u1Nb.2Wu0M8i_W1D:Intel Corporation
alias snd-card-0 snd-hda-intel
#2

Please, can you run a basic test first to see how the recording works directly with alsa driver ?

I note from the script:


ARECORD

**** List of CAPTURE Hardware Devices ****
**card 0:** PCH [HDA Intel PCH], **device 0:** CX20588 Analog [CX20588 Analog]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0

From that it is clear that your recording device is hw:0,0.

In a terminal please send this command:


arecord -vv -f S16_LE -c 2 -D hw:0,0 new.wav

and then talk while recording. Stop the recording by pressing <ctrl><c> and then play back the file ‘new.wav’ which was created. Does that record audio ?

If so, then assuming you have pulse audio installed, I recommend you install pulse audio volume control and use it to configure your mic with voip services .

There is guidance here how to configure a mic with pulse: https://forums.opensuse.org/entry.php/96-Pulseaudio-Basics-for-openSUSE-with-pavucontrol The links don’t work on that page so you will need to scroll down to where it says " pavucontrol Input Devices on my Sandbox PC "

Also, when starting Skype, please note there is a bug with Skype and openSUSE-13.1, with work around guidance here: https://forums.opensuse.org/entry.php/151-Skype-4-0-4-2-on-openSUSE-13-1

Thankyou and good luck.

#3

Thanks for reply.

As I have mentioned above and retried with script you provided - recording via direct ALSA driver works, I can hear recording.
I have used workaround for Skype, and it is still not recording audio correctly, the only thing I hear from recording is quiet crackling (even for max mic boost).
Maybe recording levels are too low? But I increased mixer values in pulse audio volume control and alsamixer…

I think it is some issue with PulseAudio… but I don’t know how to verify or fix it… Any other suggestions?

#4

Good

Possibly a pulse audio issue. wrt Skype, … what method did you employ to install it ? Do you do anything unusual with apparmor ? (thats a speculative guess - query) Run Skype from a terminal using the work around. Do you get errors ?

#5

For skype you need the 32 bit pulse lib

O cleared all problems with skype for me after I installed it

libpulse0-32bit