Mic not working

English Hardware
1

Hello, I have a desktop that I installed SuSE 11.0 x86_32 on and haven’t been able to get the mic to work. I am fairly new to Linux. I have looked through the forums and other sites but haven’t yet found a solution. The rest of the sound seems to work ok for me. Here is my hardware info:
tsalsa.txt - nopaste.com (beta)

Here is the output of cat /proc/asound/cards:
0 [CK804 ]: NFORCE - NVidia CK804
NVidia CK804 with ALC850 at irq 22
1 [UART ]: MPU-401 UART - MPU-401 UART
MPU-401 UART at 0x330, irq 10

Here is the output of cat /proc/asound/modules
0 snd_intel8x0
1 snd_mpu401

Here is the output of cat /etc/modprobe.d/sound
options snd slots=snd-intel8x0

8otl.OtT5SLVvnv3:K8N4-E or A8N-E Mainboard

alias snd-card-0 snd-intel8x0

I am really enjoying using Linux and would prefer not to have to go back to Windows because of an issue like this. Any help is appreciated.

2

Hardware info here: HCL/Sound Cards - openSUSE

I take it you have been thru Yast to configure sound device

You have sound? Just no MIC?

3

First, ensure that your mic problem is not a misconfiguration of the application that you are trying to use.

When I test my mic, I typically use a simple arecord command. ie something like
arecord -d 10 myrecording.wav
or
arecord -d 10 -f cd secondrecording.wav
where “-d 10” sets a 10 second recording. I then play back the recording with xine or mplayer or xmms (or any audio playback program).

I took a look at the tsalsa script output. According to that you have openSUSE-11.0 with the 32-bit 2.6.25.11-pae kernel on an A8N-SLI-Deluxe (BIOS 1016) motherboard. Your audio codec is an ALC850.

The tsalsa output is very complicated for your motherboard, possibly because of a complex digital audio in addition to the analogue ?

I note these settings:

Amixer contents for card 0 [CK804] _____________________________________
amixer set ‘Surround Jack Mode’,0 Items: ‘Shared’ ‘Independent’ Item0: ‘Shared’
amixer set ‘Mic’,0 84%,Capture on
amixer set ‘Mic Boost (+20dB)’,0 on
amixer set ‘Mic Front Input’,0 on
amixer set ‘Mic Select’,0 Items: ‘Mic1’ ‘Mic2’ Item0: ‘Mic1’
amixer set ‘IEC958’,0 off Capture on
amixer set ‘IEC958 Playback AC97-SPSA’,0 Mono: 3 100%
amixer set ‘IEC958 Playback Source’,0 Items: ‘PCM’ ‘Analog In’ ‘IEC958 In’ Item0: ‘PCM’
amixer set ‘Aux’,0 0%,0% on Capture off
amixer set ‘Mono Output Select’,0 Items: ‘Mix’ ‘Mic’ Item0: ‘Mix’
amixer set ‘Capture’,0 Capture 15 100%,Capture 15 100% on
amixer set ‘Mix’,0 Capture off
amixer set ‘Mix Mono’,0 Capture off
amixer set ‘Channel Mode’,0 Items: ‘2ch’ ‘4ch’ ‘6ch’ ‘8ch’ Item0: ‘6ch’
Bold is good (I think), but “red” puzzles me.

Try Surround Jack Mode to “Independent”. You have “Mix” off and “Capture off” in your amixer. I don’t know if this critical … Have you tried putting that on? I also note you have “Aux” capture OFF, … and you have your amixer set to “Mix” instead of “Mic”. That reads inconsistent to me. If you are going to select “Mix” then should not the “Mix” capture be ON ?

If you are trying digital audio (mic) in then maybe < I’m not sure > your IEC958 should set set to “Analog In” and not “PCM”, but I assume you are not using the digital.

My hardware is much more simple, and I don’t have these plethora of options.

I also checked the alsa site for an update to the ALC850 and I obtained this hit: Search results ALC850 - AlsaProject Yes there is an update in 1.0.17 of alsa, but it appears to be associated with 8-channel support, which I assume (I could be wrong) has little to nothing to do with your mic.

4

> Hello, I have a desktop that I installed SuSE 11.0 x86_32 on and haven’t
> been able to get the mic to work.

i know it is highly unlikely that this could happen to you, but i
have a friend who, after working a couple of weeks to get the mic
working with his new computer finally called a Drive-by-Geek to stop
and have a look…

some several dollars (Danish Kroner, actually) the Geek found a
little switch on the mic, and turned it on…

you can also, unplug the mike from the box…and, plug it back in
(maybe there are a few atoms of oxidation blocking a critical path)

and, take the mike to some other computer/whatever…perhaps it just
happened to fail, while you were loading v 11.0 (???)

and, while http://nopaste.com/p/a9vYRFcFE is certainly full of good
info, i can’t see where you answered this question (maybe it is
answered, but i can’t find it):

Q: Is this a USB mic?

if it is, maybe you need to peek at the output from a google of
usb mic linux

MAYBE the first het will be useful, i do NOT know:
http://audacityteam.org/wiki/index.php?title=USB_mic_on_Linux

or, try just a usb mic search at
http://en.opensuse.org/Special:Search?search=&fulltext.x=26&fulltext.y=9&fulltext=Search

–
DenverD (Linux Counter 282315) via NNTP, Thunderbird 2.0.0.14, KDE
3.5.7, SUSE Linux 10.3, 2.6.22.18-0.2-default #1 SMP i686 athlon

5

I take it you have been thru Yast to configure sound device

You have sound? Just no MIC?

Yes I did configure sound through YaST and I have sound but no MIC.

When I test my mic, I typically use a simple arecord command. ie something like
arecord -d 10 myrecording.wav
or
arecord -d 10 -f cd secondrecording.wav
where “-d 10” sets a 10 second recording. I then play back the recording with xine or mplayer or xmms (or any audio playback program).

I tried both of the above commands and when I tried to playback I heard nothing. I don’t know if this is of note but after 10 seconds I was not returned to the command line when running arecord. I used <CNTL> c to break from it.

Try Surround Jack Mode to “Independent”. You have “Mix” off and “Capture off” in your amixer. I don’t know if this critical … Have you tried putting that on? I also note you have “Aux” capture OFF, … and you have your amixer set to “Mix” instead of “Mic”. That reads inconsistent to me. If you are going to select “Mix” then should not the “Mix” capture be ON ?

Please excuse my ignorance but how do I change these settings for amixer? Do I use “sset sID P”, “cset cID P” or is there a file that I can edit to make these changes?

I also checked the alsa site for an update to the ALC850 and I obtained this hit: Search results ALC850 - AlsaProject Yes there is an update in 1.0.17 of alsa, but it appears to be associated with 8-channel support, which I assume (I could be wrong) has little to nothing to do with your mic.

I think that is correct as my onboard sound has 6 jack positions and is being used w/ 5.1 surround although I believe it is capable of 7.1 surround from what I remember from the windows app.

the Geek found a
little switch on the mic, and turned it on…

No mic on/off switch to change.

you can also, unplug the mike from the box…and, plug it back in

Already done. Also plugged into both the rear and front mic jacks on the case. Although never tested the front jack under Windows to know if it worked previously.

and, take the mike to some other computer/whatever…perhaps it just
happened to fail, while you were loading v 11.0 (???)

I have a couple of these simple mics lying around I’ll try it out with the others also. And I’ll try this one on my laptop too. Oh and no it is not a USB mic just a 3.5mm jack mic.

caf4926, oldcpu and DenverD I would like to thank you all for your quick replys. It is very refreshing to encounter such helpfull people when having a problem like this.

6

Ok I have now tested the mic on my laptop and it is working there. I also tried another mic on this Desktop and it is still not working.

7

> Ok I have now tested the mic on my laptop and it is working there. I
> also tried another mic on this Desktop and it is still not working.

darn, that sure eliminates some easy fixes…so, i bow out and leave
it to the experts…

oh, before i go…you say you set up sound in YaST…have you also
visited the sound mixer…i don’t see where you revealed if you use
Gnome, KDE or other…but, in KDE there is an applet called KMix (hit
Alt+F2, type kmix, hit enter)…that is a GUI where you can set
output, INPUT, and switches setting…

on the input tab be sure the mic is turned on (with the green/red
“led”) and run that slider up from off (at the bottom)…THEN, on the
switches tab turn the Mic Boost (+20dB) on, (light the ‘led’)

i have NO idea why, but i also have something called an “Alsa mixer”
(Alt+F2, type gnome-volume-control, hit enter)…IF those two GUI
things are reading the same config file you should find the Mic
slider up off the floor…BUT, i guess it makes no difference
because there is only a “Playback” tab in this gui…

over to the experts!

–
DenverD (Linux Counter 282315) via NNTP, Thunderbird 2.0.0.14, KDE
3.5.7, SUSE Linux 10.3, 2.6.22.18-0.2-default #1 SMP i686 athlon
*

8

I run both KDE and Gnome. Under kmix I have channels showing for mic, mic boost(+20dB) and mic front input. The volume is up to about 80% on that.

I also tried the gnome-volume-control and under the preferences after I turned on Surround Jack Mode and set it to independent instead of Shared I could then hear my mic through my speakers. I tried arecord to record a sample and play it back but the wav file doesn’t play anything back. At least this is promising that I am hearing the mic now.

9

>I tried arecord to record
> a sample and play it back but the wav file doesn’t play anything back.
> At least this is promising that I am hearing the mic now.

PROGRESS is good!!

now, maybe the next problem is in ‘arecord’…i think you can test if
your mic is ‘really’ working…but installing skype…that is a
fairly painless process…and, once you do you can try contacting
with the skype user “echo123” which is a skype test call…you call,
a machine answers, gives you a chance to talk, then plays back what
it recorded…it is a perfect way to test if skype works both ways…

if skype lets you hear yourself then you know your mic IS working,
and you have a (simple?) arecord problem…

by the way, i just talked via skype to a friend a third of the way
around the earth…WITH video…smooth what Linux can do now days!!

–
DenverD (Linux Counter 282315) via NNTP, Thunderbird 2.0.0.14, KDE
3.5.7, SUSE Linux 10.3, 2.6.22.18-0.2-default #1 SMP i686 athlon

10

Well I’ve run into some problems now trying to install skype. I went to Skype Download for Linux - Download the latest features on Skype and selected SuSE 10+. I then selected to have the package installer install the file. I entered the root password but received an error message that I do not have permissions to install files locally. I then tried to run software updates under YaST to see if I could just load skype there. I received the error message: “Accessing the Package Management Failed”. I rebooted and tried it again to no avail. I also tried logging in a root to install and still got the message that I do not have the necessary privilages to install local files.

11

I looked around to see if others have has trouble installing skype and I found some people say to install from the command line. When I do rpm -i skype-2.0.0.72-suse.i586.rpm I get:

warning: skype-2.0.0.72-suse.i586.rpm: Header V3 DSA signature: NOKEY, key ID d66b746e
error: can’t create transaction lock on /var/lib/rpm/__db.000

Out of the fire and into the frying pan. :wink:

12

Use the command line (Navigate in Dolphin to the skype file location and use the terminal in Dolphin) Or navigate (cd /) to that .dir
In a terminal type:

su
your root Password

rpm -ihv skype package name

13

caf4926 wrote:
> Use the command line (Navigate in Dolphin to the skype file location and
> use the terminal in Dolphin) Or navigate (cd /) to that .dir
> In a terminal type:
>
> su
> your root Password
>
> rpm -ihv skype package name

hello Venlaar,
what caf4926 writes should work like magic…
only thing i would do differently is add one space and one -
always!

like so:

su -
your root Password

–
DenverD (Linux Counter 282315) via NNTP, Thunderbird 2.0.0.14, KDE
3.5.7, SUSE Linux 10.3, 2.6.22.18-0.2-default #1 SMP i686 athlon

14

Sorry for the delay in posting progress here. I haven’t had much time to work on this during the week here. I finally got skype installed but when I try to place the test call it doesn’t play back my voice even though I can hear the mic sound coming over the speakers. Any thoughts?