Microphone won't capture audio (ALC892)

English Hardware
1

I have openSUSE 12.2 KDE installed. Sound is working normally, but microphone is not. I tried everything, pavucontrol, alsa driver update, setting everything in kmix but nothing. My device is listed as Internal Audio Analog Stereo. When i try test.wav recording, it’s just hear noise and nothing else.

My motherboard specs:
ASUS - M5A99X EVO

/usr/sbin/hwinfo --short


sound:
                       ATI SBx00 Azalia (Intel HDA)
                       nVidia Audio device

arecord -l


**** List of CAPTURE Hardware Devices ****
card 0: SB [HDA ATI SB], device 0: ALC892 Analog [ALC892 Analog]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 0: SB [HDA ATI SB], device 2: ALC892 Analog [ALC892 Analog]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0

lspci


00:00.0 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] nee ATI RD890 PCI to PCI bridge (external gfx0 port B) (rev 02)
00:02.0 PCI bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] nee ATI RD890 PCI to PCI bridge (PCI express gpp port B)
00:04.0 PCI bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] nee ATI RD890 PCI to PCI bridge (PCI express gpp port D)
00:05.0 PCI bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] nee ATI RD890 PCI to PCI bridge (PCI express gpp port E)
00:06.0 PCI bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] nee ATI RD890 PCI to PCI bridge (PCI express gpp port F)
00:07.0 PCI bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] nee ATI RD890 PCI to PCI bridge (PCI express gpp port G)
00:0a.0 PCI bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] nee ATI RD890 PCI to PCI bridge (external gfx1 port A)
00:11.0 SATA controller: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] nee ATI SB7x0/SB8x0/SB9x0 SATA Controller [AHCI mode] (rev 40)
00:12.0 USB controller: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] nee ATI SB7x0/SB8x0/SB9x0 USB OHCI0 Controller
00:12.2 USB controller: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] nee ATI SB7x0/SB8x0/SB9x0 USB EHCI Controller
00:13.0 USB controller: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] nee ATI SB7x0/SB8x0/SB9x0 USB OHCI0 Controller
00:13.2 USB controller: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] nee ATI SB7x0/SB8x0/SB9x0 USB EHCI Controller
00:14.0 SMBus: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] nee ATI SBx00 SMBus Controller (rev 42)
00:14.2 Audio device: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] nee ATI SBx00 Azalia (Intel HDA) (rev 40)
00:14.3 ISA bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] nee ATI SB7x0/SB8x0/SB9x0 LPC host controller (rev 40)
00:14.4 PCI bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] nee ATI SBx00 PCI to PCI Bridge (rev 40)
00:14.5 USB controller: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] nee ATI SB7x0/SB8x0/SB9x0 USB OHCI2 Controller
00:16.0 USB controller: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] nee ATI SB7x0/SB8x0/SB9x0 USB OHCI0 Controller
00:16.2 USB controller: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] nee ATI SB7x0/SB8x0/SB9x0 USB EHCI Controller
00:18.0 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] Family 15h Processor Function 0
00:18.1 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] Family 15h Processor Function 1
00:18.2 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] Family 15h Processor Function 2
00:18.3 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] Family 15h Processor Function 3
00:18.4 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] Family 15h Processor Function 4
00:18.5 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] Family 15h Processor Function 5
01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: NVIDIA Corporation GF106 [GeForce GTS 450] (rev a1)
01:00.1 Audio device: NVIDIA Corporation GF106 High Definition Audio Controller (rev a1)
02:00.0 Ethernet controller: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTL8111/8168B PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet controller (rev 06)
03:00.0 USB controller: ASMedia Technology Inc. ASM1042 SuperSpeed USB Host Controller
04:00.0 SATA controller: JMicron Technology Corp. JMB362 SATA Controller (rev 10)
05:00.0 USB controller: ASMedia Technology Inc. ASM1042 SuperSpeed USB Host Controller
06:00.0 SATA controller: JMicron Technology Corp. JMB362 SATA Controller (rev 10)
07:06.0 FireWire (IEEE 1394): VIA Technologies, Inc. VT6306/7/8 [Fire II(M)] IEEE 1394 OHCI Controller (rev c0)

alsa-info.sh

http://www.alsa-project.org/db/?f=903b8aca5eb97290bdc5e2b988ecc30f054638b3

Please help me if you know.

2

you seem to have two audio cards. There might be a conflict

3

From the diagnostic script I note a 32-bit openSUSE-12.2 with 3.4.33-2.24-pae kernel, with v.1.0.25 of alsa.

Note two instances of the snd_hda_intel kernel module running associated with two recognized sound devices.


!!Soundcards recognised by ALSA
!!-----------------------------

 0 [SB             ]: HDA-Intel - HDA ATI SB
                      HDA ATI SB at 0xfe600000 irq 16
 1 [NVidia         ]: HDA-Intel - HDA NVidia
                      HDA NVidia at 0xfe080000 irq 25

and


!!PCI Soundcards installed in the system
!!--------------------------------------

00:14.2 Audio device: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] nee ATI SBx00 Azalia (Intel HDA) (rev 40)
01:00.1 Audio device: NVIDIA Corporation GF106 High Definition Audio Controller (rev a1)

One has a Realtek ALC892 hardware audio codec, and the other a Nvidia GPU 11 HDMI/DP hardware audio codec.

This suggests to me one device is motherboard audio device and the other an HDMI output associated with the video device.

I note from arecord:


ARECORD
**** List of CAPTURE Hardware Devices ****
**card 0:** SB [HDA ATI SB], **device 0:** ALC892 Analog [ALC892 Analog]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
**card 0:** SB [HDA ATI SB], **device 2:** ALC892 Analog [ALC892 Analog]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0

where your two record devices are hw:0,0, and hw:0,2.

I note from your mixer :


!!Amixer output
!!-------------

!!-------Mixer controls for card 0 [SB]
Card hw:0 'SB'/'HDA ATI SB at 0xfe600000 irq 16'
  Mixer name	: 'Realtek ALC892'
....
**Simple mixer control 'Front Mic Boost',0**
  Front Left: 3 [100%] [30.00dB]
  Front Right: 3 [100%] [30.00dB]
**Simple mixer control 'Capture',0**
  Front Left: Capture 36 [78%] [20.00dB] [on]
  Front Right: Capture 36 [78%] [20.00dB] [on]
**Simple mixer control 'Capture',1**
  Front Left: Capture 0 [0%] -16.00dB] **[off]**
  Front Right: Capture 0 [0%] -16.00dB] **[off]**
**Simple mixer control 'Auto-Mute Mode',0**
  Items: 'Disabled' 'Enabled'
  Item0: **'Enabled'**
**Simple mixer control 'Digital',0**
  Front Left: Capture 60 [50%] [0.00dB]
  Front Right: Capture 60 [50%] [0.00dB]
**Simple mixer control 'Input Source',0**
  Items: 'Rear Mic' 'Front Mic' 'Line'
  Item0: **'Front Mic'**
**Simple mixer control 'Input Source',1**
  Items: 'Rear Mic' 'Front Mic' 'Line'
  Item0: **'Front Mic'**
**Simple mixer control 'Rear Mic',0**
  Front Left: Playback 0 **[0%]** -34.50dB] **[off]**
  Front Right: Playback 0 **[0%]** -34.50dB] **[off]**
**Simple mixer control 'Rear Mic Boost',0**
  Front Left: 0 **[0%]** [0.00dB]
  Front Right: 0 **[0%]** [0.00dB]

Where there are two capture controls available (capture-0 and capture-1). You have capture-1 disabled. You have the front mic selected for both capture controls. You also have the rear mic control OFF, with rear mic boost at 0%. I note the auto-mute is enabled.

You could try switching on capture control-1 in case that is being assigned by default.

What sort of record test did you try ? Did you try the basic arecord as a test (which bypasses pulse)?

As a regular user try in a terminal/konsole:


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

Pay attention to any error messages. I selected two channels with ‘-c 2’ but that may not be appropriate for your hardware. I chose the S16_LE format but that also may not be appropriate for your openSUSE setup. I’m also assuming hw:0,0, but it is possible I should have chosen hw:0,2 (I’m speculating hw:0,0 is ‘capture-0’ and hw:0,2 is ‘capture-1’ in your mixer).

That should record audio to the file ‘new.wav’. You can stop the recording by pressing . Then play back with:


aplay new.wav

If that works, then your problem could be your pulse audio setup. I provided some guidance in a blog entry on how to tune pulse audio for recording: https://forums.opensuse.org/blogs/oldcpu/pulseaudio-basics-opensuse-pavucontrol-96/#comment342

4

It didn’t work, and Pulse audio shows only one capture device.

5

Any errors with ‘arecord’ ? Note that command bypasses pulse (I said that already). Did you try both hw:0,0 and hw:0,2 ?

What capture device does pulse show ? What application were you using with pulse (clearly it was not arecord as I already noted arecord bypasses pulse).