USB Mic Inoperative OS 11.3 x32

English Multimedia
1

I can’t get the microphone in my Logitech C310 Webcam to work at all. I’m running OS 11.3 x32-bit & KDE 4.4.4. The webcam works fine in Windows XP with Skype and Pidgin, so I know the hardware is good. I ran some searches, but I’m still not all that sure what it is that needs to be fixed. Following the troubleshooting steps yields the following:

I’ve tried testing with commands like,

arecord -vv -f cd test.wav

and get only random noise. The Microphone responds to room noise in the Pulseaudio volume control app, but is otherwise dead in Linux. I’ve checked the mic settings in Kmix, and pavucontrol, and nothing is muted or turned all the way down.

One thing that’s a little different from the threads I’ve checked is that I can’t run a test recording in arecord when pavucontrol is running - arecord will stop with an error like this:

bruces@linux-zho5:~> **arecord -vv -f cd test.wav**
ALSA lib pcm_dsnoop.c:593:(snd_pcm_dsnoop_open) unable to open slave
arecord: main:654: audio open error: Device or resource busy

I am not sure if this is normal behavior or not, so I thought I’d mention it.

Info from the:

/usr/sbin/alsa-info.sh

script is located here: http://www.alsa-project.org/db/?f=c920a0a53ce30d43c099425441cfd56ab704e4cf

rpm -qa 'alsa’
alsa-utils-1.0.23-1.8.i586
alsa-plugins-pulse-1.0.23-1.9.i586
alsa-plugins-1.0.23-1.9.i586
alsa-1.0.23-2.12.i586
alsa-oss-1.0.17-29.2.i586

rpm -qa 'pulse’
alsa-plugins-pulse-1.0.23-1.9.i586
libxine1-pulse-1.1.19-7.pm.50.11.i586
pulseaudio-0.9.21-10.3.1.i586
libpulse0-0.9.21-10.3.1.i586
libpulse-browse0-0.9.21-10.3.1.i586
libpulse-mainloop-glib0-0.9.21-10.3.1.i586
pulseaudio-utils-0.9.21-10.3.1.i586

rpm -q libasound2
libasound2-1.0.23-2.12.i586

uname -a
Linux linux-zho5 2.6.34.10-0.2-desktop #1 SMP PREEMPT 2011-07-20 18:48:56 +0200 i686 i686 i386 GNU/Linux

cat /etc/modprobe.d/50-sound.conf
options snd slots=snd-hda-intel

u1Nb.nBTGKwQH0y0:82801G (ICH7 Family) High Definition Audio Controller

alias snd-card-0 snd-hda-intel

Thanks for any help. :slight_smile:

2

You can see from the diagnostic script that your USB mic is detected by openSUSE GNU/Linux:


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

 0 [Intel          ]: HDA-Intel - HDA Intel
                      HDA Intel at 0xfdff8000 irq 29
** 1 [U0x46d0x81b    ]: **USB-Audio** - USB Device 0x46d:0x81b
                      USB Device 0x46d:0x81b at usb-0000:00:1d.7-3, high speed**

Further to that, from the arecord command output in the diagnostic script you can see your USB mic listed as a recording device:


ARECORD

**** List of CAPTURE Hardware Devices ****
card 0: Intel [HDA Intel], device 0: ALC888 Analog [ALC888 Analog]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 0: Intel [HDA Intel], device 2: ALC888 Analog [ALC888 Analog]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
**card 1**: U0x46d0x81b **USB Device** 0x46d:0x81b], **device 0**: **USB Audio** [USB Audio]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0

Where from that you can see that hw:card#,device# means your mic record device is hw:1,0 …

And you can see from your mixer settings that your USB mic should be setup to record:


!!-------Mixer controls for **card 1** [U0x46d0x81b]

Card hw:1 'U0x46d0x81b'/'**USB Device** 0x46d:0x81b at usb-0000:00:1d.7-3, high speed'
  Mixer name	: 'USB Mixer'
  Components	: 'USB046d:081b'
  Controls      : 2
  Simple ctrls  : 1
Simple mixer control 'Mic',0
  Capabilities: cvolume cvolume-joined cswitch cswitch-joined penum
  Capture channels: Mono
  Limits: Capture 0 - 6144
  Mono: Capture 6144 [100%] [30.00dB] [on]

Now in pavucontrol configuration tab you should have your usb mic as a configuration option. In the pavucontrol output devices tab ensure you have SHOW all ‘output devices’ selected and your usb mic should show up there. And in the pavucontrol record tab, with SHOW ‘all streams’ selected, when running the arecord command (I provide an example below) you should be able to see the record functioning.

Try in a terminal this very basic arecord command:


arecord -D hw:1 -vv -f cd wcam.wav

where I picked ‘wcam.wav’ as the output audio file name. Pick any name you like.

Its possible that may not work, and you may get error messages asking you to specify the format, or specify the number of channels. Here is a case where I specified “S16_LE” as the format, and specied with " -c 2 " two channels.


arecord -f S16_LE -c 2 -D hw:1 -vv wcam.wav

anyway, record a piece, stop the recording with < ctrl > < c > and then play it back with some basic, such as …


aplay wcam.wav

When trying the arecord command, triple check your pavucontrol settings.

3

Thanks for your reply. Here’s what happened with the commands you recommended:

I got this with the pavucontrol app running:

bruces@linux-zho5:~> arecord -D hw:1 -vv -f cd wcam.wav
arecord: main:654: audio open error: Device or resource busy

I got this error without pavucontrol running:

bruces@linux-zho5:~> arecord -D hw:1 -vv -f cd wcam.wav
Recording WAVE 'wcam.wav' : Signed 16 bit Little Endian, Rate 44100 Hz, Stereo

And this one came up after trying the second arecord command:

bruces@linux-zho5:~> arecord -f S16_LE -c 2 -D hw:1 -vv wcam.wav
Recording WAVE 'wcam.wav' : Signed 16 bit Little Endian, Rate 8000 Hz, Stereo
arecord: set_params:1059: Channels count non available

Now in pavucontrol configuration tab you should have your usb mic as a configuration option. In the pavucontrol output devices tab ensure you have SHOW all ‘output devices’ selected and your usb mic should show up there.

Only problem here is that the webcam mic does not show up in the output devices tab in pavucontrol. It shows up on the Input Devices Tab instead.

The system is seeing the mic & the camera works fine. It just doesn’t seem to know what to do with the mic.

4

Thats not a problem. Thats me making a mistake and typing “output” instead of “input”.

5

Device busy ? What is making the device busy ? Try that immediately after a restart.

What error ? I see no error there.

ok … so if it does not like the channels specification of ’ -c 2’ then do not include it ! Try:


arecord -f S16_LE -D hw:1 -vv wcam.wav

Also the format ‘S16_LE’ may not be appropriate for your hardware. It was simply an example.

IMHO this is a configuration / lack of familiarity issue, and once you become familiar with this it will become easy.

6

Thanks for the reply.

You’re right. I know nothing about sound in Linux as this is the first time I’ve had a problem dealing with a microphone. I normally don’t have trouble with sound/video playback.

Restarted the system and tried the arecord command again and got this:

bruces@linux-zho5:~> arecord -f S16_LE -D hw:1 -vv wcam-test.wav
Recording WAVE 'wcam.wav' : Signed 16 bit Little Endian, Rate 8000 Hz, Mono
Warning: rate is not accurate (requested = 8000Hz, got = 16000Hz)
         please, try the plug plugin 
**Hardware PCM card 1 'USB Device 0x46d:0x81b' device 0 subdevice 0**
Its setup is:
  stream       : CAPTURE
  access       : RW_INTERLEAVED
  format       : S16_LE
  subformat    : STD
  channels     : 1
  rate         : 16000
  exact rate   : 16000 (16000/1)
  msbits       : 16
  buffer_size  : 8000
  period_size  : 2000
  period_time  : 125000
  tstamp_mode  : NONE
  period_step  : 1
  avail_min    : 2000
  period_event : 0
  start_threshold  : 1
  stop_threshold   : 8000
  silence_threshold: 0
  silence_size : 0
  boundary     : 2097152000
  appl_ptr     : 0
  hw_ptr       : 0
###+                                               | 05%^C
Aborted by signal Interrupt...

arecord used the mic this time and I got a recording to play back with aplay. It would seem that is one problem down and I’m not sure what may be next.

7

That is progress indeed ! Well done.

It took me some time (years) to learn how to consistently use a mic in GNU/Linux, and even then there are times when I stumble in its use.

If you can achieve a configuration that records audio, try to document your configuration, such that you are able to reproduce it. One can document by screen prints, or diagnostic scripts, or even paper notes. But it was only via such documentation that I was eventually able to make progress and rise above what was for me random successes.

I hope you can move forward from this and manage to succeed with Skype and other applications.

Note the command:


arecord -l

(where that is a lower case “L” ) can be used to list your record devices. If you note the card # and device number, then depending on the GNU/Linux app, instead of calling your USB mic ‘USB’ they may call it hw:something (such as hw:1 or hw;1,0 or some other combination), or they may call it something else. Consistency tends to be lacking between GNU/Linux apps in labelling. Hopefully with pulse audio tuned, this will come easier.

Good luck.

8

I’ve tried (almost) everything I can think of to get this silly microphone to work, and now its getting irritating. The webcam works great, and I can do video and stills. I turned up everything on the KDE mixer and now get louder static in Skype when using the call test.

arecord still works as before, but I can’t seem to figure out why Skype and other software doesn’t see the microphone – or is it some kind of user/permissions issue? I haven’t found much in searches on that for Opensuse although other distros show up. Is there anything else to check and or adjust?

9

How about displaying all of the mic setup options in Skype, and do a screen print of it ? And post it here so we can see what you are doing and failing at ?

For example, from Skype on my PC:

http://thumbnails22.imagebam.com/14665/86b692146647674.jpg](ImageBam)
[click on the above for a larger image]

http://thumbnails57.imagebam.com/14665/dd1caa146647678.jpg](ImageBam)
[click on the above for a larger image]

http://thumbnails51.imagebam.com/14665/418cb4146647680.jpg](ImageBam)
[click on the above for a larger image]

Your settings OF COURSE will be different.

Also , you may need to specify a ‘delay’ in order to get a screen capture, but I wanted to show you the above so as to prove that this is possible !

Its also possible you need to run pavucontrol to tune this at the same time ! Since I can not see your settings I can not show you where the configuration mistake is being made.

10

If you are using KDE, forget that comment. I had forgotten briefly that you are using openSUSE-11.3.

11

Thanks for the reply. I’m running KDE 4.4.4, and here’s the Skype sound settings screen (for version 2.2.0.35 Beta).

ImageBam - Fast, Free Image Hosting and Photo Sharing

Just a note: I’ve tried both allowing Skype to control mixer settings, and not allowing it, and get the same results.

12

walla299 I need to see the mic settings. You have it set to use pulse audio to control the mic … We can try that, but since you have openSUSE 11.3 I suspect that is the wrong setting if you are running KDE.

Did you look at my example ? Please look at it again. I want to see what options are available for the mic ! My example should have made that clear ? Note to do a screen capture of the mic settings you may need to use the ‘delay’ functionality in the screen capture.

13

I did look at your example, but my system shows nothing like it. The Skype screen print I sent shows the only options on the drop down menus. There aren’t any more. If I click them, it just shows the same single item: “Pulse audio server (local).” on all 3 drop downs. I don’t get anything like the options that show in your examples.

14

I think your first post noted your PC is using KDE-4.4.4 on openSUSE-11.3.

But KDE-4.4.4 comes with pulse audio disabled. Yet that Skype menu indicates pulse audio is enabled.

I recall earlier (at least a couple of times) I was confused wrt your setup , and asked you to consider pavucontrol. Perhaps that inappropriately pushed you into enabling pulse ?

Right now I see you have 2 options. ONE - disable pulse audio and try without it. Or TWO use pavucontrol to tune your settings. In which case I need to see ALL the details of the pavucontrol Configuration, Input devices, and Recording tabs , together with the options that are selectable.

15

I didn’t know that about KDE 4.4.4 and pulse audio.

Okay. First: Can pulse audio be disabled without fouling up audio playback, and if so how would you go about it? I don’t remember expressly installing pulse audio when I installed the system but its been awhile. I was going to update to 11.4 when it came out – until the install crashed because it didn’t like my Intel video chip on this machine.

In the meantime I’m going to start on screen shots for the pavucontrol settings . . .

Thanks again for your help. :slight_smile:

16

Okay, here are the screen prints from pavucontrol part 1:

http://thumbnails33.imagebam.com/14685/d33bed146849856.jpg](ImageBam)

http://thumbnails24.imagebam.com/14685/475d8e146849858.jpg](ImageBam)

http://thumbnails55.imagebam.com/14685/94e4e4146849867.jpg](ImageBam)

http://thumbnails53.imagebam.com/14685/4321fe146849872.jpg](ImageBam)

17

Part 2:

http://thumbnails22.imagebam.com/14685/e3e5d9146849877.jpg](http://www.imagebam.com/image/e3e5d9146849877)

http://thumbnails34.imagebam.com/14685/370800146849883.jpg](http://www.imagebam.com/image/370800146849883)

http://thumbnails47.imagebam.com/14685/2c471b146849888.jpg](http://www.imagebam.com/image/2c471b146849888)

http://thumbnails44.imagebam.com/14685/a3a52b146849894.jpg](http://www.imagebam.com/image/a3a52b146849894)

18

On part 2:

This file didn’t make the first upload. I had to rename it.

http://thumbnails56.imagebam.com/14686/efdc07146850565.jpg](http://www.imagebam.com/image/efdc07146850565)

The last pic is the system activity. Is it normal for pulse audio to be running the CPU at 47% or so when playing back audio? That seems a bit high. I wonder if it might to time to upgrade the system? (just curious if that might be an easier route.)

19

Half of those screen shots are of no interest. I included below the one’s that I believe are relevant.

I note:

Configuration (for your USB device):
http://thumbnails56.imagebam.com/14686/efdc07146850565.jpg](http://www.imagebam.com/image/efdc07146850565)

The input device to be interested in is the BOTTOM input device. You also have the wrong SHOW setting in place. You should have selected SHOW ALL “input devices”.
http://thumbnails24.imagebam.com/14685/475d8e146849858.jpg](http://www.imagebam.com/image/475d8e146849858)

No this is showing the wrong mic. Do NOT click on this as that will only redirect the recording to the motherboard / sound card mic. You need to focus your efforts on the bottom mic. Also You also have the wrong SHOW setting in place. You should have selected SHOW ALL “input devices”.
http://thumbnails55.imagebam.com/14685/94e4e4146849867.jpg](http://www.imagebam.com/image/94e4e4146849867)

Recording : I don’t see any application there.
http://thumbnails47.imagebam.com/14685/2c471b146849888.jpg](http://www.imagebam.com/image/2c471b146849888)
This suggests to me that did a print screen on this when you were not attempting to record with Skype. The Skype ‘input stream’ will ONLY show when attempting to record with the Skype test. You need to look at this when that is happening, else you won’t see anything here. ie attempt to record with Skype AND immediately while that is going, check out the ‘recording tab’ and select the USB mic.

Please try again.

…

Do you have both KDE and Gnome set up on this PC ? Because your comment about not knowing that pulse audio is not nominally installed on KDE-4.4.4 for openSUSE-11.3 is a surpise to me. Saying that differently, I am surprised anyone could install it by accident as pulse is not what I would call an intutitive install.

20

[QUOTE=oldcpu;2378596]Half of those screen shots are of no interest. I included below the one’s that I believe are relevant.

I note:

Configuration (for your USB device):
http://thumbnails56.imagebam.com/14686/efdc07146850565.jpg](http://www.imagebam.com/image/efdc07146850565)

The input device to be interested in is the BOTTOM input device.

Okay. Try this one:

http://thumbnails35.imagebam.com/14692/df59fd146917270.jpg](http://www.imagebam.com/image/df59fd146917270)

Recording : I don’t see any application there.

Here’s one: http://thumbnails22.imagebam.com/14692/171d44146919613.jpg](http://www.imagebam.com/image/171d44146919613)

I was getting errors at first, then Skype started working with pavucontrol running at the same time. Got the screen above and the mic was pointing at the internal sound board mic input, not the webcam mic. Changed the setting and now Skype can use the webcam mic. It works! I have no idea where the “device busy” errors were coming from, but now Skype, arecord, and all can see and use the webcam mic. Thanks for your time and effort!

I’m fairly sure that I didn’t install pulse audio during the original OS 11.3 KDE install, which I did about 3 weeks or so after it came out. I’ve never set up Gnome on this machine at all.