XFCE - No microphone input

English Multimedia
1

When I test with Skype, the microphone works. I close Skype. When I try to record using Audacity it doesn’t. Audacity recognizes that it’s default: Rear Mic:0. The recording level is turned up full, the vu meter is activated but shows nothing. Pavucontrol show Rear Microphone (plugged in) and the level is set at 0db. Alsa-firmware has been installed. YaST tells me that I have High Definition Audio Controller as index 0 and MCP61 High Defintion Audio as index 1.

I have to say that in my many years since 9.1 configuring recording has been the most difficult and confusing openSUSE feature. Which is odd, because when I boot MX Linux, Linux Lite, or Xubuntu everything works from the start. I boot one of those when I want to record.

I followed the Audio SDB and output playback always works, but little is mentioned when running XFCE. Could someone point me to a microphone setup post that deals with XFCE?

Thanks in advance.

2

To start with can you try recording input and at the same time run the following command in a terminal…

pacmd list-sources

Report back with the captured output.

3

Thank you for helping.

 :~> pacmd list-sources2 source(s) available.
  * index: 0
    name: <alsa_output.pci-0000_00_05.0.analog-stereo.monitor>
    driver: <module-alsa-card.c>
    flags: DECIBEL_VOLUME LATENCY DYNAMIC_LATENCY
    state: SUSPENDED
    suspend cause: IDLE
    priority: 1030
    volume: front-left: 65536 / 100% / 0.00 dB,   front-right: 65536 / 100% / 0.00 dB
            balance 0.00
    base volume: 65536 / 100% / 0.00 dB
    volume steps: 65537
    muted: no
    current latency: 0.00 ms
    max rewind: 0 KiB
    sample spec: s16le 2ch 44100Hz
    channel map: front-left,front-right
                 Stereo
    used by: 0
    linked by: 0
    configured latency: 0.00 ms; range is 36.00 .. 1999.82 ms
    monitor_of: 0
    card: 0 <alsa_card.pci-0000_00_05.0>
    module: 6
    properties:
        device.description = "Monitor of Built-in Audio Analog Stereo"
        device.class = "monitor"
        alsa.card = "0"
        alsa.card_name = "HDA NVidia"
        alsa.long_card_name = "HDA NVidia at 0xfe024000 irq 22"
        alsa.driver_name = "snd_hda_intel"
        device.bus_path = "pci-0000:00:05.0"
        sysfs.path = "/devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:05.0/sound/card0"
        device.bus = "pci"
        device.vendor.id = "10de"
        device.vendor.name = "NVIDIA Corporation"
        device.product.id = "03f0"
        device.product.name = "MCP61 High Definition Audio"
        device.form_factor = "internal"
        device.string = "0"
        module-udev-detect.discovered = "1"
        device.icon_name = "audio-card-pci"
    index: 6
    name: <alsa_input.pci-0000_00_05.0.analog-stereo>
    driver: <module-alsa-card.c>
    flags: HARDWARE HW_MUTE_CTRL HW_VOLUME_CTRL DECIBEL_VOLUME LATENCY DYNAMIC_LATENCY
    state: SUSPENDED
    suspend cause: IDLE
    priority: 9039
    volume: front-left: 64332 /  98% / -0.48 dB,   front-right: 64332 /  98% / -0.48 dB
            balance 0.00
    base volume: 6554 /  10% / -60.00 dB
    volume steps: 65537
    muted: no
    current latency: 0.00 ms
    max rewind: 0 KiB
    sample spec: s16le 2ch 44100Hz
    channel map: front-left,front-right
                 Stereo
    used by: 0
    linked by: 0
    configured latency: 0.00 ms; range is 0.50 .. 1999.82 ms
    card: 0 <alsa_card.pci-0000_00_05.0>
    module: 6
    properties:
        alsa.resolution_bits = "16"
        device.api = "alsa"
        device.class = "sound"
        alsa.class = "generic"
        alsa.subclass = "generic-mix"
        alsa.name = "ALC1200 Analog"
        alsa.id = "ALC1200 Analog"
        alsa.subdevice = "0"
        alsa.subdevice_name = "subdevice #0"
        alsa.device = "0"
        alsa.card = "0"
        alsa.card_name = "HDA NVidia"
        alsa.long_card_name = "HDA NVidia at 0xfe024000 irq 22"
        alsa.driver_name = "snd_hda_intel"
        device.bus_path = "pci-0000:00:05.0"
        sysfs.path = "/devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:05.0/sound/card0"
        device.bus = "pci"
        device.vendor.id = "10de"
        device.vendor.name = "NVIDIA Corporation"
        device.product.id = "03f0"
        device.product.name = "MCP61 High Definition Audio"
        device.form_factor = "internal"
        device.string = "front:0"
        device.buffering.buffer_size = "352768"
        device.buffering.fragment_size = "176384"
        device.access_mode = "mmap+timer"
        device.profile.name = "analog-stereo"
        device.profile.description = "Analog Stereo"
        device.description = "Built-in Audio Analog Stereo"
        alsa.mixer_name = "Realtek ALC1200"
        alsa.components = "HDA:10ec0888,103c2a72,00100101"
        module-udev-detect.discovered = "1"
        device.icon_name = "audio-card-pci"
    ports:
        analog-input-front-mic: Front Microphone (priority 8500, latency offset 0 usec, available: no)
            properties:
                device.icon_name = "audio-input-microphone"
        analog-input-rear-mic: Rear Microphone (priority 8200, latency offset 0 usec, available: yes)
            properties:
                device.icon_name = "audio-input-microphone"
        analog-input-linein: Line In (priority 8100, latency offset 0 usec, available: no)
            properties:
                
    active port: <analog-input-rear-mic>
4

Try setting the default source with…

pacmd set-default-source alsa_input.pci-0000_00_05.0.analog-stereo

then attempt to record some sound via rear mic again. Any different?

5

Yes, I now get a signal in Audacity. My next question is, will it last? Well it’s simple enough to execute a short script every time I want to use it. Now I will attempt to modify it for my other two desktops and will report back on conclusions.

Thank you for the speedy assistance. Your help and that of many others is the main reason I have stayed with openSUSE since version 9.1.

6

It should be persistent (ie user settings saved within ~/.config/puse/ directory).

7

It is persistent, but that causes a problem in recording online radio music which I play with a variety of applications, mpg123 and cvlc among others. How do I tell it to return to the system default? I would seriously consider removing pulseaudio except that I am told I need it for Skype.

Sorry to keep occupying your time, but it will end.

8

Can you not switch input device via pavucontrol when required?

9

Yes of course. I keep thinking of pavucontrol as an output device instead of an input selector.

10

So, all sorted now?

11

More or less, for the time being, perhaps. I have always found audio to be the most complicated part of our distro. I am sure that’s due to my having been in the audio business since the days of vacuum tubes. No longer, thank you. And my age doesn’t help either. Whenever things get really frustrating I boot Debian based distros that seem to work immediately after installation. I make web based long distance calls, listen to some calming music in my collection, and return to Leap with hopes of some day unravelling all it’s secrets.

In any case I truly thank you for your persistent assistance.

12

Yes, systems seem to get overly complicated, and some edge cases can cause issues for users. I don’t typically encounter these (apart from what I read in the forums of course), but I’m not doing anything particularly creative/unusual with my Linux systems. Anyway, glad to have been of help.

13

Agreed audio is generally difficult as there are so many things involved (drivers, ALSA, PulseAudio from the top of my head) and then it’s difficult to say where things break. On the bright side it’s also difficult in Windows 10 at least for me sometimes switching input or output devices doesn’t work at all or not as I would expect. Also at the moment in Windows there are the old configuration windows for audio and new ones and sometimes they don’t play nice with each other.

14

Since audio appears to be complicated (not just to me), could it not be simplified at installation time? If I didn’t use Skype I think I could get by without pulseaudio. What if I only had one sound card? What if I would never ever record from a microphone? What if I didn’t want Clementine? Could we not reduce the complexity by asking more questions at installation time, and only installing the necessary applications?

15

I guess it depends on the individual. Some of us like the massive flexibility that comes with the complexity.

Who should the developers and packagers spend their effort to please here, given likely there are insufficient developers and insufficient packagers to tune the software to please the requests of everyone - especially given how much everyone pays (or more accurately put - does not pay) for openSUSE?

I think it is not an easy question to answer.

16

For me at least PulseAudio simplifies things. I had no idea how to change input devices with pure ALSA and it’s so easy with pavucontrol. ARts was non functional for me as well. There is also PipeWire comming so hopefully that will simplify things further :slight_smile:

17

To this thread starter,
Xfce user here. Have you tried the xfce4-mixer in tweaking your audio?
https://susepaste.org/images/26804671.jpg

18

No, I was not aware of it. Many thanks, you have opened another door for me. Something else to experiment with.