Microphone Issues-Inspiron 1521/Linux Mint/Azalia

[nocgeneer]

I've searched long and hard for a solution to this problem but haven't been able to find anyone with my exact issue. Basically my sound output works fine the way it should but my internal mic (int-mic) is not being captured. I have tried using "ossrecord - | ossplay -" and playing with the settings in ossxmix but the only thing I can seem to get is a recording of the static around the microphone input jack. I tried plugging in an external mike and got a spike in static but no actual input. Granted the mic might be busted but I was just testing to see if that was indeed the input oss was using instead of my internal microphone. It seems to me there should be a switch somewhere to change this or one line that needs to be added to/changed in a config file somewhere but I can't seem to find it. I even tried the hdaudio_noskip=7 flag but none of the new options seem to do anything. I do know Azalia cards can be tricky and Dell laptops doubly so but since I am getting something I'm hoping this is fixable. I have tried manual selection of all the different /dev/dsp# in Audacity but it just freezes up and I have to kill the program.

I am using Linux Mint 9 64 bit (standard Gnome version) with oss4.2 [build 2003] installed via 4front deb. Here are the relavent outputs for my harware and oss:

lspci -vnn

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00:00.0 Host bridge [0600]: ATI Technologies Inc RS690 Host Bridge [1002:7910]
   Subsystem: Dell Device [1028:01fc]
   Flags: bus master, 66MHz, medium devsel, latency 64

00:01.0 PCI bridge [0604]: ATI Technologies Inc RS690 PCI to PCI Bridge (Internal gfx) [1002:7912]
   Flags: bus master, 66MHz, medium devsel, latency 64
   Bus: primary=00, secondary=01, subordinate=01, sec-latency=64
   I/O behind bridge: 0000e000-0000efff
   Memory behind bridge: fe900000-feafffff
   Prefetchable memory behind bridge: 00000000e0000000-00000000efffffff
   Capabilities: <access denied>
   Kernel modules: shpchp

00:05.0 PCI bridge [0604]: ATI Technologies Inc RS690 PCI to PCI Bridge (PCI Express Port 1) [1002:7915]
   Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 0
   Bus: primary=00, secondary=0b, subordinate=0b, sec-latency=0
   Memory behind bridge: fe800000-fe8fffff
   Capabilities: <access denied>
   Kernel driver in use: pcieport
   Kernel modules: shpchp

00:07.0 PCI bridge [0604]: ATI Technologies Inc RS690 PCI to PCI Bridge (PCI Express Port 3) [1002:7917]
   Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 0
   Bus: primary=00, secondary=0c, subordinate=0d, sec-latency=0
   I/O behind bridge: 0000d000-0000dfff
   Memory behind bridge: fe600000-fe7fffff
   Prefetchable memory behind bridge: 00000000f0000000-00000000f01fffff
   Capabilities: <access denied>
   Kernel driver in use: pcieport
   Kernel modules: shpchp

00:12.0 SATA controller [0106]: ATI Technologies Inc SB600 Non-Raid-5 SATA [1002:4380] (prog-if 01)
   Subsystem: Dell Device [1028:01fc]
   Flags: bus master, 66MHz, medium devsel, latency 64, IRQ 22
   I/O ports at 6eb0 [size=8]
   I/O ports at 6eb8 [size=4]
   I/O ports at 6ec0 [size=8]
   I/O ports at 6ec8 [size=4]
   I/O ports at 6ee0 [size=16]
   Memory at fec01000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=1K]
   Capabilities: <access denied>
   Kernel driver in use: ahci
   Kernel modules: ahci

00:13.0 USB Controller [0c03]: ATI Technologies Inc SB600 USB (OHCI0) [1002:4387] (prog-if 10)
   Subsystem: Dell Device [1028:01fc]
   Flags: bus master, 66MHz, medium devsel, latency 64, IRQ 16
   Memory at ffb00000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=4K]
   Kernel driver in use: ohci_hcd

00:13.1 USB Controller [0c03]: ATI Technologies Inc SB600 USB (OHCI1) [1002:4388] (prog-if 10)
   Subsystem: Dell Device [1028:01fc]
   Flags: bus master, 66MHz, medium devsel, latency 64, IRQ 17
   Memory at ffb01000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=4K]
   Kernel driver in use: ohci_hcd

00:13.2 USB Controller [0c03]: ATI Technologies Inc SB600 USB (OHCI2) [1002:4389] (prog-if 10)
   Subsystem: Dell Device [1028:01fc]
   Flags: bus master, 66MHz, medium devsel, latency 64, IRQ 18
   Memory at ffb02000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=4K]
   Kernel driver in use: ohci_hcd

00:13.3 USB Controller [0c03]: ATI Technologies Inc SB600 USB (OHCI3) [1002:438a] (prog-if 10)
   Subsystem: Dell Device [1028:01fc]
   Flags: bus master, 66MHz, medium devsel, latency 64, IRQ 17
   Memory at ffb03000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=4K]
   Kernel driver in use: ohci_hcd

00:13.4 USB Controller [0c03]: ATI Technologies Inc SB600 USB (OHCI4) [1002:438b] (prog-if 10)
   Subsystem: Dell Device [1028:01fc]
   Flags: bus master, 66MHz, medium devsel, latency 64, IRQ 18
   Memory at ffb04000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=4K]
   Kernel driver in use: ohci_hcd

00:13.5 USB Controller [0c03]: ATI Technologies Inc SB600 USB Controller (EHCI) [1002:4386] (prog-if 20)
   Subsystem: Dell Device [1028:01fc]
   Flags: bus master, 66MHz, medium devsel, latency 64, IRQ 20
   Memory at ffa80000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=256]
   Capabilities: <access denied>
   Kernel driver in use: ehci_hcd

00:14.0 SMBus [0c05]: ATI Technologies Inc SBx00 SMBus Controller [1002:4385] (rev 14)
   Subsystem: Dell Device [1028:01fc]
   Flags: 66MHz, medium devsel
   I/O ports at 10c0 [size=16]
   Capabilities: <access denied>
   Kernel driver in use: piix4_smbus
   Kernel modules: i2c-piix4

00:14.1 IDE interface [0101]: ATI Technologies Inc SB600 IDE [1002:438c] (prog-if 8a [Master SecP PriP])
   Subsystem: Dell Device [1028:01fc]
   Flags: bus master, 66MHz, medium devsel, latency 64, IRQ 16
   I/O ports at 01f0 [size=8]
   I/O ports at 03f4 [size=1]
   I/O ports at 0170 [size=8]
   I/O ports at 0374 [size=1]
   I/O ports at bfa0 [size=16]
   Kernel driver in use: pata_atiixp
   Kernel modules: pata_atiixp

00:14.2 Audio device [0403]: ATI Technologies Inc SBx00 Azalia (Intel HDA) [1002:4383]
   Subsystem: Dell Device [1028:01fc]
   Flags: bus master, slow devsel, latency 64, IRQ 16
   Memory at febfc000 (64-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=16K]
   Capabilities: <access denied>
   Kernel driver in use: oss_hdaudio

00:14.3 ISA bridge [0601]: ATI Technologies Inc SB600 PCI to LPC Bridge [1002:438d]
   Subsystem: Dell Device [1028:01fc]
   Flags: bus master, 66MHz, medium devsel, latency 0

00:14.4 PCI bridge [0604]: ATI Technologies Inc SBx00 PCI to PCI Bridge [1002:4384] (prog-if 01)
   Flags: bus master, 66MHz, medium devsel, latency 64
   Bus: primary=00, secondary=03, subordinate=03, sec-latency=64
   Memory behind bridge: fe500000-fe5fffff

00:18.0 Host bridge [0600]: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] K8 [Athlon64/Opteron] HyperTransport Technology Configuration [1022:1100]
   Flags: fast devsel
   Capabilities: <access denied>

00:18.1 Host bridge [0600]: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] K8 [Athlon64/Opteron] Address Map [1022:1101]
   Flags: fast devsel

00:18.2 Host bridge [0600]: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] K8 [Athlon64/Opteron] DRAM Controller [1022:1102]
   Flags: fast devsel
   Kernel modules: amd64_edac_mod

00:18.3 Host bridge [0600]: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] K8 [Athlon64/Opteron] Miscellaneous Control [1022:1103]
   Flags: fast devsel
   Capabilities: <access denied>
   Kernel driver in use: k8temp
   Kernel modules: k8temp

01:05.0 VGA compatible controller [0300]: ATI Technologies Inc RS690M [Radeon X1200 Series] [1002:791f]
   Subsystem: Dell Device [1028:01fc]
   Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 64, IRQ 26
   Memory at e0000000 (64-bit, prefetchable) [size=256M]
   Memory at fe9f0000 (64-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=64K]
   I/O ports at ee00 [size=256]
   Memory at fea00000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=1M]
   Capabilities: <access denied>
   Kernel driver in use: radeon
   Kernel modules: radeon

03:00.0 Ethernet controller [0200]: Broadcom Corporation BCM4401-B0 100Base-TX [14e4:170c] (rev 02)
   Subsystem: Dell Device [1028:01fc]
   Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 64, IRQ 21
   Memory at fe5fe000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=8K]
   Capabilities: <access denied>
   Kernel driver in use: b44
   Kernel modules: b44

03:01.0 FireWire (IEEE 1394) [0c00]: Ricoh Co Ltd R5C832 IEEE 1394 Controller [1180:0832] (rev 05) (prog-if 10)
   Subsystem: Dell Device [1028:01fc]
   Flags: bus master, medium devsel, latency 64, IRQ 23
   Memory at fe5fd800 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=2K]
   Capabilities: <access denied>
   Kernel driver in use: ohci1394
   Kernel modules: firewire-ohci, ohci1394

03:01.1 SD Host controller [0805]: Ricoh Co Ltd R5C822 SD/SDIO/MMC/MS/MSPro Host Adapter [1180:0822] (rev 22) (prog-if 01)
   Subsystem: Dell Device [1028:01fc]
   Flags: bus master, medium devsel, latency 64, IRQ 20
   Memory at fe5fd400 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=256]
   Capabilities: <access denied>
   Kernel driver in use: sdhci-pci
   Kernel modules: sdhci-pci

03:01.2 System peripheral [0880]: Ricoh Co Ltd R5C843 MMC Host Controller [1180:0843] (rev 12)
   Subsystem: Dell Device [1028:01fc]
   Flags: bus master, medium devsel, latency 64, IRQ 7
   Memory at fe5fd500 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=256]
   Capabilities: <access denied>
   Kernel driver in use: ricoh-mmc
   Kernel modules: ricoh_mmc

03:01.3 System peripheral [0880]: Ricoh Co Ltd R5C592 Memory Stick Bus Host Adapter [1180:0592] (rev 12)
   Subsystem: Dell Device [1028:01fc]
   Flags: bus master, medium devsel, latency 64, IRQ 7
   Memory at fe5fd600 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=256]
   Capabilities: <access denied>

03:01.4 System peripheral [0880]: Ricoh Co Ltd xD-Picture Card Controller [1180:0852] (rev ff) (prog-if ff)
   !!! Unknown header type 7f

0b:00.0 Network controller [0280]: Broadcom Corporation BCM4311 802.11b/g WLAN [14e4:4311] (rev 01)
   Subsystem: Dell Device [1028:0007]
   Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 0, IRQ 17
   Memory at fe8fc000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=16K]
   Capabilities: <access denied>
   Kernel driver in use: wl
   Kernel modules: wl, ssb

ossinfo

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Version info: OSS 4.2 (b 2003/201005272149) (0x00040100) TRIAL
Platform: Linux/x86_64 2.6.32-21-generic #32-Ubuntu SMP Fri Apr 16 08:09:38 UTC 2010 (Bruce)

Number of audio devices:   8
Number of audio engines:   12
Number of MIDI devices:      0
Number of mixer devices:   1


Device objects
 0: osscore0 OSS core services
 1: oss_hdaudio0 ATI HD Audio interrupts=2452 (2452)
    HD Audio controller ATI HD Audio
    Vendor ID    0x10024383
    Subvendor ID 0x102801fc
     Codec  0: STAC9205 (0x838476a0/0x102801fc)
     Codec  1: Conexant2c06 (0x14f12c06)
 2: oss_usb0 USB audio core services

MIDI devices (/dev/midi*)

Mixer devices
 0: High Definition Audio STAC9205 (Mixer 0 of device object 1)

Audio devices
HD Audio play front               /dev/oss/oss_hdaudio0/pcm0  (device index 0)
HD Audio play rear                /dev/oss/oss_hdaudio0/pcm1  (device index 1)
HD Audio play modem-out           /dev/oss/oss_hdaudio0/pcm2  (device index 2)
HD Audio play spdif-out           /dev/oss/oss_hdaudio0/spdout0  (device index 3)
HD Audio rec rec1-mux             /dev/oss/oss_hdaudio0/pcmin0  (device index 4)
HD Audio rec rec2-mux             /dev/oss/oss_hdaudio0/pcmin1  (device index 5)
HD Audio rec modem-out            /dev/oss/oss_hdaudio0/pcmin2  (device index 6)
HD Audio rec digital-in           /dev/oss/oss_hdaudio0/spdin0  (device index 7)

Nodes
  /dev/dsp -> /dev/oss/oss_hdaudio0/pcm0
  /dev/dsp_in -> /dev/oss/oss_hdaudio0/pcm0
  /dev/dsp_out -> /dev/oss/oss_hdaudio0/pcm0
  /dev/dsp_ac3 -> /dev/oss/oss_hdaudio0/spdout0
  /dev/dsp_mmap -> /dev/oss/oss_hdaudio0/pcm0
  /dev/dsp_multich -> /dev/oss/oss_hdaudio0/pcm0

ossmix

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Selected mixer 0/High Definition Audio STAC9205
Known controls are:
jack.black.mode1 <front|rear|input> (currently front)
jack.black.mode2 <front|rear|input> (currently input)
jack.int-mic.mode <rear|input> (currently input)
jack.int-mic.rear [<leftvol>:<rightvol>] (currently 95.1:95.1 dB)
jack.int-speaker.mode <front|input> (currently front)
jack.int-speaker.front [<leftvol>:<rightvol>] (currently 95.1:95.1 dB)
jack.internal.mode1 <front|input> (currently front)
jack.internal.mode2 <rear|input> (currently rear)
jack.internal.front <monovol> (currently 38.9 dB)
jack.internal.mode3 <spdif-out|rec1-mux|rec2-mux> (currently spdif-out)
record.rec1-mux.input1-mux1 [<leftvol>:<rightvol>] (currently 39.9:39.9 dB)
record.rec1-mux.input1-mux2 <front|cd|rear|linein|rear> (currently linein)
record.rec1-mux [<leftvol>:<rightvol>] (currently 22.4:22.4 dB)
record.rec1-mux.mute ON|OFF (currently OFF)
record.rec1-mux.rec1-mux <input1-mux|dig-mic1|dig-mic2> (currently input1-mux)
record.rec2-mux.input2-mux1 [<leftvol>:<rightvol>] (currently 39.9:39.9 dB)
record.rec2-mux.input2-mux2 <front|cd|rear|linein|rear> (currently linein)
record.rec2-mux [<leftvol>:<rightvol>] (currently 22.4:22.4 dB)
record.rec2-mux.mute ON|OFF (currently OFF)
record.rec2-mux.rec2-mux <input2-mux|dig-mic1|dig-mic2> (currently input2-mux)
misc <-28.-8dB|-19.-2dB|-9.-6dB|0.0dB> (currently 0.0dB)
vmix0-enable ON|OFF (currently ON)
vmix0-rate <decimal value> (currently 48000) (Read-only)
vmix0-channels <Stereo|Multich> (currently Stereo)
vmix0-src <Fast|High|OFF> (currently Fast)
vmix0-outvol <monovol> (currently 18.3 dB)
vmix0-invol <monovol> (currently 25.0 dB)
vmix0.pcm8 [<leftvol>:<rightvol>] (currently 25.0:25.0 dB)
vmix0.pcm9 [<leftvol>:<rightvol>] (currently 25.0:25.0 dB)
vmix0.pcm10 [<leftvol>:<rightvol>] (currently 25.0:25.0 dB)
vmix0.pcm11 [<leftvol>:<rightvol>] (currently 25.0:25.0 dB)

Any help that would get my microphone up and running would be appreciated. Thank you.

[igorzwx]

This might be wrong:

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record.rec1-mux.input1-mux2 <front|cd|rear|linein|rear> (currently linein)
record.rec2-mux.input2-mux2 <front|cd|rear|linein|rear> (currently linein)

You may try Arch LiveCD with OSS4
viewtopic.php?f=3&t=3933
see also:
viewtopic.php?f=3&t=3981

If nothing helps, you may try iMic USB (31 EURO).
It is a real soundcard, not a software emulation of the sort of Intel HDA.
iMic USB does not work with OSS4, but it works well with ALSA and with Windows XP.
http://www.amazon.de/Griffin-GC16031-iM ... 878&sr=8-2

[nocgeneer]

That was one of the settings I tried to play with in conjunction with many of the other ones. The only thing I could get to work at all was the line-in. What was interesting though was that when

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jack.internal.mode2 <rear|input> (currently rear)

was changed to input I suddenly lost output to my right speaker. I will think about your suggestions but I think I'll just continue to use my Windows partition for anything requiring a microphone (Skype, etc). If you think of anything else let me know but otherwise thanks.

[igorzwx]

That was one of the settings I tried to play with in conjunction with many of the other ones. The only thing I could get to work at all was the line-in. What was interesting though was that when

Code: Select all

jack.internal.mode2 <rear|input> (currently rear)

was changed to input I suddenly lost output to my right speaker. I will think about your suggestions but I think I'll just continue to use my Windows partition for anything requiring a microphone (Skype, etc). If you think of anything else let me know but otherwise thanks.

It seems that mic was working with the same soundcard with an older version of OSS4 and older version of Mint.
http://forums.linuxmint.com/viewtopic.p ... 3&start=15
00:14.2 Audio device: ATI Technologies Inc SBx00 Azalia (Intel HDA)
http://forums.linuxmint.com/viewtopic.php?f=48&t=32173

On December 3, 2009, the Russians reported that everything is O.K. with this card
http://forum.ubuntu.ru/index.php?topic= ... #msg578836

It might depend on a particular notebook too.

On a Siemens notebook (ICH6) mic does not work after the first reboot. This was fixed with the immutable bit.
I would propose to try Arch LiveCD, therefore.

On a Dell notebook (ICH7) mic does not work despite any ritual performances. With ALSA (and Windows XP) mic works so bad that it cannot be used with Skype. iMic, however, works well with both ALSA and Windows.

Edit: Mic works now on that Dell notebook (ICH7) with Arch LiveCD 20100825-release, it has oss 4.2_2003-1
It works with skype-oss, Audacity, and ossrecord. The quality of recording is good.

[cesium]

You can try adding "hdaudio_noskip=7" line to /usr/lib/oss/conf/oss_hdaudio.conf (followed by OSS restart: "sudo soundoff" and "sudo soundon"). Maybe it will add new mixer controls (you can compare vs the list you pasted here), which might be useful...

[nocgeneer]

Thanks for the help. I may try Arch LiveCD someday soon and see if I like it. I've been using LinuxMint for so long now that I've grown both accustomed to and fond of it but it may be time for a step deeper into the linux world. Especially if it means getting some more things working. I may see what comes of the Debian based (as opposed to Ubuntu based) LinuxMint in the future too... That could be a very good thing .