On Sunday 19 April 2009 18:29, doug livesey wrote: > Hi -- very newb question, I'm sorry. > I'm just getting started with Ubuntu on an Acer Aspire, and there is a > problem with Skype, namely that I can't use it, as the microphone does not > seem to work. > One possible solution I saw was to update Alsa, so I have downloaded the > compressed file for the latest alsa-utils, but now have no idea how to go > about installing it. > Could anyone advise, or point me in the direction of a tutorial that might > tell me what I need? > Thanks very much, > Doug. Hi Doug. What is the Make/Model of your machine, and PC, or Laptop? Which Ubuntu, or Kubuntu version? Ok I see that's Intrepid on your subject line. If Ubuntu, pulseaudio may be the problem, and it may worth removing pulseaudio, then seeing if the mike now works. To remove pulseaudio use the command below. You can always reinstall it with apt-get install pulseaudio. sudo apt-get remove pulseaudio It may also be worth looking at alsamixer on Gnomes terminal. If you are using Ubuntu, typing alsamixer in the terminal will just bring up the control for pulseaudio, so open alsamixer as below, and you will see all the mixer settings for your soundcard. alsamixer -D hw:0 This will show playback controls. The F4 function key will show capture controls, and there is some microphone stuff there. The F3 key will take you back to playback controls. I've no experience with Skype, or microphones for that matter, but if the above hasn't resolved your problem, it's not the alsa-utils package, but the alsa-driver tarball you should have downloaded. Get the latest snapshot from the link below. Don't get the unstable one, just the one named alsa-driver-snapshot, which will be the latest. Either the .bz2, or the .gz one will do. http://ftp.kernel.org/pub/linux/kernel/people/tiwai/snapshot/ Just to keep everything organised first create a new folder in your /home/user directory named Alsa-drivers, then download the latest alsadriver snapshot, and put it in this directory. Having done that, open a terminal, and type the following. cd Alsa-drivers Now type the following, and this depends on whether you have downloaded the tar.gz, or the tar.bz2 version of the snapshot. For the .bz2 version. tar xjvf alsa-driver-snapshot.tar.bz2 For the .gz version. tar xzvf alsa-driver-snapshot.tar.gz So far so good? You should now have a new directory in your Alsa-drivers directory named alsa-driver. Before going any further, install the package below, as I believe it's necessary. Don't do this on the terminal you have open for working with the alsa-driver, but open a second terminal, then on the new terminal type the following. sudo apt-get install build-essential That done, exit the 2nd terminal, and now we can get back to compiling the alsa-driver snapshot. Type the following on the terminal that is still open. cd alsa-driver Do check that the newly created directory is named alsa-driver, and if different, change the cd command to the actual directory name. Now type the following commands as user. ./configure That runs for a while, and then should complete without complaining. Now type the following. make Make should run to completion, without complaining, but takes some time. If it complains, post back. If it doesn't complain type the following. sudo make install That should upgrade the alsa driver to the latest snapshot version. To check this out, and now see if you have the latest alsa-driver version installed, reboot, then run, cat /proc/asound/version, which should show alsa driver version 1.0.19. If this has gone OK, you may still have to mess with mike settings in alsamixer to get Skype doing it's stuff. Apologies if my help falls short, and doen't help to resolve your problem. Nigel. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Stay on top of everything new and different, both inside and around Java (TM) technology - register by April 22, and save $200 on the JavaOne (SM) conference, June 2-5, 2009, San Francisco. 300 plus technical and hands-on sessions. Register today. Use priority code J9JMT32. http://p.sf.net/sfu/p _______________________________________________ Alsa-user mailing list Alsa-user@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/alsa-user
