On 2011-03-08 00:26, Colin Guthrie wrote: > 'Twas brillig, and Gabriel Schulhof at 07/03/11 19:56 did gyre and gimble: >> Hi! >> >> My mom has a laptop with the following sound card: >> >> lspci: 00:14.2 Audio device: ATI Technologies Inc SBx00 Azalia (Intel HDA) >> (rev 40) >> >> driver: snd_hda_intel >> >> alsamixer: >> Card: HDA ATI SB >> Chip: Conexant CX20585 >> >> I can't record from this card no matter what I try. It seems that >> alsamixer has a lot more options than pulseaudio: >> >> Mic B<Capture switch> >> Mic C<Capture switch> >> Mic E<Capture switch> >> Mic F<Capture switch> >> Capture<0% -- 100% slider> >> Analog Mic Boost<0 db -- 40 db slider with 10 db increment> >> >> Nevertheless, I will attach the output from pacmd list-sources. >> >> I have tried to record from each mic in turn, I have tried the different >> boost levels (0 db - 40 db), but I have had no luck picking up anything. I >> have attached an external mic to the line-in, but no difference. >> >> When I say "I have tried to record" I mean that I logged into her >> computer, chose one of the mics from the above list, and then I told my >> mom to say something while looking at the input sound level indicator in >> the GNOME sound settings panel. On other computers, I have found this a >> sufficient indication of whether the mic works. >> >> Is this inability to record a known limitation of this sound card? If not, >> is there some special setting I have to modify to make it work? >> >> TIA for your help, > > Some mics do this weird out-of-phase thing whereby the recording level > is effectively 0 when the stereo volume is synced. If you set left to > say 5% and right to say 95% then it works fine. > > This may be the case with your h/w too. > > FWIW The "extra" options you see in ALSA are generally confusing and > useless. PA attempts to consolidate it and make it a lot more user friendly. > > Normally you'd get a list of several "port" selectors in > gnome-volume-control. Sadly as your card uses the incredibly helpful > names of "Mic B" through "Mic F" these do not match the various > "standard" names we probe for. > > David, have you come across this model on your travels? Many times, that's the fallback for many Conexants. > Any ideas on how > we could best support it? This one is one of few that lack an auto-parser of the pin default config, so for now - model quirks. Without seeing alsa-info or something similar, I can't tell which model would fit. In the long run we would benefit from an autoparser handling these as well. -- David Henningsson, Canonical Ltd. http://launchpad.net/~diwic