AOD250 microphone problem

Thanks for taking the time to report this bug and helping to make Ubuntu better. We appreciate the difficulties you are facing, but this appears to be a "regular" (non-security) bug. I have unmarked it as a security issue since this bug does not show evidence of allowing attackers to cross privilege boundaries nor directly cause loss of data/privacy. Please feel free to report any other bugs you may find.

Please use linux-alsa-driver-modules from ppa:ubuntu-audio-dev

I found that the stero input mic on my netbook does not produce sound unless i dis-able the stereo and only use mono then it works. I needed to adjust the L and R so they had different volume settings before sound was available.
I no longer need to disable pa, i do not know why stereo does not work, it seems to treat each input equal and thus cancels the sound output. perhaps this is a bug.

On my Acer Aspire One A110 UNE Lucid (full install), microphone works on Skype 2.1 Beta download from Skype's web site if you do:
Install padevchooser, run Pulse Audio Device Chooser from the Sound & Video menu & select Volume Control (or run Pulse Audio Volume Control from the Sound & Video menu), select Input Devices tab, click the Unlock Channels icon, move one channel down to 0 and the other to 100. Now start up Skype, click the Main Menu icon, select Options (by moving the cursor till you see it as it's camouflaged) and under the General left 'heading' 'Choose style of 'Desktop Settings'. Click the Apply button. Click the 'Sound Devices' left 'heading'. Uncheck the 'Allow Skype to automatically adjust my mixer levels' and click the Apply button. Exit skype by using Quit from the System Tray. Start up Skype, select Options (which you should now see), Sound Devices and use the 'Make a test sound' & 'Make a test call functions'.

I suspect that the above actions are only to correct bugs in Skype i.e. no bugs in Pulse Audio.

Someone insists that bug 549514 is a duplicate of this bug. That bug is trying to get sound working correctly on an Acer Aspire 8942G (quite a different machine than the Acer Aspire One). I have run two commands that may provide some additional information. The output from aplay -l and lspci are shown below.

To my eyes, it appears that ubuntu is loading a generic sound driver instead of the sound driver for the specific card, but I am not an expert. If someone who has more experience could take a look, and maybe suggest a solution, then I would be most grateful.

I am comfortable editing configuration files (like /etc/modprobe.d/alsa-base.conf), but I am not ccomfortable compiling programs. As long as the instructions are detailed and complete, then I will be most grateful for any help you can give me.

Many thanks,

output from aplay -l:

**** List of PLAYBACK Hardware Devices ****
card 0: Intel [HDA Intel], device 0: HDA Generic [HDA Generic]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 1: Headset [Logitech USB Headset], device 0: USB Audio [USB Audio]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 3: Generic [HD-Audio Generic], device 3: ATI HDMI [ATI HDMI]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0

output from lspci:

00:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corporation Core Processor DRAM Controller (rev 12)
00:01.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation Core Processor PCI Express x16 Root Port (rev 12)
00:16.0 Communication controller: Intel Corporation 5 Series/3400 Series Chipset HECI Controller (rev 06)
00:1a.0 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 5 Series/3400 Series Chipset USB2 Enhanced Host Controller (rev 06)
00:1b.0 Audio device: Intel Corporation 5 Series/3400 Series Chipset High Definition Audio (rev 06)
00:1c.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 5 Series/3400 Series Chipset PCI Express Root Port 1 (rev 06)
00:1c.1 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 5 Series/3400 Series Chipset PCI Express Root Port 2 (rev 06)
00:1c.3 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 5 Series/3400 Series Chipset PCI Express Root Port 4 (rev 06)
00:1c.4 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 5 Series/3400 Series Chipset PCI Express Root Port 5 (rev 06)
00:1c.5 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 5 Series/3400 Series Chipset PCI Express Root Port 6 (rev 06)
00:1d.0 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 5 Series/3400 Series Chipset USB2 Enhanced Host Controller (rev 06)
00:1e.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801 Mobile PCI Bridge (rev a6)
00:1f.0 ISA bridge: Intel Corporation Mobile 5 Series Chipset LPC Interface Controller (rev 06)
00:1f.2 SATA controller: Intel Corporation 5 Series/3400 Series Chipset 4 port SATA AHCI Controller (rev 06)
00:1f.3 SMBus: Intel Corporation 5 Series/3400 Series Chipset SMBus Controller (rev 06)
01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: ATI Technologies Inc Redwood [Radeon HD 5600 Series]
01:00.1 Audio device: ATI Technologies Inc Redwood HDMI Audio [Radeon HD 5600 Series]
02:00.0 Network controller: Atheros Communications Inc. AR928X Wireless Network Adapter (PCI-Express) (rev 01)
09:00.0 Ethernet controller: Broadcom Corporation NetLink BCM57780 Gigabit Ethernet PCIe (rev 01)
ff:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corporation Core Processor QuickPath Architecture Generic Non-core Regist...

Sorry if I am misunderstanding. Is this bug currently being worked on, and if it is, is my specific problem (sound on an Acer 8942G) being included.

If the answer is 'no' to either question, then could someone kindly remove the duplicate from bug 549514 so that it can get worked on? I am still having the problem and I'm not sure if there is a solution.

If the answer is 'yes' to both questions, then please accept my thanks, and please tell me if there is any further information that I can give you.

I appreciate all of the good work. This is the first significant problem that I have had with ubuntu in two years, but it is a big problem for me.

Many thanks,

Somewhere internally the polarity of one of the input sources is reversed with respect to the other which is causing phase cancellation.

Using either the internal microphone or a mono external microphone connected to the socket the same signal is applied to left and right channels (mono mics are usually wired to both pins) so when both are set to exactly the same level total cancellation occurs.

This can be clearly seen if pavucontrol is installed, the mic level controls unlocked and one of them adjusted. As it approaches the same level as the other cancellation occurs then sound returns as it goes past it.

If a stereo source is applied to the external socket anything which is the same on both channels is cancelled leaving only the differences.

This seems to be happening with multiple Acer Aspire models but does not happen when running Windows so is unlikely to be a hardware issue.

My guess is that it is a driver or alsa problem but I have not had time to investigate further.

Sean.

Apologies for double posting but I found a few minutes to do some more testing. I have an Acer Aspire One 532h which has exactly the same symptoms i.e internal mic doesn't work until there is a level difference between right and left.

Not only is there a polarity reversal but working around this by reducing one input fader to zero is creating excessive noise because the phase cancellation is happening somewhere in digital and reducing the fader is not the same as muting the channel. I can further confirm this because an external signal (1KHz tone in this case) connected to only left or right with both faders the same, works fine and is clean compared to the fader down solution but the same source is suffering from cancellation when applied to both channels ( great for vocal removal :-) )

The scary thing is that installing pavucontrol and pulling the fader down has been offered all over the internet as a solution when in fact it's a poor workaround for one situation only.

Symptoms are the same with version 1.0.23 of alsa installed.

Sean

I have the same thing on both of my Acer Aspires one D250 using alc272
codec
I was able to work around it either with a special asoundrc coding or by
seperating
the L & R channels with pulseaudio and making one or the other less in
signal strength.
Originally I was unable to get sound from the microphone but a fix was made
and put into
the alsa drivers but this particular issue remains. I am currently using
Mandriva 2010 and
this issue is present and I have tested Ubuntu 10.4.1 in a live session with
pavucontrol am
able to duplicate this same issue and same workaround.

On Mon, Aug 23, 2010 at 1:45 PM, Seano <email address hidden> wrote:

> Apologies for double posting but I found a few minutes to do some more
> testing. I have an Acer Aspire One 532h which has exactly the same
> symptoms i.e internal mic doesn't work until there is a level difference
> between right and left.
>
> Not only is there a polarity reversal but working around this by
> reducing one input fader to zero is creating excessive noise because the
> phase cancellation is happening somewhere in digital and reducing the
> fader is not the same as muting the channel. I can further confirm this
> because an external signal (1KHz tone in this case) connected to only
> left or right with both faders the same, works fine and is clean
> compared to the fader down solution but the same source is suffering
> from cancellation when applied to both channels ( great for vocal
> removal :-) )
>
> The scary thing is that installing pavucontrol and pulling the fader
> down has been offered all over the internet as a solution when in fact
> it's a poor workaround for one situation only.
>
> Symptoms are the same with version 1.0.23 of alsa installed.
>
> Sean
>
> --
> AOD250 microphone problem
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/412862
> You received this bug notification because you are a direct subscriber
> of a duplicate bug (378806).
>

--
Reach out and share your life, care for others,

Thinking some more about this there are two 'issues' here. Not only is there a polarity reversal somewhere but left and right channels must also be mixed which should not be happening as this is supposed to be a stereo record bus.

Well messed up.

my alsa-info report is attached. I have just tried this with google-talk and the internal mic will not remain seperated once i start the program so there is no output, I tried the fix shown here: http://wiki.ekiga.org/index.php/Asoundrc_for_stereo-mics but the
mic breaks up and does not remain un-muted, i tried to attach more files using ubuntu-bug 412862 but apparently that doesnt work when in a live-usb session, hopefully alsa-report will give enough information. This bug makes using any app with mic useless.

In using a liveusb i noticed that im not in the audio group when i had the issues, I will try again later.

Is this fixed in Maverick?

I just installed 10.10 on my netbook and then skype, the issue is the same
after i set the volume
on one of the stereo mic channels and start skype pulseaudio drops the mic
level to an un-acceptable
level, no change in the issue for me.

On Tue, Sep 21, 2010 at 5:43 AM, leighman <email address hidden> wrote:

> Is this fixed in Maverick?
>
> --
> AOD250 microphone problem
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/412862
> You received this bug notification because you are a direct subscriber
> of the bug.
>

--
"When we stop being a nation under God,
 we will be a nation gone under."
Ronald Regan

Hi Marcos,

If you could also please test the latest upstream kernel available that would be great. It will allow additional upstream developers to examine the issue. Refer to https://wiki.ubuntu.com/KernelMainlineBuilds . Once you've tested the upstream kernel, please remove the 'needs-upstream-testing' tag. This can be done by clicking on the yellow pencil icon next to the tag located at the bottom of the bug description and deleting the 'needs-upstream-testing' text. Please let us know your results.

Thanks in advance.

    [This is an automated message. Apologies if it has reached you inappropriately; please just reply to this message indicating so.]

A little further investigation has shown the following:

The meter on the pulseaudio volume control input devices tab shows L/R cancellation regardless until there is a difference between the faders.

A pulseaudio volume meter showing levels for Internal Audio Analog Stereo shows mic audio on both channels but it's meter on the recording tab shows nothing until there is a difference between the faders on the input devices tab.

gnome sound recorder shows level on it's meter even when there appears to be cancellation and it has nothing showing on it's meter on the recording tab. Pulling down the left fader on the volume control input devices tab affects the level on it's meter whereas the right fader has no affect but this should not be taken as evidence of anything as it may be that the sound recorder is metering only left.

What do I suspect is happening - that the metering in Pulseaudio is showing difference between left and right rather than the sum and that skype is being clever and selecting that same 'bus' because it expects it to be mono rather than selecting the stereo bus and doing it's own downmix.

Just a guess.

--sean

The /bin/sh -c "PULSE_SERVER=127.0.0.1 <app>" trick works for skype even though the Pulse Volume Control still shows no audio with both faders set the same. It also does away with the hum that is present if the 'pull one fader down' workaround is used.

--sean

Still broken in Maverick

For the moment the best workaround I have found is to set default-server = 127.0.0.1 in /etc/pulse/client.conf

Doesn't seem to break anything that I can find but it is only a workaround not a fix......still shows the same bizarreness in the pulseaudio volume control/metering.

However the plot thickens as running the alsamixer and panning PCM left or right has the same effect as pulling down one of the L/R input faders in pulse.

I solved my internal mic problem for Lenovo Ideapad U330 by doing all of the following:
(Should work for Acer Aspire as well)

1. In terminal:
sudo apt-get remove linux-backports-modules-alsa-`uname -r`

2. Get latest AlsaUpgrade script here, along with directions on download, compile, install:
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?p=6589810

(It is AlsaUpgrade-1.0.23-2 as of 27Dec2010)

3. Download, compile, install AlsaUpgrade as discussed in #2.

4. After reboot, find out if you have installed the newer version of alsa. In terminal:
cat /proc/asound/version

5. If mic still does not work, type:
sudo gedit /etc/modprobe.d/alsa-base.conf

6. You should see something similar to:
options snd-hda-intel index=-2

7. Add this to the end:
options snd-hda-intel index=-2 model=XXXXX

where xxxxx depends on your machine.
Find out what you should put in xxxxx here: http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1043568
Acer Aspire user try adding "options snd-hda-intel index=-2 model=acer"

8. If your specific machine isn't listed, try using what is similar to your machine. For example, Lenovo Ideapad U330 isn't listed in http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1043568, but they do have other Lenovo machines listed and they are usually "model=lenovo".
I added "options snd-hda-intel index=-2 model=lenovo" to the end of my modprobe file.

9. Save, exit, reboot. Mic works for me now and in skype.

Thanks joanne,

First three steps from your list fixes perfectly sound problems with my Acer Aspire 8942G (#549514).

I thought it might help to post a simple script that I use to set mic levels so that it works without going through the various gui clicks mentioned above. The script uses amixer which I understand is installed as part of the alsautils package.

Tried a live USB boot of Kubuntu 11.04 alpha 2 yesterday and although I can't say that the microphone works now, I did see more devices listed under "audio capture" in system settings.

[Expired for linux (Ubuntu) because there has been no activity for 60 days.]

This bug is missing log files that will aid in diagnosing the problem. From a terminal window please run:

apport-collect 412862

and then change the status of the bug to 'Confirmed'.

If, due to the nature of the issue you have encountered, you are unable to run this command, please add a comment stating that fact and change the bug status to 'Confirmed'.

This change has been made by an automated script, maintained by the Ubuntu Kernel Team.

Dear friends,

In precise in Aspire One D250 there's no input device at all in the default Ubuntu Desktop audio controls.

Coming up are the files from the apport hooks.

Dear Friends,

I've found that the issue that my Aspire One D250 has is Bug #946232.

Thanks,
Shahar

[Expired for linux (Ubuntu) because there has been no activity for 60 days.]

I have the exact same bug with the latest 13.04 on an Aspire One 531h-0dk.

Pulling one slider down solves the problem. However the auto mute silences the mik when the other person is talking, and never brings the level backup. So pretty useless at the moment.