System Test for microphone failed (ACER Aspire 3810T)

Please make sure you have an output + input profile set in the volume control preferences, under the hardware tab. Please also make sure you have the correct input selected under the input tab in the same volume control preferences.

Luke Yelavich wrote on 2009-10-25:
"Please make sure you have an output + input profile set in the volume control preferences, under the hardware tab. Please also make sure you have the correct input selected under the input tab in the same volume control preferences."

I'm not sure what you mean by that, but in alsamixer no in- or output setting will enable the internal microphone. Changing the microphone selector in alsamixer to internal also doesn't disable the external microphone. I have a feeling the internal microphone gets (should get) activated by a switch in the microphone jack and this switch is not detected/sensed. Regrettably I know no way to verify this 'feeling'.

The problem is SOLVED!

New alsa drivers 1.0.21 (alsa-project.org) have support for Intel 45 mobile chipset. So, all you need is to install latest drivers into your system.

The easiest way is to use ALSA Upgrade Script from
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?p=6589810#post6589810

Worked just fine ;)

...or you could just sudo apt-get install
linux-backports-modules-alsa-karmic-generic and reboot. (l-b-m-a-k-g
contains an even newer snapshot, 20091012, than even 1.0.21 or
1.0.21a)

Daniel T Chen wrote:
"...or you could just sudo apt-get install
linux-backports-modules-alsa-karmic-generic and reboot. (l-b-m-a-k-g
contains an even newer snapshot, 20091012, than even 1.0.21 or
1.0.21a)"

I tried that (saw that solution posted in the 409819 bug report: [regression] Built-in mic not working after pulse updates on Karmic. Intel 82801H (ICH8 Family) sound card.), but it didn't solve the bug for me.

Sorry that I forgot to mention all the things I tried solving the bug, here's the list:
- sudo apt-get install linux-backports-modules-alsa-karmic-generic
- install .deb's listed here : https://launchpad.net/~thefirstm/+archive/karmic-testing/+build/1240451
- install the latest alsa from source from alsa-project.org (this is on the edge of my expertise and it's posible I messed up here)

None of the above helped me solve the internal mic bug. I'll try the link almozavr posted later today and report back with the outcome. It seems more fool proof than the "installing from source" method I used ;)

@miegiel linux-backports-modules-alsa-karmic-generic contains the
latest alsa-kernel (sound driver) of all those that you tried. The
debs in the PPA that you gave are kinda pointless, as they don't
actually install *any* drivers unless you manually use
module-assistant with the generate alsa-source.

Also, you should check your amixer/alsamixer settings (but I have no
way to tell what yours are after using l-b-m-a-k-g since you haven't
attached them).

With any sound problems I always check pulse 1st and 'alsamixer' next, just to be clear on that ;)

Didn't know 'amixer' yet, but it does the same as 'alsamixer', still the 'amixer' output is more suitable to post I guess. Below is the original output, I'm going to install xubuntu on a spare partition now so I can safely mess things up and still have sound when I need it tomorrow. Reporting back in an hour or so.

user@machine:~$ amixer sset 'Input Source',0 'Int Mic'
Simple mixer control 'Input Source',0
  Capabilities: cenum
  Items: 'Front Mic' 'Int Mic'
  Item0: 'Int Mic'

Has no effect (as in alsamixer), front (jack) mic always works and internal doesn't regardless of the selected input.

user@nachine:~$ amixer
Simple mixer control 'Master',0
  Capabilities: pvolume pvolume-joined pswitch pswitch-joined
  Playback channels: Mono
  Limits: Playback 0 - 64
  Mono: Playback 37 [58%] [-27.00dB] [on]
Simple mixer control 'Headphone',0
  Capabilities: pswitch
  Playback channels: Front Left - Front Right
  Mono:
  Front Left: Playback [on]
  Front Right: Playback [on]
Simple mixer control 'PCM',0
  Capabilities: pvolume
  Playback channels: Front Left - Front Right
  Limits: Playback 0 - 255
  Mono:
  Front Left: Playback 255 [100%] [0.00dB]
  Front Right: Playback 255 [100%] [0.00dB]
Simple mixer control 'Front',0
  Capabilities: pvolume pswitch
  Playback channels: Front Left - Front Right
  Limits: Playback 0 - 64
  Mono:
  Front Left: Playback 63 [98%] [0.00dB] [on]
  Front Right: Playback 63 [98%] [0.00dB] [on]
Simple mixer control 'Front Mic',0
  Capabilities: pvolume pswitch
  Playback channels: Front Left - Front Right
  Limits: Playback 0 - 31
  Mono:
  Front Left: Playback 31 [100%] [12.00dB] [off]
  Front Right: Playback 31 [100%] [12.00dB] [off]
Simple mixer control 'Front Mic Boost',0
  Capabilities: volume
  Playback channels: Front Left - Front Right
  Capture channels: Front Left - Front Right
  Limits: 0 - 3
  Front Left: 0 [0%]
  Front Right: 0 [0%]
Simple mixer control 'IEC958',0
  Capabilities: pswitch pswitch-joined
  Playback channels: Mono
  Mono: Playback [off]
Simple mixer control 'IEC958 Default PCM',0
  Capabilities: pswitch pswitch-joined
  Playback channels: Mono
  Mono: Playback [off]
Simple mixer control 'IEC958',1
  Capabilities: pswitch pswitch-joined
  Playback channels: Mono
  Mono: Playback [off]
Simple mixer control 'Capture',0
  Capabilities: cvolume cswitch
  Capture channels: Front Left - Front Right
  Limits: Capture 0 - 46
  Front Left: Capture 16 [35%] [-1.00dB] [on]
  Front Right: Capture 16 [35%] [-1.00dB] [on]
Simple mixer control 'Beep',0
  Capabilities: pvolume pswitch
  Playback channels: Front Left - Front Right
  Limits: Playback 0 - 31
  Mono:
  Front Left: Playback 0 [0%] [-34.50dB] [off]
  Front Right: Playback 0 [0%] [-34.50dB] [off]
Simple mixer control 'Digital',0
  Capabilities: cvolume
  Capture channels: Front Left - Front Right
  Limits: Capture 0 - 120
  Front Left: Capture 0 [0%] [-30.00dB]
  Front Right: Capture 0 [0%] [-30.00dB]
Simple mixer control 'Input Source',0
  Capabilities: cenum
  Items: 'Front Mic' 'Int Mic'
  Item0: 'Front Mic'

I just installed linux-backports-modules-alsa-karmic-generic-pae (Since I was connected to the internet while installing xubuntu this time the pae kernel was automatically installed. I hope this was the right choice.) After rebooting 'alsamixer' no longer has a mute option for the microphone output, there is no input source selector for the microphone anymore and neither my internal or external microphone work. I'm also missing the front PCM output, but sound out does work.

I'm going to try almozavr's sugestion above next.

user@machine:~$ amixer
Simple mixer control 'Master',0
  Capabilities: pvolume pvolume-joined pswitch pswitch-joined
  Playback channels: Mono
  Limits: Playback 0 - 64
  Mono: Playback 44 [69%] [-20.00dB] [on]
Simple mixer control 'Headphone',0
  Capabilities: pvolume pswitch
  Playback channels: Front Left - Front Right
  Limits: Playback 0 - 64
  Mono:
  Front Left: Playback 52 [81%] [-11.00dB] [on]
  Front Right: Playback 52 [81%] [-11.00dB] [on]
Simple mixer control 'Front Mic Boost',0
  Capabilities: volume
  Playback channels: Front Left - Front Right
  Capture channels: Front Left - Front Right
  Limits: 0 - 3
  Front Left: 3 [100%]
  Front Right: 3 [100%]
Simple mixer control 'IEC958',0
  Capabilities: pswitch pswitch-joined
  Playback channels: Mono
  Mono: Playback [off]
Simple mixer control 'IEC958 Default PCM',0
  Capabilities: pswitch pswitch-joined
  Playback channels: Mono
  Mono: Playback [on]
Simple mixer control 'IEC958',1
  Capabilities: pswitch pswitch-joined
  Playback channels: Mono
  Mono: Playback [on]
Simple mixer control 'Capture',0
  Capabilities: cvolume cswitch
  Capture channels: Front Left - Front Right
  Limits: Capture 0 - 46
  Front Left: Capture 29 [63%] [12.00dB] [on]
  Front Right: Capture 29 [63%] [12.00dB] [on]
Simple mixer control 'Beep',0
  Capabilities: pvolume pswitch
  Playback channels: Front Left - Front Right
  Limits: Playback 0 - 31
  Mono:
  Front Left: Playback 0 [0%] [-34.50dB] [off]
  Front Right: Playback 0 [0%] [-34.50dB] [off]
Simple mixer control 'Speaker',0
  Capabilities: pvolume pswitch
  Playback channels: Front Left - Front Right
  Limits: Playback 0 - 64
  Mono:
  Front Left: Playback 43 [67%] [-20.00dB] [on]
  Front Right: Playback 43 [67%] [-20.00dB] [on]

Well, it kind of works now. As Daniel T Chen posted 'linux-backports-modules-alsa-karmic-generic' and the alsa installed by the script Almozavr posted about are practically identical (l-b-m-a-k-g is a lot easier and faster to install though).

With alsa 1.0.21 'alsamixer is missing the (un)mute switch for the microphone output, this falsely led me to believe the microphone would unmute if I turned up the microphone output volume. After following almozavr's sugestion in http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?p=8235684#post8235684 I installed 'gnome-media' and ran 'gstreamer-properties' to change the sound input from pulse to alsa. It turns out this doesn't make any difference (it works both set to alsa and pulse), but 'gstreamer-properties' had a test button which unmuted the microphone. After installing 'gnome-media' and running 'gstreamer-properties' I also have 1 more input in 'alsamixer' now: 'Front Mic Boost', 'Capture' and 'Digital' where I only had 2 at first: 'Front Mic Boost' and 'Capture' IIRC (this still confuses me).

With all inputs ('Front Mic Boost' and 'Capture') at their maximum the external microphone works (though it seems more noisy). The internal microphone works too, but it's to soft to be usefull. Well at least it works :)

In a few days I'll do a clean install of xubuntu again and check what step exactly makes the internal microphone "work".

After installing 'gnome-media' and running 'gstreamer-properties':
user@machine:~$ amixer
Simple mixer control 'Master',0
  Capabilities: pvolume pvolume-joined pswitch pswitch-joined
  Playback channels: Mono
  Limits: Playback 0 - 64
  Mono: Playback 64 [100%] [0.00dB] [on]
Simple mixer control 'Headphone',0
  Capabilities: pvolume pswitch
  Playback channels: Front Left - Front Right
  Limits: Playback 0 - 64
  Mono:
  Front Left: Playback 59 [92%] [-4.00dB] [on]
  Front Right: Playback 59 [92%] [-4.00dB] [on]
Simple mixer control 'Speaker',0
  Capabilities: pvolume pswitch
  Playback channels: Front Left - Front Right
  Limits: Playback 0 - 64
  Mono:
  Front Left: Playback 59 [92%] [-4.00dB] [on]
  Front Right: Playback 59 [92%] [-4.00dB] [on]
Simple mixer control 'PCM',0
  Capabilities: pvolume
  Playback channels: Front Left - Front Right
  Limits: Playback 0 - 255
  Mono:
  Front Left: Playback 255 [100%] [0.00dB]
  Front Right: Playback 255 [100%] [0.00dB]
Simple mixer control 'Front Mic Boost',0
  Capabilities: volume
  Playback channels: Front Left - Front Right
  Capture channels: Front Left - Front Right
  Limits: 0 - 3
  Front Left: 3 [100%]
  Front Right: 3 [100%]
Simple mixer control 'IEC958',0
  Capabilities: pswitch pswitch-joined
  Playback channels: Mono
  Mono: Playback [off]
Simple mixer control 'IEC958 Default PCM',0
  Capabilities: pswitch pswitch-joined
  Playback channels: Mono
  Mono: Playback [off]
Simple mixer control 'IEC958',1
  Capabilities: pswitch pswitch-joined
  Playback channels: Mono
  Mono: Playback [off]
Simple mixer control 'Beep',0
  Capabilities: pvolume pswitch
  Playback channels: Front Left - Front Right
  Limits: Playback 0 - 31
  Mono:
  Front Left: Playback 31 [100%] [12.00dB] [off]
  Front Right: Playback 31 [100%] [12.00dB] [off...

I just tested 'linux-backports-modules-alsa-karmic-generic' on a fresh xubuntu. It seems almozavr's suggestion and installing l-b-m-a-k-g have exactly the same effect.

With all in- and outputs at their maximum the external microphone works, but it's more noisy. The internal microphone works too, but it's to soft to be usefull. When I press my lips against the screen edge and speak with a normal volume skype barely pics up any sound (not exactly how you'd want to use a internal microphone anyway). I used skype to test because there's no way to hear the mic input feedback directly by un-muting mic out in alsa anymore.

I guess when I tried l-b-m-a-k-g before I just didn't notice it was working (very soft).

Backports allowed me to intermittently access my 3810T's internal microphone (very inconsistently) but when it was working, it was unusable soft. In skype, if the microphone was working at all, the only thing loud enough to record was my finger scratching around the mic hole. However, I noticed that it seemed quite loud in gstreamer-properties 'Test.' (Unfortunately, skype 2.1 uses pulse, so I figured I could either go back to version 2.0 (this cause skype to crash intermittently). Fortunately, there is a workaround, to trick apps like Skype into falling back to Alsa, which works for me:

$ cat /usr/share/applications/skype.desktop | grep Exec
Exec=/bin/sh -c "PULSE_SERVER=127.0.0.1 /usr/bin/skype"

found here: http://share.skype.com/sites/linux/2009/09/some_explanations.html#comment-155521

Now the real question: is the microphone haphazardly working (and ultra-soft if so) a bug in ALSA or pulseaudio?

Hi Dejan,

Please, if you are still having issues, test with the latest development release of Ubuntu. ISO CD images are available from http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/releases/ .

If it remains an issue, could you run the following command from a Terminal (Applications->Accessories->Terminal). It will automatically gather and attach updated debug information to this report.

apport-collect -p alsa-base 459982

Also, if you could 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.

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

Hey Brad,

In lucid things are the same as in karmic after doing the fixes (see post 11 above). Internal mic is so soft it barely captures my voice (capture and mic boost set to max), external mic works properly.

No matter of making my microphone working in my Acer Aspire 3810T, too.

More on this (maybe helpful for debugging): with an external microphone it works.

I've come to the conclusion the whole internal microphone problem is caused by the left channel of the microphone being used to cancel out noises being transmitted through the chassis of the laptop. For example: disk and fan vibrations and typing or tapping noises. When the left and right microphone input are balanced not only undesirable noises get canceled out but your voice gets canceled out too.

The SOLUTION is to decrease the left channel a little compared to the right channel (see alsamixer "image" below) . Run 'alsamixer' in a terminal and press F4 and use the arrow keys to move the sliders up and down and move to the next slider. Use Q Z E and C to move only the right or left channel slider up or down.

In ubuntu karmic (9.10) you might need to install the 'linux-backports-modules-alsa-karmic-generic' package first, in lucid (10.04) you don't.

Alsamixer in lucid (in karmic it might look a little different, like other names for the sliders):
┌──────────────────── AlsaMixer v1.0.22 ────────────────────┐
│ Card: HDA Intel F1: Help │
│ Chip: Intel G45 DEVCTG F2: System information │
│ View: Capture F6: Select sound card │
│ Item: Front Mic Boost Esc: Exit │
│ │
│ ┌──┐ ┌──┐ ┌──┐ │
│ │ │ │ ▒│ │ │ │
│ │ │ │ ▒│ │ │ │
│ │ │ │▒▒│ │ │ │
│ │ │ │▒▒│ │▒▒│ │
│ │ │ │▒▒│ │▒▒│ │
│ │ │ │▒▒│ │▒▒│ │
│ │ │ │▒▒│ │▒▒│ │
│ │ │ │▒▒│ │▒▒│ │
│ │ │ │▒▒│ │▒▒│ │
│ │ │ │▒▒│ │▒▒│ │
│ │ │ │▒▒│ │▒▒│ │
│ └──┘ L└──┘R └──┘ │
│ CAPTURE │
│ 0<>0 80<>100 72<>72 │
│ <Front Mic Boost > Capture Digital │
│ │
└───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘
Final thoughts:
This bug might not be caused by alsa, I think skype or maybe pulse is to blame. When I did a test recording with 'audacity' the internal microphone worked fine without any adjustments (in lucid).
When using other programs (like 'audacity') or when pluging in an external microphone it's pretty annoying that you need to re-balance the left and right channels.

Grrrrr .... where is fixed width when you need it.

miegiel, interesting issue....
Unfortunately it doesn't work for me in karmic (with backports).

Hi miegiel,

I appreciate your debugging and I think it is likely this bug is due to pulse or some interaction with alsa. I will try your left/right trick. In general, as long as I do not use pulse, I seem to be OK. I have no problem running Skype like this:

PULSE_SERVER=127.0.0.1 /usr/bin/skype

as I described in post #12. good luck...

For me (in lucid) when I start skype with 'PULSE_SERVER=127.0.0.1 /usr/bin/skype', skype crashes as I make a test call unless I enable network access to local sound devices in pulse audio preferences ('paprefs' in a terminal, "Network Server" tab, tick the 1st box).

Though when I start skype with 'PULSE_SERVER=127.0.0.1 /usr/bin/skype' without enabling network access to local sound devices, I can choose from different in and outputs. Regrettably no analog outputs are listed. And when I start it after enabling network acces to local sound devices, PULSE_SERVER=127.0.0.1 is the only listed in and output device (just like only pulse is listed when I start skype normally) and I still need to do the unbalanced input trick for the microphone to pick up my voice.

I tried a search for other ways to start skye so it would use alsa instead of pulse, but documentation is scarce. I'll try it again this evening, maybe I can come up with a more intelligent search.

Same problem with Lucid Beta in Acer Aspire One 532h. Neither gnome-sound-recorder nor skype work out of the box. But they both work with the following command:

/bin/sh -c "PULSE_SERVER=127.0.0.1 program-name"

What does it mean? That ALSA is hogging the microphone, and setting the Pulse Server to localhost makes the mike available? Or is it the other way around?

Does it still count as Incomplete?

Alejandro: I *THINK* it means that when we force the app to look for a Pulse server that _doesn't exist_ (we are not providing on localhost by default AFAIK), the app falls back to ALSA, which works (with backports.) This puts the blame on Pulse (or a Pulse<->ALSA interaction), and I think this info should be enough for someone with a clue (and an Acer?) to do some real debugging...

Then allow me to set the status to Complete.

One other thing: This is happening with a fully updated Lucid Beta, and with zero installed karmic backports.

Sorry, I meant Confirmed.

I confirm this is happening with a brand new Lucid Beta 2, and with zero installed karmic backports.

Alejandro Moreno wrote 11 minutes ago: #25
Then allow me to set the status to Confirmed.

One other thing: This is happening with a fully updated Lucid Beta, and with zero installed karmic backports.

Correct, you don't need to install 'linux-backports-modules-alsa-lucid-generic' in lucid. Though this doesn't mean the issue is solved in lucid. You still need to unbalance the "Capture" input in alsa mixer.

I'm not sure about the "status: Incomplete → Confirmed" change. The old status might refer to the "needs-required-logs" tag. But I have no idea what these logs are that are required. I could supply them if I knew.

unbalancing the Capture input cannot be considered a workaround, as the resulting mic level is very low and still unusable.

Removed need-test-new-image.

Reverted to Incomplete, because we're missing alsa-base logs (I'll try to send them later tonight):

apport-collect -p alsa-base 459982

Is alsa-base correct? Maybe we need a Pulse log? Which one?

AlsaVersion: Advanced Linux Sound Architecture Driver Version 1.0.21.
AplayDevices:
 **** List of PLAYBACK Hardware Devices ****
 card 0: Intel [HDA Intel], device 0: ALC272 Analog [ALC272 Analog]
   Subdevices: 1/1
   Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
Architecture: i386
ArecordDevices:
 **** List of CAPTURE Hardware Devices ****
 card 0: Intel [HDA Intel], device 0: ALC272 Analog [ALC272 Analog]
   Subdevices: 1/1
   Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
AudioDevicesInUse:
 USER PID ACCESS COMMAND
 /dev/snd/controlC0: alejandro 1294 F.... pulseaudio
Card0.Amixer.info:
 Card hw:0 'Intel'/'HDA Intel at 0x58200000 irq 16'
   Mixer name : 'Realtek ALC272'
   Components : 'HDA:10ec0272,10250349,00100001'
   Controls : 15
   Simple ctrls : 9
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 10.04
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu-Netbook 10.04 "Lucid Lynx" - Beta i386 (20100318)
Package: alsa-base 1.0.22.1+dfsg-0ubuntu3
PackageArchitecture: all
ProcEnviron:
 LANG=en_CA.utf8
 SHELL=/bin/bash
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 2.6.32-21.31-generic 2.6.32.11+drm33.2
Tags: ubuntu-une lucid
Uname: Linux 2.6.32-21-generic i686
UserGroups: adm admin audio cdrom fuse lpadmin netdev plugdev sambashare video
dmi.bios.date: 01/30/2010
dmi.bios.vendor: Acer
dmi.bios.version: V1.17
dmi.board.asset.tag: Base Board Asset Tag
dmi.board.name: AO532h
dmi.board.vendor: Acer
dmi.board.version: V1.17
dmi.chassis.type: 10
dmi.chassis.vendor: Acer
dmi.chassis.version: V1.17
dmi.modalias: dmi:bvnAcer:bvrV1.17:bd01/30/2010:svnAcer:pnAO532h:pvrV1.17:rvnAcer:rnAO532h:rvrV1.17:cvnAcer:ct10:cvrV1.17:
dmi.product.name: AO532h
dmi.product.version: V1.17
dmi.sys.vendor: Acer

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Big update today. Bug is still there, so I ran apport-collect on alsa-base. Changing back to Confirmed (and sorry about the flip-flopping).

Also, out of curiosity, I did the following in the terminal:

  # user@local [19:40:21] ~ $ gnome-sound-recorder

  (gnome-sound-recorder:1462): GStreamer-CRITICAL **: gst_implements_interface_cast: assertion `gst_element_implements_interface (GST_ELEMENT (from), iface_type)' failed
  /tmp/gsr-record-Untitled-1462.3X2ABV

  # user@local [19:41:13] ~ $ PULSE_SERVER=127.0.0.1 gnome-sound-recorder
  /tmp/gsr-record-Untitled-1543.3FA3AV

  # user@local [19:42:41] ~ $

Hello Alejandro,

My name is Francesco, I'm a very unexperienced user of Ubuntu, I've just intsalled Ubuntu 9.10 Karmic on my Acer Aspriron one 532h and Im experiencing the same issue with the microphone using Skype: everything works fine when I use headphones, but then without headphones the speaker input does not work.

I see that you find a solution, but how may I implement this solution on my PC?

Many thanks

Try this workaround
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?p=9102538#post9102538

It's also a better place to ask help (launchpad is mainly for reporting
and splatting bugs).

On 05/09/2010 08:14 PM, fracardi wrote:
> Hello Alejandro,
>
> My name is Francesco, I'm a very unexperienced user of Ubuntu, I've just
> intsalled Ubuntu 9.10 Karmic on my Acer Aspriron one 532h and Im
> experiencing the same issue with the microphone using Skype: everything
> works fine when I use headphones, but then without headphones the
> speaker input does not work.
>
> I see that you find a solution, but how may I implement this solution on
> my PC?
>
> Many thanks
>
>

This release of Ubuntu is no longer receiving maintenance updates. If this is still an issue on a maintained version of Ubuntu please let us know.

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