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sguenz

Member

Registered: 2008-03-11

Posts: 18

[SOLVED] Toshiba Satellite P500 - External mic not working

SOLUTION (for the lazy readers): Use OSS instead of ALSA

My new Toshiba Satellite is amazing and everything worked right out of the box, except the external microphone.
Here is what lspci -v shows:

00:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corporation Core Processor DRAM Controller (rev 02)
00:01.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation Core Processor PCI Express x16 Root Port (rev 02)
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 05)
00:1b.0 Audio device: Intel Corporation 5 Series/3400 Series Chipset High Definition Audio (rev 05)
00:1c.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 5 Series/3400 Series Chipset PCI Express Root Port 1 (rev 05)
00:1c.3 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 5 Series/3400 Series Chipset PCI Express Root Port 4 (rev 05)
00:1c.4 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 5 Series/3400 Series Chipset PCI Express Root Port 5 (rev 05)
00:1c.5 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 5 Series/3400 Series Chipset PCI Express Root Port 6 (rev 05)
00:1d.0 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 5 Series/3400 Series Chipset USB2 Enhanced Host Controller (rev 05)
00:1e.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801 Mobile PCI Bridge (rev a5)
00:1f.0 ISA bridge: Intel Corporation Mobile 5 Series Chipset LPC Interface Controller (rev 05)
00:1f.2 SATA controller: Intel Corporation 5 Series/3400 Series Chipset 4 port SATA AHCI Controller (rev 05)
00:1f.3 SMBus: Intel Corporation 5 Series/3400 Series Chipset SMBus Controller (rev 05)
00:1f.6 Signal processing controller: Intel Corporation 5 Series/3400 Series Chipset Thermal Subsystem (rev 05)
01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: nVidia Corporation Device 0a29 (rev a2)
01:00.1 Audio device: nVidia Corporation High Definition Audio Controller (rev a1)
07:00.0 FireWire (IEEE 1394): O2 Micro, Inc. Device 10f7 (rev 01)
07:00.1 SD Host controller: O2 Micro, Inc. Device 8120 (rev 01)
07:00.2 Mass storage controller: O2 Micro, Inc. Device 8130 (rev 01)
0a:00.0 Network controller: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. Device 8172 (rev 10)
0b:00.0 Ethernet controller: Atheros Communications Atheros AR8132 / L1c Gigabit Ethernet Adapter (rev c0)
ff:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corporation Core Processor QuickPath Architecture Generic Non-core Registers (rev 05)
ff:00.1 Host bridge: Intel Corporation Core Processor QuickPath Architecture System Address Decoder (rev 05)
ff:02.0 Host bridge: Intel Corporation Core Processor QPI Link 0 (rev 05)
ff:02.1 Host bridge: Intel Corporation Core Processor QPI Physical 0 (rev 05)
ff:02.2 Host bridge: Intel Corporation Core Processor Reserved (rev 05)
ff:02.3 Host bridge: Intel Corporation Core Processor Reserved (rev 05)

I couldn't find anything on the Internet. If anyone has solved this problem, please post your solution here.

Thanks.

Last edited by sguenz (2010-12-31 01:44:46)

lagagnon

Member

From: an Island in the Pacific...

Registered: 2009-12-10

Posts: 1,087

Website

Re: [SOLVED] Toshiba Satellite P500 - External mic not working

https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Ad … hone_Input

I simply got my Toshiba L300 mic working by running "alsamixer" and unmuting the microphone channel, which is often muted by default. Other wise read the above...

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sguenz

Member

Registered: 2008-03-11

Posts: 18

Re: [SOLVED] Toshiba Satellite P500 - External mic not working

My microphone channel is also muted by default. Unfortunately, unmuting it doesn't help. It doesn't seem that ALSA is seeing the microphone at all:

The wiki tips did not help either.

arecord -L doesn't show the microphone either:

# arecord -L
null
    Discard all samples (playback) or generate zero samples (capture)
default:CARD=Intel
    HDA Intel, CONEXANT Analog
    Default Audio Device
front:CARD=Intel,DEV=0
    HDA Intel, CONEXANT Analog
    Front speakers
surround40:CARD=Intel,DEV=0
    HDA Intel, CONEXANT Analog
    4.0 Surround output to Front and Rear speakers
surround41:CARD=Intel,DEV=0
    HDA Intel, CONEXANT Analog
    4.1 Surround output to Front, Rear and Subwoofer speakers
surround50:CARD=Intel,DEV=0
    HDA Intel, CONEXANT Analog
    5.0 Surround output to Front, Center and Rear speakers
surround51:CARD=Intel,DEV=0
    HDA Intel, CONEXANT Analog
    5.1 Surround output to Front, Center, Rear and Subwoofer speakers
surround71:CARD=Intel,DEV=0
    HDA Intel, CONEXANT Analog
    7.1 Surround output to Front, Center, Side, Rear and Woofer speakers

Wintervenom

Member

Registered: 2008-08-20

Posts: 1,011

Re: [SOLVED] Toshiba Satellite P500 - External mic not working

Conexant codecs tend to have issues with microphones in ALSA.
You may want to try OSS, instead.

sguenz

Member

Registered: 2008-03-11

Posts: 18

Re: [SOLVED] Toshiba Satellite P500 - External mic not working

Conexant codecs tend to have issues with microphones in ALSA.
You may want to try OSS, instead.

Yes, OSS worked!
Thanks a lot.