audio recons external minijack mic but captures only internal mic

rilikon · 2020-04-20 14:45:26

Hello everybody. I would really appreciate some help troubleshooting a recording issue I have with my analog 3.5mm headset microphone. I freshly installed arch on my Alienware 17 R2 laptop with kde plasma desktop so far everything works without problems except for microphone input of my external headset microphone.

The headset connects to 2 dedicated 3.5mm mini jacks, one for microphone and one for the headphones, both clearly labeled with respektive glyphs on my laptop. Pulseaudio gui (plasma-pa) recognizes when I plug in my headset and switches slider labels from "speakers" and "internal microphone" to "headphones" and "microphone". It recognizes each mini jack seperately and independent from each other.

Audio output works fine and the laptop recognizes when I plug in my headset and switches the audio output from internal speakers to the headphones portion of the headset. But it does not change audio capture and keeps recording input from the internal mic. It does not capture anything from my external mic.

pacman -Qe
alsa-plugins 1.2.2-1
alsa-utils 1.2.2-1
pulseaudio 13.0-3
pulseaudio-alsa 2-5
pulseaudio-bluetooth 13.0-3
pulseaudio-equalizer 13.0-3
plasma-pa 5.18.4.1-1

cat /proc/asound/cards
 0 [HDMI           ]: HDA-Intel - HDA Intel HDMI
                      HDA Intel HDMI at 0xf751c000 irq 43
 1 [PCH            ]: HDA-Intel - HDA Intel PCH
                      HDA Intel PCH at 0xf7518000 irq 34

cat /proc/asound/card1/codec#0 | grep Codec
Codec: Creative CA0132

arecord -l
**** List of CAPTURE Hardware Devices ****
card 1: PCH [HDA Intel PCH], device 0: CA0132 Analog [CA0132 Analog]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 1: PCH [HDA Intel PCH], device 2: CA0132 Analog Mic-In2 [CA0132 Analog Mic-In2]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 1: PCH [HDA Intel PCH], device 4: CA0132 What U Hear [CA0132 What U Hear]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0

Any ideas how to tackle this?
Thank you for any help!

rilikon · 2020-04-24 21:23:32

Further clarification:

Pavucontrol switches from "Internal Microphone" to "Microphone (plugged in)" when I plug in the headset microphone.
"active port" in pacmd list-sources also switches from "analog-input-internal-mic" to "analog-input-mic" when I plug in the headset microphone.
So the jack detection works.

However the only signal I receive is from "CAPTURE" channel in alsamixer and it is only the internal microphone signal.

When I have both channels "CAPTURE" and "Analog-Mic2" on capture in alsamixer I only get internal microphone signal.
When I have only "Analog-Mic2" on capture in alsamixer I get no signal at all.
When I have every channel possible on capture in alsamixer I only get internal microphone signal.

The weird thing is - when I turn off capture for "CAPTURE" channel in alsamixer, then pavucontrol shows that I muted the "Microphone (plugged in)" and greys out the bars.
It seems as if the "analog-input-mic"' signal is mapped to the "CAPTURE" channel and then is overwritten by the "analog-input-internal-mic" signal instead of being routed to the "Analog-Mic2" channel which it supposedly should be mapped to.

EDIT:
In case it is useful intel to help me: soundcard is a Creative SoundBlaster Recon3D - could it be a driver issue?

pacmd list-sources
2 source(s) available.
  * index: 0
        name: <alsa_input.pci-0000_00_1b.0.analog-stereo>
        driver: <module-alsa-card.c>
        flags: HARDWARE HW_MUTE_CTRL HW_VOLUME_CTRL DECIBEL_VOLUME LATENCY DYNAMIC_LATENCY
        state: RUNNING
        suspend cause: (none)
        priority: 9039
        volume: front-left: 65536 / 100% / 0.00 dB,   front-right: 65536 / 100% / 0.00 dB
                balance 0.00
        base volume: 46396 /  71% / -9.00 dB
        volume steps: 65537
        muted: no
        current latency: 8.85 ms
        max rewind: 0 KiB
        sample spec: s16le 2ch 44100Hz
        channel map: front-left,front-right
                     Stereo
        used by: 1
        linked by: 1
        configured latency: 40.00 ms; range is 0.50 .. 2000.00 ms
        card: 1 <alsa_card.pci-0000_00_1b.0>
        module: 7
        properties:
                alsa.resolution_bits = "16"
                device.api = "alsa"
                device.class = "sound"
                alsa.class = "generic"
                alsa.subclass = "generic-mix"
                alsa.name = "CA0132 Analog"
                alsa.id = "CA0132 Analog"
                alsa.subdevice = "0"
                alsa.subdevice_name = "subdevice #0"
                alsa.device = "0"
                alsa.card = "1"
                alsa.card_name = "HDA Intel PCH"
                alsa.long_card_name = "HDA Intel PCH at 0xf7518000 irq 34"
                alsa.driver_name = "snd_hda_intel"
                device.bus_path = "pci-0000:00:1b.0"
                sysfs.path = "/devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:1b.0/sound/card1"
                device.bus = "pci"
                device.vendor.id = "8086"
                device.vendor.name = "Intel Corporation"
                device.product.id = "8c20"
                device.product.name = "8 Series/C220 Series Chipset High Definition Audio Controller"
                device.form_factor = "internal"
                device.string = "front:1"
                device.buffering.buffer_size = "352800"
                device.buffering.fragment_size = "176400"
                device.access_mode = "mmap+timer"
                device.profile.name = "analog-stereo"
                device.profile.description = "Analog Stereo"
                device.description = "Built-in Audio Analog Stereo"
                alsa.mixer_name = "Creative CA0132"
                alsa.components = "HDA:11020011,10280688,00100918"
                module-udev-detect.discovered = "1"
                device.icon_name = "audio-card-pci"
        ports:
                analog-input-internal-mic: Internal Microphone (priority 8900, latency offset 0 usec, available: no)
                        properties:
                                device.icon_name = "audio-input-microphone"
                analog-input-mic: Microphone (priority 8700, latency offset 0 usec, available: yes)
                        properties:
                                device.icon_name = "audio-input-microphone"
        active port: <analog-input-mic>
    index: 3
        name: <alsa_output.pci-0000_00_1b.0.analog-stereo.monitor>
        driver: <module-alsa-card.c>
        flags: DECIBEL_VOLUME LATENCY DYNAMIC_LATENCY
        state: RUNNING
        suspend cause: (none)
        priority: 1030
        volume: front-left: 65536 / 100% / 0.00 dB,   front-right: 65536 / 100% / 0.00 dB
                balance 0.00
        base volume: 65536 / 100% / 0.00 dB
        volume steps: 65537
        muted: no
        current latency: 0.00 ms
        max rewind: 6 KiB
        sample spec: s16le 2ch 44100Hz
        channel map: front-left,front-right
                     Stereo
        used by: 1
        linked by: 1
        configured latency: 40.00 ms; range is 0.50 .. 2000.00 ms
        monitor_of: 2
        card: 1 <alsa_card.pci-0000_00_1b.0>
        module: 7
        properties:
                device.description = "Monitor of Built-in Audio Analog Stereo"
                device.class = "monitor"
                alsa.card = "1"
                alsa.card_name = "HDA Intel PCH"
                alsa.long_card_name = "HDA Intel PCH at 0xf7518000 irq 34"
                alsa.driver_name = "snd_hda_intel"
                device.bus_path = "pci-0000:00:1b.0"
                sysfs.path = "/devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:1b.0/sound/card1"
                device.bus = "pci"
                device.vendor.id = "8086"
                device.vendor.name = "Intel Corporation"
                device.product.id = "8c20"
                device.product.name = "8 Series/C220 Series Chipset High Definition Audio Controller"
                device.form_factor = "internal"
                device.string = "1"
                module-udev-detect.discovered = "1"
                device.icon_name = "audio-card-pci"

I am out of ideas and would really appreciate any help!

Last edited by rilikon (2020-04-24 21:40:16)

Arch Linux

#1 2020-04-20 14:45:26

audio recons external minijack mic but captures only internal mic

#2 2020-04-24 21:23:32

Re: audio recons external minijack mic but captures only internal mic

Board footer