[SOLVED] Microphone trouble

gladixy · 2014-09-14 15:34:20

I installed arch some days ago and have trouble getting my microphone to work. It actually worked once on this very setup but something must have broken it and now I'm unable to get it to work again. I'm using ALSA/PulseAudio and only have an internal mic - though alsamixer shows a "Dock Mic" as well.

amixer

Simple mixer control 'Master',0
  Capabilities: pvolume pvolume-joined pswitch pswitch-joined
  Playback channels: Mono
  Limits: Playback 0 - 87
  Mono: Playback 69 [79%] [-13.50dB] [on]
Simple mixer control 'Headphone',0
  Capabilities: pvolume pswitch
  Playback channels: Front Left - Front Right
  Limits: Playback 0 - 87
  Mono:
  Front Left: Playback 0 [0%] [-65.25dB] [off]
  Front Right: Playback 0 [0%] [-65.25dB] [off]
Simple mixer control 'Speaker',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 pswitch
  Playback channels: Front Left - Front Right
  Limits: Playback 0 - 87
  Mono:
  Front Left: Playback 87 [100%] [0.00dB] [on]
  Front Right: Playback 87 [100%] [0.00dB] [on]
Simple mixer control 'Mic',0
  Capabilities: pvolume pswitch
  Playback channels: Front Left - Front Right
  Limits: Playback 0 - 31
  Mono:
  Front Left: Playback 29 [94%] [9.00dB] [on]
  Front Right: Playback 29 [94%] [9.00dB] [on]
Simple mixer control 'Mic Boost',0
  Capabilities: volume
  Playback channels: Front Left - Front Right
  Capture channels: Front Left - Front Right
  Limits: 0 - 3
  Front Left: 3 [100%] [30.00dB]
  Front Right: 3 [100%] [30.00dB]
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 'Capture',0
  Capabilities: cvolume cswitch
  Capture channels: Front Left - Front Right
  Limits: Capture 0 - 63
  Front Left: Capture 63 [100%] [30.00dB] [on]
  Front Right: Capture 63 [100%] [30.00dB] [on]
Simple mixer control 'Auto-Mute Mode',0
  Capabilities: enum
  Items: 'Disabled' 'Speaker Only' 'Line Out+Speaker'
  Item0: 'Line Out+Speaker'
Simple mixer control 'Dock Mic',0
  Capabilities: pvolume pswitch
  Playback channels: Front Left - Front Right
  Limits: Playback 0 - 31
  Mono:
  Front Left: Playback 27 [87%] [6.00dB] [off]
  Front Right: Playback 27 [87%] [6.00dB] [off]
Simple mixer control 'Dock Mic Boost',0
  Capabilities: volume
  Playback channels: Front Left - Front Right
  Capture channels: Front Left - Front Right
  Limits: 0 - 3
  Front Left: 0 [0%] [0.00dB]
  Front Right: 0 [0%] [0.00dB]
Simple mixer control 'Internal Mic Boost',0
  Capabilities: volume
  Playback channels: Front Left - Front Right
  Capture channels: Front Left - Front Right
  Limits: 0 - 1
  Front Left: 1 [100%] [12.00dB]
  Front Right: 1 [100%] [12.00dB]

-----

arecord -l

**** List of CAPTURE Hardware Devices ****
card 1: PCH [HDA Intel PCH], device 0: ALC3232 Analog [ALC3232 Analog]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0

-----

cat ~/.asoundrc

pcm. !default {
    type hw
    card PCH
}
ctl. !default {
    type hw
    card PCH
}

-----

alsamixer

http://i.imgur.com/HNh99Li.png

Let me know if any further information is helpful.

By the way, I tried my best with searching for solutions but none worked so far. For testing I use arecord & skype.

Last edited by gladixy (2014-09-14 23:46:15)

emeres · 2014-09-14 15:37:41

Please use [⁣code][⁣/code] tags for output of commands or scripts. Correct your post, also this image seems to not correspond with forum rules.

Edit: Why do you use that ~/.asoundrc? Do you realize what it does? Then delete it. Please post:

aplay -lL; lspci -vvnn | grep -A1 '040[1-3]'; cat /proc/asound/modules;
lsusb #if there is a usb sound card;
# or use the alsa-info script

Last edited by emeres (2014-09-14 15:39:45)

gladixy · 2014-09-14 15:47:01

I used .asoundrc in the purpose of setting the default audio card as it is shown here: https://wiki.archlinux.de/title/Alsa#Fe … ult-Device. Though I'm not at all sure whether it is required/useful for my setup. I'll delete it and see if it makes a difference.

EDIT: When I remove .asoundrc I can not use arecord is giving me an error message when running

arecord -vv -fdat test.wav

aplay -lL; lspci -vvnn | grep -A1 '040[1-3]'; cat /proc/asound/modules;

null
    Discard all samples (playback) or generate zero samples (capture)
pulse
    PulseAudio Sound Server
hdmi:CARD=HDMI,DEV=0
    HDA Intel HDMI, HDMI 0
    HDMI Audio Output
hdmi:CARD=HDMI,DEV=1
    HDA Intel HDMI, HDMI 1
    HDMI Audio Output
hdmi:CARD=HDMI,DEV=2
    HDA Intel HDMI, HDMI 2
    HDMI Audio Output
sysdefault:CARD=PCH
    HDA Intel PCH, ALC3232 Analog
    Default Audio Device
front:CARD=PCH,DEV=0
    HDA Intel PCH, ALC3232 Analog
    Front speakers
surround21:CARD=PCH,DEV=0
    HDA Intel PCH, ALC3232 Analog
    2.1 Surround output to Front and Subwoofer speakers
surround40:CARD=PCH,DEV=0
    HDA Intel PCH, ALC3232 Analog
    4.0 Surround output to Front and Rear speakers
surround41:CARD=PCH,DEV=0
    HDA Intel PCH, ALC3232 Analog
    4.1 Surround output to Front, Rear and Subwoofer speakers
surround50:CARD=PCH,DEV=0
    HDA Intel PCH, ALC3232 Analog
    5.0 Surround output to Front, Center and Rear speakers
surround51:CARD=PCH,DEV=0
    HDA Intel PCH, ALC3232 Analog
    5.1 Surround output to Front, Center, Rear and Subwoofer speakers
surround71:CARD=PCH,DEV=0
    HDA Intel PCH, ALC3232 Analog
    7.1 Surround output to Front, Center, Side, Rear and Woofer speakers
**** List of PLAYBACK Hardware Devices ****
card 0: HDMI [HDA Intel HDMI], device 3: HDMI 0 [HDMI 0]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 0: HDMI [HDA Intel HDMI], device 7: HDMI 1 [HDMI 1]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 0: HDMI [HDA Intel HDMI], device 8: HDMI 2 [HDMI 2]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 1: PCH [HDA Intel PCH], device 0: ALC3232 Analog [ALC3232 Analog]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
00:03.0 Audio device [0403]: Intel Corporation Xeon E3-1200 v3/4th Gen Core Processor HD Audio Controller [8086:0c0c] (rev 06)
	Subsystem: Lenovo ThinkPad T440p [17aa:220e]
--
00:1b.0 Audio device [0403]: Intel Corporation 8 Series/C220 Series Chipset High Definition Audio Controller [8086:8c20] (rev 04)
	Subsystem: Lenovo ThinkPad T440p [17aa:220e]
 0 snd_hda_intel
 1 snd_hda_intel
29 thinkpad_acpi

lsusb

Bus 004 Device 002: ID 8087:8000 Intel Corp. 
Bus 004 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
Bus 003 Device 002: ID 8087:8008 Intel Corp. 
Bus 003 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
Bus 002 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0003 Linux Foundation 3.0 root hub
Bus 001 Device 003: ID 138a:0017 Validity Sensors, Inc. 
Bus 001 Device 002: ID 058f:9540 Alcor Micro Corp. AU9540 Smartcard Reader
Bus 001 Device 005: ID 04f2:b39a Chicony Electronics Co., Ltd 
Bus 001 Device 004: ID 8087:07dc Intel Corp. 
Bus 001 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub

Last edited by gladixy (2014-09-14 15:53:14)

emeres · 2014-09-14 15:52:24

Alsa wiki DE wrote:

Um lediglich das standard device fuer alsa zu aendern (dies hat den Vorteil, dass ihr auf die standard Einstellungen von alsa zurueckgreifen koennt, wie etwas software Mixing fuer Ausgabe und Eingabe) waere folgende Vorgehensweise zu empfehlen: touch ~/.asoundrc nun fuegt folgendes zu ~/.asoundrc hinzu:
defaults.ctl.card <name/number of your sound device>
defaults.pcm.card <name/number of your sound device>
defaults.timer.card <name/number of your sound device>

And you missed those lines while reading the whole section?

Alsa wiki wrote:

Warning: Simply setting a type hw as default card is equivalent to addressing hardware directly, which leaves the device unavailable to other applications. This method is only recommended if it is a part of a more sophisticated setup ~/.asoundrc or if user deliberately wants to address sound card directly (digital output through eic958 or dedicated music server for example).

Create this file and reboot, PCH will be default afterwards.

$ cat /etc/modprobe.d/50-alsa.conf
options snd-hda-intel index=1,0

Edit: To elaborate, using defaults.pcm node would have been better instead of that configuration you used, but the optimal way is to use modprobes options.

Edit2: Please put your edits at the end of your post, not at the beginning, unless it is OP and you want to offer the solution right there.

Last edited by emeres (2014-09-14 15:58:27)

ewaller · 2014-09-14 16:15:53

gladixy,
Welcome to Arch Linux . Saw your note, and the format looks fine. Readers appreciate the clean look of code tags.

gladixy · 2014-09-14 17:43:58

Alright. I have to admit I feel a little like working with a black box since I'm really not that experienced with Alsa and maybe still linux in general. Anyway: @emeres your hint regarding the proper setup of

~/.asoundrc

worked. Though

cat /proc/asound/cards

shows:

 0 [HDMI           ]: HDA-Intel - HDA Intel HDMI
                      HDA Intel HDMI at 0xf1630000 irq 53
 1 [PCH            ]: HDA-Intel - HDA Intel PCH
                      HDA Intel PCH at 0xf1634000 irq 50
29 [ThinkPadEC     ]: ThinkPad EC - ThinkPad Console Audio Control
                      ThinkPad Console Audio Control at EC reg 0x30, fw unknown

Is that expected output after setting PCH to be the default? (Order + index in the beginning?)

One last question I want to ask out of curiosity: What is snd-hda-intel and PCH exactly? From what I've learned so far I would say snd-hda-intel is some kind of module while PCH is a term which corresponds to a physical sound card. Is that correct?

Thank you for your help.

emeres · 2014-09-14 17:56:03

No, PCH should be card 0 and listed first by 'aplay -l'. Double check the modprobe options file, use the wiki or my other posts as further reference if you want. To recap, no ~/.asoundrc is needed if you use modprobe options. Post:

systool -vm snd_hda_intel

HDMI, PCH, ThinkPadEC are identifiers used by alsa, see:

cat /proc/asound/card*/id
modinfo snd-hda-intel | grep id:

Snd-hda-intel is a sound module, one of the most common since the majority of sound cards on the market are now hda compliant, where hda is a specification/standard*. The identifiers might not exactly refer to one/a physical device. Load snd-aloop and run 'aplay -l' to see yourself.

Note: *Standard might be the wrong word here.

Edit: Added further example.

Last edited by emeres (2014-09-14 17:57:55)

gladixy · 2014-09-14 23:11:30

Wow you're really great

I just created the conf as you showed i.e.:

/etc/modprobe.d/50-alsa.conf
options snd-hda-intel index=1,0

and it is working flawlessly.

Plus

cat /proc/asound/cards
 0 [PCH            ]: HDA-Intel - HDA Intel PCH
                      HDA Intel PCH at 0xf1634000 irq 50
 1 [HDMI           ]: HDA-Intel - HDA Intel HDMI
                      HDA Intel HDMI at 0xf1630000 irq 53
29 [ThinkPadEC     ]: ThinkPad EC - ThinkPad Console Audio Control
                      ThinkPad Console Audio Control at EC reg 0x30, fw unknown

Seems to look good now.

What I found interesting is that your config is working and is using snd-hda-intel while the arch wiki uses snd_hda_intel. I did not try yet whether it works with underscores too.

I still don't quite get the relation from PCH to snd-hda-intel. The arch wiki article that you posted is about "setting the default sound card". How does setting an option for snd-hda-intel set the default sound card which at least in Alsa terms would be PCH in this case I guess? Pretty confusing for a newbie

Last edited by gladixy (2014-09-14 23:12:43)

emeres · 2014-09-14 23:28:28

gladixy wrote:

What I found interesting is that your config is working and is using snd-hda-intel while the arch wiki uses snd_hda_intel. I did not try yet whether it works with underscores too.

There is no difference, modprobe parses both the same way. Using snd_hda-intel should also work. I prefer using hyphens, since less error prone, because one keystroke on majority of keyboard layouts. But I also am aware that not all applications respect hyphens, systool needs the "proper" module name, modinfo does not.

gladixy wrote:

I still don't quite get the relation from PCH to snd-hda-intel. The arch wiki article that you posted is about "setting the default sound card". How does setting an option for snd-hda-intel set the default sound card which at least in Alsa terms would be PCH in this case I guess? Pretty confusing for a newbie

That is an Alsa aspect, the sound architecture. The physical layout determines what bus a sound card operates upon. This is respected by alsa*, which loads the appropriate module for the devices it finds*. Changing parameters of those modules, reassigns their position/order and changes the default sound card.

Side note: *speculative here, I would have to actually go through the source code, but it conforms with my experience.

Edit: Added clarification. Why is the thinkpad listed as card 29? Why that specific number? It should go up to 31, if I recall the documentation correctly.

Should you consider this issue solved, then please mark the thread as such.

Last edited by emeres (2014-09-14 23:33:47)

gladixy · 2014-09-14 23:45:04

Alright, thank you for the explanation.

I have no idea where the 29 for the thinkpad card comes from. Do you think it is important? In that case I'd investigate on this. If not I would leave it as it is.

emeres · 2014-09-14 23:54:00

I assume the module gets loaded with that index, which is one of its parameters. It should not matter at all. You are welcome.

Arch Linux

#1 2014-09-14 15:34:20

[SOLVED] Microphone trouble

#2 2014-09-14 15:37:41

Re: [SOLVED] Microphone trouble

#3 2014-09-14 15:47:01

Re: [SOLVED] Microphone trouble

#4 2014-09-14 15:52:24

Re: [SOLVED] Microphone trouble

#5 2014-09-14 16:15:53

Re: [SOLVED] Microphone trouble

#6 2014-09-14 17:43:58

Re: [SOLVED] Microphone trouble

#7 2014-09-14 17:56:03

Re: [SOLVED] Microphone trouble

#8 2014-09-14 23:11:30

Re: [SOLVED] Microphone trouble

#9 2014-09-14 23:28:28

Re: [SOLVED] Microphone trouble

#10 2014-09-14 23:45:04

Re: [SOLVED] Microphone trouble

#11 2014-09-14 23:54:00

Re: [SOLVED] Microphone trouble

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