Mandriva 2008.0 / ca0106 sound card mixer issue
 

Hello all. I am new to these forums and new to the more technical side of Linux. I have been trying to teach myself, and use online HowTos and FAQs when necessary, but some problems just can't be solved so simply.

So as the title says, I am using Mandriva Powerpack 2008.0. I have a Sound Blaster sound card (driver ca0106) that I am having trouble with.

Sound output works fine. However, I am unable to use a mic. I believe I discovered the root of that: my sound card doesn't have a mixer.

Screenshot of my alsamixer.

Would that prevent me from using a mic? If so, where do I find a mixer for my card and how would I go about installing it?

As I said before, I am just scratching the surface of the tech side of Linux, so please be as descriptive as possible.

And thanks in advance!! :)

Btw, I am aware that there are lots of questions on this particular driver, but the majority of those were "no sound" issues. Mine is just a "no sound input" issue. I just wanted to make it clear that I didn't post without searching first. :)

Hi Seameat, Welcome to lq. While you had alsamixer open did you try to tab to the right with the arrow keys to see if you had any channels that just weren't showing on the screen, or try tabbing to capture devices instead of play back devices?
Good luck. ;-)

I did. I found all of the capture devices and such. And I read all over the internet that you have to push spacebar to make a channel capable of capture. I pushed spacebar and nothing happened. I believe it is supposed to read CAPTUR and have a L and R channel image. That didn't happen.

This led me to believe that my card was currently not capable of capturing. I figured this was because of the card not having a mixer assigned.

Is there any more information I can provide that would help figure this out?

While alsamixer is open, use the arrow keys to move over to the mic setting, use the "m" key on your keyboard to unmute the channel.
Good luck. ;-)

For some reason, the 'm' key and the spacebar do nothing for me in alsamixer. Everything else seems to work. Up, down, number keys... but not m or spacebar.

Help?

(Thanks for being patient with me, peacedog)

No thanks needed, you haven't seen my bad side! :D

The m key *should* work on channels that are *available*. What I mean by available is there should be a box at the bottom of the channel with either an mm or 00 in it.

When you tab across the channels look at the bottom, if you see the mm, the m key should unmute that channel and change it to 00.

If you see 00, the up arrow key should raise the volume and the 00 will change to reflect the volume level up to 100.

Finally if you don't see an mm or 00 at the bottom of the particular channel then it's not *available*. That's not to say you can't get it available, it's just not available currently.

Hope that makes sense, post back with progress/failure.
Good luck. ;-)

The channels look like they are available.

Here's a screenshot.

The numbers are all set at 80.

What do you think?

It appears the mic channel is available and turned up. Have you tried to record anything? Do the arrow up/down keys change the 80 level in either direction?
Good luck. ;-)