Hey Everyone ... I'm trying to get the builtin microphone working from this Philips webcam working. I can't seem to get Audacity to detect it, not sure if ALSA is seeing it either ... new to the recording / sound area with linux. The video portion of the webcam works fine as verified in ekiga, however the sound doesn't work in that app either.

If I unplug the USB cable and replug it in I get the following output in the '/var/log/debug' log and the following entries in dmesg ... I've tried messing around with the 'gnome-volume-control' app, and selected all the input devices that it lists, and turned all of them up, then switched audacity and tried all 3 options it gives ... none of which shows any input when monitoring. The 3 choices Audacity give are:

• 'OSS: /dev/dsp',
• 'ALSA: HDA NVidia: ALC883 Analog (hw:0,0)'
• 'ALSA: HDA NVidia: ALC883 Analog (hw:0,2)'
• 'ALSA: Default'

'/var/log/debug'
dmesg

A few suggestions.
# lsmod|grep snd_usb_audio (to check if the sound module is loaded)
#arecord -l (should give something like below) In my case, card 1 is the mic on my Logitech Pro 9000 camera.
**** List of CAPTURE Hardware Devices ****
card 0: NVidia [HDA NVidia], device 0: AD198x Analog [AD198x Analog]
Subdevices: 2/3
Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
Subdevice #1: subdevice #1
Subdevice #2: subdevice #2
card 0: NVidia [HDA NVidia], device 1: AD198x Digital [AD198x Digital]
Subdevices: 1/1
Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 1: U0x46d0x990 [USB Device 0x46d:0x990], device 0: USB Audio [USB Audio]
Subdevices: 1/1
Subdevice #0: subdevice #0

Check your mixer settings to make sure the camera mic is not muted and the gain is not at zero.

So looks like the module is loaded however the microphone isn't listed in 'arecord -l' ... no idea why its not there ... camera is plugged in, tried unplugging and replugging in. Thanks for the reply 'sidboyce', atleast now I know its not being detected, any ideas where I can go from here? Thanks

Definitely the mic isn't showing, so you have /dev/dsp and no /dev/dsp1.
Check "lsusb -vv|less" and scroll down to the camera information to see if it mentions audio, guess it will.
bInterfaceClass 1 Audio
bInterfaceSubClass 1 Control Device
bInterfaceProtocol 0
iInterface 0
AudioControl Interface Descriptor:
bLength 9
bDescriptorType 36
bDescriptorSubtype 1 (HEADER)
bcdADC 1.00
wTotalLength 38
bInCollection 1
baInterfaceNr( 0) 3
AudioControl Interface Descriptor:
bLength 12
bDescriptorType 36
bDescriptorSubtype 2 (INPUT_TERMINAL)
bTerminalID 1
wTerminalType 0x0201 Microphone
etc., etc.
Strange that it doesn't create the device node having loaded the module.
Wondering what distro you are using.
"lshal -vv|less" should also show lots of info, and there should be a mention of /dev/dsp1 e.g.
udi = '/org/freedesktop/Hal/devices/usb_device_46d_990_7BBC20E7_if3'
info.linux.driver = 'snd-usb-audio' (string)
info.parent = '/org/freedesktop/Hal/devices/usb_device_46d_990_7BBC20E7' (string)
info.product = 'USB Audio Interface' (string)
info.subsystem = 'usb' (string)
info.udi = '/org/freedesktop/Hal/devices/usb_device_46d_990_7BBC20E7_if3' (string)
linux.hotplug_type = 2 (0x2) (int)
linux.subsystem = 'usb' (string)
linux.sysfs_path = '/sys/devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:02.1/usb2/2-1/2-1.2/2-1.2:1.3' (string)
usb.bus_number = 2 (0x2) (int)
usb.can_wake_up = false (bool)
usb.configuration_value = 1 (0x1) (int)
usb.device_class = 239 (0xef) (int)
usb.device_protocol = 1 (0x1) (int)
usb.device_revision_bcd = 5 (0x5) (int)
usb.device_subclass = 2 (0x2) (int)
usb.interface.class = 1 (0x1) (int)
usb.interface.number = 3 (0x3) (int)
usb.interface.protocol = 0 (0x0) (int)
usb.interface.subclass = 2 (0x2) (int)
usb.is_self_powered = false (bool)
usb.linux.device_number = 6 (0x6) (int)
usb.linux.sysfs_path = '/sys/devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:02.1/usb2/2-1/2-1.2/2-1.2:1.3' (string)
usb.max_power = 500 (0x1f4) (int)
usb.num_configurations = 1 (0x1) (int)
usb.num_interfaces = 4 (0x4) (int)
usb.num_ports = 0 (0x0) (int)
usb.product = 'USB Audio Interface' (string)
usb.product_id = 2448 (0x990) (int)
usb.serial = '7BBC20E7' (string)
usb.speed = 480.0 (480) (double)
usb.speed_bcd = 294912 (0x48000) (int)
usb.vendor = 'Logitech, Inc.' (string)
usb.vendor_id = 1133 (0x46d) (int)
usb.version = 2.0 (2) (double)
usb.version_bcd = 512 (0x200) (int)

udi = '/org/freedesktop/Hal/devices/usb_device_46d_990_7BBC20E7_if2'
info.linux.driver = 'snd-usb-audio' (string)
info.parent = '/org/freedesktop/Hal/devices/usb_device_46d_990_7BBC20E7' (string)
info.product = 'USB Audio Interface' (string)
info.subsystem = 'usb' (string)
info.udi = '/org/freedesktop/Hal/devices/usb_device_46d_990_7BBC20E7_if2' (string)
linux.hotplug_type = 2 (0x2) (int)
linux.subsystem = 'usb' (string)
linux.sysfs_path = '/sys/devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:02.1/usb2/2-1/2-1.2/2-1.2:1.2' (string)

etc.,etc. and further down oss and alsa stuff. I think hal creates the device /dev/dsp1. I'm using openSUSE 11.0 Alpha3 and yesterday I couldn't get any app to see my digital camera on this box, then on a reboot this morning I discovered that hald was segfaulting, now OK after upgrading hal to latest.

udi = '/org/freedesktop/Hal/devices/usb_device_46d_990_7BBC20E7_if2_sound_card_0_oss_pcm_0'
info.callouts.add = {'hal-resmgr'} (string list)
info.capabilities = {'oss'} (string list)
info.category = 'oss' (string)
info.interfaces = {'org.freedesktop.Hal.Device.resmgr'} (string list)
info.parent = '/org/freedesktop/Hal/devices/usb_device_46d_990_7BBC20E7_if2_sound_card_0' (string)
info.product = 'USB Device 0x46d:0x990 OSS PCM Device' (string)
info.udi = '/org/freedesktop/Hal/devices/usb_device_46d_990_7BBC20E7_if2_sound_card_0_oss_pcm_0' (string)
linux.device_file = '/dev/dsp1' (string)
linux.hotplug_type = 2 (0x2) (int)
linux.subsystem = 'sound' (string)
linux.sysfs_path = '/sys/devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:02.1/usb2/2-1/2-1.2/2-1.2:1.2/sound/card1/dsp1' (string)
org.freedesktop.Hal.Device.resmgr.method_argnames = {'', ''} (string list)
org.freedesktop.Hal.Device.resmgr.method_execpaths = {'hal-resmgr-grant', 'hal-resmgr-revoke'} (string list)
org.freedesktop.Hal.Device.resmgr.method_names = {'Grant', 'Revoke'} (string list)
org.freedesktop.Hal.Device.resmgr.method_signatures = {'', ''} (string list)
oss.card = 1 (0x1) (int)
oss.card_id = 'USB Device 0x46d:0x990' (string)
oss.device = 0 (0x0) (int)
oss.device_file = '/dev/dsp1' (string)
oss.originating_device = '/org/freedesktop/Hal/devices/usb_device_46d_990_7BBC20E7_if2_sound_card_0' (string)
oss.type = 'pcm' (string)
resmgr.class = 'sound' (string)
resmgr.device = '/dev/dsp1' (string)

# ps fax|grep hal
3113 ? Ss 0:00 /usr/sbin/hald --daemon=yes
3115 ? S 0:00 \_ hald-runner
3197 ? S 0:00 \_ hald-addon-input: Listening on /dev/input/event6 /dev/input/event3 /dev/input/event0
3200 ? S 0:00 \_ hald-addon-acpi: listening on acpid socket /var/run/acpid.socket
3209 ? S 0:00 \_ hald-addon-storage: polling /dev/sdd (every 2 sec)
3214 ? S 0:00 \_ hald-addon-storage: polling /dev/sr0 (every 2 sec)