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Internal microphone not working - Debian Squeeze + Dell Latitude E6410

Hi all,

I am having trouble getting my internal microphone working so I can use Skype. The machine is a Dell Latitude E6410 and it's running Debian Squeeze x86_64. I had found some stuff online which suggested adding the following line to my /etc/modprobe.d/alsa-base.conf would make it work:

Code:

options snd-hda-intel model=dell-s14

This worked when I was running Fedora on the machine, but on Debian - no dice!

Attached is my alsa-base.conf. This is now back to the default:

Code:

# autoloader aliases

install sound-slot-0 /sbin/modprobe snd-card-0

install sound-slot-1 /sbin/modprobe snd-card-1

install sound-slot-2 /sbin/modprobe snd-card-2

install sound-slot-3 /sbin/modprobe snd-card-3

install sound-slot-4 /sbin/modprobe snd-card-4

install sound-slot-5 /sbin/modprobe snd-card-5

install sound-slot-6 /sbin/modprobe snd-card-6

install sound-slot-7 /sbin/modprobe snd-card-7

# Cause optional modules to be loaded above generic modules

install snd /sbin/modprobe --ignore-install snd && { /sbin/modprobe --quiet snd-ioctl32 ; /sbin/modprobe --quiet snd-seq ; }

install snd-rawmidi /sbin/modprobe --ignore-install snd-rawmidi && { /sbin/modprobe --quiet snd-seq-midi ; : ; }

install snd-emu10k1 /sbin/modprobe --ignore-install snd-emu10k1 && { /sbin/modprobe --quiet snd-emu10k1-synth ; : ; }



# Prevent abnormal drivers from grabbing index 0

options bt87x index=-2

options cx88_alsa index=-2

options snd-atiixp-modem index=-2

options snd-intel8x0m index=-2

options snd-via82xx-modem index=-2

# Keep snd-pcsp from beeing loaded as first soundcard

options snd-pcsp index=-2

# Keep snd-usb-audio from beeing loaded as first soundcard

options snd-usb-audio index=-2

Here is some other info about my system which may be helpful:

Code:

ashton@hubble:~$ uname -a

Linux hubble 2.6.32-5-amd64 #1 SMP Fri Dec 10 15:35:08 UTC 2010 x86_64 GNU/Linux

ashton@hubble:~$ aplay -l

**** List of PLAYBACK Hardware Devices ****

card 0: Intel [HDA Intel], device 0: STAC92xx Analog [STAC92xx Analog]

  Subdevices: 1/1

  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0

ashton@hubble:~$ cat /proc/asound/version

Advanced Linux Sound Architecture Driver Version 1.0.21.

ashton@hubble:~$ head -n 1 /proc/asound/card*/codec#*

==> /proc/asound/card0/codec#0 <==

Codec: IDT 92HD81B1C5



==> /proc/asound/card1/codec#0 <==

Codec: Nvidia ID b



==> /proc/asound/card1/codec#1 <==

Codec: Nvidia ID b



==> /proc/asound/card1/codec#2 <==

Codec: Nvidia ID b



==> /proc/asound/card1/codec#3 <==

Codec: Nvidia ID b

Any help will be greatly appreciated as this is very annoying!

Don't know if this will help you or not, but I recently had the same problem with my new Vaio laptop, and openSUSE. Turns out the ALSA driver for the card I have (coincidentally, using nVidia hardware with a similar setup), didn't have some options enabled. I had to upgrade to ALSA 1.0.23, and the problem was resolved.

I found a doc on the openSUSE site which told me what repos to add and how to update it...was a simple three-line command, and it worked after a reboot. The Debian ALSA page I found was here: http://wiki.debian.org/ALSA

I'd try to update to 1.0.23, and see if it works...if not, you can always roll back.

Quote:

Originally Posted by TB0ne (Post 4215232)

G'day,

Thanks for your suggestion. I shall give this a go tomorrow and see if that works. :)

Quote:

Originally Posted by Zaraphrax (Post 4215237)

G'day,

Thanks for your suggestion. I shall give this a go tomorrow and see if that works. :)

No problem..hope it helps. I can only tell you it worked for me.

One irritating thing, though. It worked fine, but then after a kernel update I had to reload my nVidia graphics drivers too (no big surprise, there..), but the update also broke Alsa again. Had to go back through the same steps after the update, to make it work again. Maybe Debian has rolled that patch forward into things, but I know for openSUSE I had to jump through a hoop or two.

Quote:

Originally Posted by TB0ne (Post 4215621)

Thanks again. I've wandered on over to the Debian User Forums and asked if anyone over there knows anything. I can't seem to find any mention of upgrading ALSA on Squeeze - there's plenty of places that talk about it, none which give any sort of procedure.

Awesome, it's now working.

Here is the link to the thread just in case anyone is curious:

http://forums.debian.net/viewtopic.p...59057&p=342140

Quote:

Originally Posted by Zaraphrax (Post 4216346)

Awesome, it's now working.

Here is the link to the thread just in case anyone is curious:

http://forums.debian.net/viewtopic.p...59057&p=342140

Thanks for posting the Debian-related solution to the problem.

restore setting to default

I was able to get the microphone working as follows:

sudo /usr/sbin/alsactl init