using a mic in Linux

fakie_flip · 09-09-2005, 10:32 PM

Is there any way to chat with a mic in Linux that is not really complicated. I tried gnome-meeting with a friend. We connected with it and could type to each other. We could not hear each other or use webcam. Gaim and X-Chat do not have support for a mic. I am using Ubuntu 5.04. I tried teamspeak. My friend said it is buggy in Linux. I could not get any servers to show up in the list. Is there a way to use voice chat for Yahoo messenger or any other messengers?

tekkieman · 09-09-2005, 10:42 PM

Have you tried skype?

fakie_flip · 09-10-2005, 09:39 AM

Yes, I have tried Skype. It shows up in the gnome menu, but nothing happens when I click on it. I think that is because the minimum requirement is 400mghz and my computer has a 350mghz p2.

mgmax · 09-10-2005, 11:57 AM

Have you tried to start it manually from a console? Do any errors appear?

I don't like skype, it kills my audio daemon. Better use SIP, an open protocoll, with many clients like for example linphone.

Thetargos · 09-10-2005, 12:01 PM

You may need to properly set up your sound settings for you to be able to use the mic... Should not be too difficult. Depending on your distro, you may want to take a look under alsamixer, and depending on your hardware, you may want to check out http://alsa.opensrc.org/

fakie_flip · 09-10-2005, 09:36 PM

Can the SIP software be used to talk to someone on windows? I tried running skype from the terminal by typing skype, and it did not work. If I find another way to run it from a console, I will try that. Linphone sounds good except can it be used to talk to people on Windows also? It does not sound like it. I went to my menu and opened sound recorder. I could hear myself through the speakers only when I had pushed the record button. The stop button was grey, so I could not use it. I had to force quit on the program. If that works, then I should not need alsamixer sound drivers, right? Thanks for the help.

Thetargos · 09-10-2005, 10:17 PM

Well, when you try to run skype, what is the error message you are getting, also it would be helpful to know what distribution do you have, that would orient us regarding your sound system, and knowing your hardware is also helpful to find any known issues, etc.

I have no experience with Linphone, but will look that up as it looks interesting... While we are at it, I think a killer feature for a VoIP program would be to be able to run both a client/server topography (Ventrillo, TeamSpeak) and a disperse internet topography (skype, GTalk, Gizmo).

fakie_flip · 09-10-2005, 11:43 PM

When I try to run Skype, nothing happens. It shows up in my menu, and it makes a noise like everything else that i click on. Sound works. I am using Ubuntu 5.04. My mic is made from Logitech. Here is the output of lspci:

Code:

chris@ubuntu:~$ lspci
0000:00:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corp. 440BX/ZX/DX - 82443BX/ZX/DX Host bridge (rev 03)
0000:00:01.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corp. 440BX/ZX/DX - 82443BX/ZX/DX AGP bridge (rev 03)
0000:00:07.0 ISA bridge: Intel Corp. 82371AB/EB/MB PIIX4 ISA (rev 02)
0000:00:07.1 IDE interface: Intel Corp. 82371AB/EB/MB PIIX4 IDE (rev 01)
0000:00:07.2 USB Controller: Intel Corp. 82371AB/EB/MB PIIX4 USB (rev 01)
0000:00:07.3 Bridge: Intel Corp. 82371AB/EB/MB PIIX4 ACPI (rev 02)
0000:00:08.0 Ethernet controller: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTL-8139/8139C/8139C+ (rev 10)
0000:00:0a.0 Multimedia audio controller: Ensoniq ES1370 [AudioPCI]
0000:01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: nVidia Corporation NV6 [Vanta/Vanta LT] (rev 15)
chris@ubuntu:~$

Do you need to know about any other hardware? I have a 350mghz p2 processor and 4 gb hdd. I have 176mb of memory. My computer is made by Gateway. My speakers are made by Altec. I am not sure how to install linphone. After i ran configure, there was not a make file. The readme file was hard to understand. It talked about many things I have never heard of, and the I could not find anything that helped in the documentation for installing on the website.

Thetargos · 09-11-2005, 12:06 AM

I'm sorry to be so insistent, but even when you run skype from the command line, you do jnot see anything in the console?? Like after typing skype some messages get printed, anything?

As far as your hardware goes, it should work just fine with Linux and ALSA drivers. For instructions and notes on getting the mic to work, take a look at the ens1370 page on the ALSA WiKi page.

A shot in the dark about Skype, but maybe your system does not comply with the minum hardware requirements? (I would find that very strange indeed if that were the case). Looking at those over at skype's Linux page, I see the minimum req. to be 400 MHz, not too big a difference with your current system, but way above what TeamSpeak (for instance) requires (166 MHz)... Other than that... I don't know what it could be, to honest.

fakie_flip · 09-11-2005, 11:18 AM

Typing skype from the console does not bring up Skype, because that is an unreconizable command. I do not know what the command for bringing up Skype is. That is what I said earlier, the minimum requirements say i need 400mhz, and I have 350mghz. Would I need alsa if I can hear myself through the speakers with sound recorder? Does anybody know?

fakie_flip · 09-11-2005, 11:31 AM

I got Alsa from Synaptic. It said AlsaMixerGui. I do not know where the gui is. Here are my installed files:

Code:

/.
/etc
/etc/alsa
/etc/alsa/dev.d
/etc/alsa/dev.d/alsa-base
/etc/alsa/modprobe-post-install.d
/etc/alsa/modprobe-post-install.d/alsa-base
/etc/hotplug
/etc/hotplug/blacklist.d
/etc/hotplug/blacklist.d/alsa-base
/etc/discover.d
/etc/discover.d/alsa-base
/etc/discover.conf.d
/etc/discover.conf.d/10alsa
/etc/modutils
/etc/modutils/alsa-base
/etc/modprobe.d
/etc/modprobe.d/alsa-base
/etc/apm
/etc/apm/scripts.d
/etc/apm/scripts.d/alsa
/etc/apm/suspend.d
/etc/apm/resume.d
/etc/devfs
/etc/devfs/conf.d
/etc/devfs/conf.d/alsa
/etc/dev.d
/etc/dev.d/snd
/etc/dev.d/snd/controlC0
/etc/dev.d/snd/controlC1
/etc/dev.d/snd/controlC2
/etc/dev.d/snd/controlC3
/etc/dev.d/snd/controlC4
/etc/dev.d/snd/controlC5
/etc/dev.d/snd/controlC6
/etc/dev.d/snd/controlC7
/etc/init.d
/etc/init.d/alsa
/lib
/lib/alsa
/lib/alsa/modprobe-post-install
/lib/alsa/dev
/lib/discover
/lib/discover/alsa-base.list.xml
/lib/discover/alsa-base.pci-device.xml
/usr
/usr/share
/usr/share/alsa-base
/usr/share/alsa-base/snddevices
/usr/share/alsa-base/alsa.default
/usr/share/alsa-base/program-wrapper
/usr/share/alsa-base/OSS-module-list
/usr/share/lintian
/usr/share/lintian/overrides
/usr/share/lintian/overrides/alsa-base
/usr/share/doc
/usr/share/doc/alsa-base
/usr/share/doc/alsa-base/FAQ
/usr/share/doc/alsa-base/README
/usr/share/doc/alsa-base/WARNING
/usr/share/doc/alsa-base/SOUNDCARDS.gz
/usr/share/doc/alsa-base/NEWS.Debian.gz
/usr/share/doc/alsa-base/copyright
/usr/share/doc/alsa-base/changelog-old.Debian.gz
/usr/share/doc/alsa-base/driver
/usr/share/doc/alsa-base/driver/Audigy-mixer.txt.gz
/usr/share/doc/alsa-base/driver/CMIPCI.txt.gz
/usr/share/doc/alsa-base/driver/Bt87x.txt
/usr/share/doc/alsa-base/driver/ControlNames.txt
/usr/share/doc/alsa-base/driver/Joystick.txt
/usr/share/doc/alsa-base/driver/MIXART.txt
/usr/share/doc/alsa-base/driver/Procfile.txt.gz
/usr/share/doc/alsa-base/driver/serial-u16550.txt
/usr/share/doc/alsa-base/driver/seq_oss.html
/usr/share/doc/alsa-base/driver/ALSA-Configuration.txt.gz
/usr/share/doc/alsa-base/driver/OSS-Emulation.txt.gz
/usr/share/doc/alsa-base/driver/SB-Live-mixer.txt.gz
/usr/share/doc/alsa-base/README.Debian.gz
/usr/share/doc/alsa-base/changelog.Debian.gz
/var
/var/run
/var/run/alsa

Now I can save recorded files and push the stop button from sound recorder.

fakie_flip · 09-11-2005, 12:05 PM

My friend can hear noise on GnomeMeeting now, but it is static and jittery. He said, "squirly." Now I get something when I type skype in the console.

Code:

root@ubuntu:/home/chris/Desktop # ls
skype_1.2.0.11-1_i386.deb
root@ubuntu:/home/chris/Desktop # dpkg -i skype_1.2.0.11-1_i386.deb
Selecting previously deselected package skype.
(Reading database ... 59302 files and directories currently installed.)
Unpacking skype (from skype_1.2.0.11-1_i386.deb) ...
Setting up skype (1.2.0.11) ...
root@ubuntu:/home/chris/Desktop # ls
skype_1.2.0.11-1_i386.deb
root@ubuntu:/home/chris/Desktop # skype
skype: error while loading shared libraries: libqt-mt.so.3: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory
root@ubuntu:/home/chris/Desktop #

I think the reason the stop button did not work before on sound recorder was because I had other programs opened at the same time. Recording level monitor was one of them.

mgmax · 09-11-2005, 12:57 PM

That means you've got to install the qt library or use the statically linked version of skype.
QT is a graphics library used for example by KDE.

Your version of skype seems to be dynamically linked, that means if searches for the library it needs and cant run without it. If its statically linked the library is built into the executable.

you can try to install linphone from synaptic.

and yes, there are many windows SIP clients, for example x-lite.

HTH

mgmax

Thetargos · 09-11-2005, 01:10 PM

You can download and install the statically linked QT binary (9.3 Mb, instead of the 6.4) from Skype's site, as previously suggested.

fakie_flip · 09-11-2005, 02:23 PM

I got Skype to work. It works great. The sound is crystal clear. Thanks.