Unable to record Audio on Ubuntu - ALSA problem?

I'm normally a server person but I'm now trying to record some audio and I'm a bit stuck on how the Linux sound system works. I've read the Mini How-to, but I still can't figure out what is happening.

I have a Thinkpad T22 and the soundcard is detected as:
Sound Fusion CS46**, Chip Cirrus Logic CS4297A rev 4.

I am running Ubuntu 6 (Dapper Drake)

I am wanting to record some audio from the Line-in port of the laptop. This is taking some piano music from a tape, with the intention of converting it to CD / MP3.

The sound is coming in OK as I can adjust the sound levels so that it can be heard through the speakers, but I am unable to record.

I've tried using the "Sound Recorder", which just hangs whenever I try and use it, and Audacity, which tries to record, but is just empty.

I have adjusted the line volume in ALSA Mixer (which affects the sound coming out of my speakers, but not the recording).

I have the following devices in /dev

crw-rw---- 1 root audio 14, 12 2006-07-17 19:55 /dev/adsp crw-rw---- 1 root audio 14, 4 2006-07-17 19:55 /dev/audio crw-rw---- 1 root audio 14, 9 2006-07-17 19:55 /dev/dmmidi crw-rw---- 1 root audio 14, 3 2006-07-17 19:55 /dev/dsp crw-rw---- 1 root audio 14, 2 2006-07-17 19:55 /dev/midi crw-rw---- 1 root audio 14, 0 2006-07-17 19:55 /dev/mixer crw-rw---- 1 root audio 10, 135 2006-07-17 19:55 /dev/rtc

and the following in /dev/snd

crw-rw---- 1 root audio 116, 0 2006-07-17 19:55 controlC0 crw-rw---- 1 root audio 116, 8 2006-07-17 19:55 midiC0D0 crw-rw---- 1 root audio 116, 24 2006-07-17 19:55 pcmC0D0c crw-rw---- 1 root audio 116, 16 2006-07-17 19:55 pcmC0D0p crw-rw---- 1 root audio 116, 17 2006-07-17 18:55 pcmC0D1p crw-rw---- 1 root audio 116, 18 2006-07-17 19:55 pcmC0D2p crw-rw---- 1 root audio 116, 33 2006-07-17 19:55 timer

Audacity lists the device as /dev/dsp, and doesn't allow any other device to be selected.

I can't find any references to ALSA in either the syslog or messages.

Can anyone please give me an idea of where I should start looking.

Thanks

IIRC in Audacity there was an input select that I had to set to line in. otherwise you could use ecasound.

Thanks for your reply

The input is set to Line on Audacity.

I will try ecasound to see if that is different, but I suspect that this is something more fundamental as Sound Recorder doesn't work either.

I have tried using ecsound, but still no joy.

I used the command:

ecasound -f:16,2,44100 -i /dev/dsp -o filename.wav

I also tried it on the /dev/mixer, but that was refused, so looks like it does have to be /dev/dsp.

Here is a bit more information about my system, don't know if it will help at all:

$ cat /proc/asound/version
Advanced Linux Sound Architecture Driver Version 1.0.10rc3 (Mon Nov 07 13:30:21 2005 UTC).

$ cat /proc/asound/cards
0 [CS46xx         ]: CS46xx - Sound Fusion CS46xx
                     Sound Fusion CS46xx at 0xe8122000/0xe8000000, irq 11

$ cat /proc/asound/devices
  8: [0- 0]: raw midi
 18: [0- 2]: digital audio playback
 17: [0- 1]: digital audio playback
 16: [0- 0]: digital audio playback
 24: [0- 0]: digital audio capture
  0: [0- 0]: ctl
 33:       : timer

$ cat /proc/asound/oss-devices
cat: /proc/asound/oss-devices: No such file or directory

$ cat /proc/asound/pcm
00-00: CS46xx : CS46xx : playback 31 : capture 1
00-01: CS46xx - Rear : CS46xx - Rear : playback 31
00-02: CS46xx - IEC958 : CS46xx - IEC958 : playback 1

I'm thinking you don't have oss emulation working. oss is the old system. /dev/dsp & /dev/mixer are oss and this is depreciated in the 2.6 kernel. /dev/mixer isn't an audio io it just controls the mixer. alsa is the new sound system, but since some programs (like audacity) only support oss alsa has an oss compatibility layer (but yours may not be enabled) when I sugested ecasound it was because it is a very versatile program that supports many io options including alsa try:

ecasound -f:16,2,44100 -i:alsa -o filename.wav

or

ecasound -f:16,2,44100 -i:alsa,io1 -o filename.wav

depending on your system. (btw -f:16,2,44100 is not needed as this is the default setting.)

use alsamixer to set you levels and select line for capture.

Thanks for your suggestions, unfortunately it's still not working.

$ ecasound -i:alsa -o alsatest.wav
*********************************************************************************       
 ecasound v2.4.3 (C) 1997-2005 Kai Vehmanen and others
********************************************************************************-
 [ Session created ] ----------------------------------------------------------- 
[ Chainsetup created (cmdline) ] ---------------------------------------------- 
[ Connecting chainsetup ] ----------------------------------------------------
(eca-chainsetup) 'rt' buffering mode selected.
(audioio_alsa) Warning! Period-size differs from current client buffersize.
(eca-chainsetup) Audio object "alsa", mode "read".
(audio-io) Format: s16_le, channels 2, srate 44100, interleaved.
(eca-chainsetup) Audio object "alsatest.wav", mode "read/write".
(audio-io) Format: s16_le, channels 2, srate 44100, interleaved.
- [ Chainsetup connected ] -----------------------------------------------------
(eca-control-objects) Connected chainsetup: "command-line-setup".
- [ Controller/Starting batch processing ] -------------------------------------- 
[ Engine init - Driver start ] -----------------------------------------------
(eca-engine) Using realtime-scheduling (SCHED_FIFO:50).
- [ Controller/Processing stopped (cond) ] -------------------------------------
Warning: DBC_ENSURE failed - "is_running() == false", eca-control-base.cpp, 276.- 
[ Controller/Processing stopped (cond) ] -------------------------------------
^X
Warning: DBC_ENSURE failed - "is_running() == false", eca-control-base.cpp, 276.
Killed

It took a kill -9 to stop it, and creates an empty file.

I've been able to overcome my immediate problem using my desktop PC which runs Fedora. It would be nice to know what the problem was though.