I've tried 2 different headsets with microphones, but can't seem to record anything or get microphone input.

If I run alsamixer from a shell prompt most things have a vertical bar that I can increase or decrease but the Mic/Line item shows Mic in, but no bar to increase or decrease.

If I open the gui version I have tabs for Playback, Switches, and Options. Options has a toggle for Mic/Line in Capture. Otherwise, nothing shows up that seems to pertain to setting up a microphone. I haven't had any luck finding any helpful information.

Any ideas?

In alsamixer, does the Mic/Line have "MM" bellow the volume bar? If it does press "M" to unmute it then you can adjust the volume.

Thanks, unfortunately, that is not the case. Whether I pick mic in or line in it doesn't show muted, just isn't available and doesn't even show the vertical rectangle for volume at all.

I've tried the graphical mixer in Gnome and even Kmix as well. No luck.

It seems to me that the sound module just isn't recognizing that there is a microphone, though I don't claim to be very knowledgeable about this.