Linux - HardwareThis forum is for Hardware issues.
Having trouble installing a piece of hardware? Want to know if that peripheral is compatible with Linux?
Notices
Welcome to LinuxQuestions.org, a friendly and active Linux Community.
You are currently viewing LQ as a guest. By joining our community you will have the ability to post topics, receive our newsletter, use the advanced search, subscribe to threads and access many other special features. Registration is quick, simple and absolutely free. Join our community today!
Note that registered members see fewer ads, and ContentLink is completely disabled once you log in.
If you have any problems with the registration process or your account login, please contact us. If you need to reset your password, click here.
Having a problem logging in? Please visit this page to clear all LQ-related cookies.
Get a virtual cloud desktop with the Linux distro that you want in less than five minutes with Shells! With over 10 pre-installed distros to choose from, the worry-free installation life is here! Whether you are a digital nomad or just looking for flexibility, Shells can put your Linux machine on the device that you want to use.
Exclusive for LQ members, get up to 45% off per month. Click here for more info.
The microphone in my Thinkpad doesn't work.
Audacity recognizes it as
Quote:
HDA Intel PCH: ALC285 Analog (hw:0,0)
, but will not record when that microphone is selected.
I have been using an USB microphone successfully, but the wife really prefers to use the internal microphone.
Doing a "Find Similar Threads", I found a posting in '08 that was never resolved. IIRC from previous attempts to solve this that there is a monaural/stereo setting somewhere in /etc that is at fault.
Afterthought: I see your profile says "Debian, Ubuntu." Both of those use Pulse Audio. If you have not done so already, install pavucontrol, the Pulse mixer. It gives much more granular control than typical volume control applications. You may find out, for example, that the internal mic is muted.
Does it have a discreet mic jack? If so, test with a mic with a mini-plug to see whether it works.
Boot to a Live CD/USB, preferably of something not Debian-related, and test the mics with it, to rule out the possiblility that it's hardware problem with the built-in mic.
There is no microphone jack. From information provided by pavucontrol, the internal microphone is "unplugged." The inference is that the machine thinks that there *is* a microphone plugged in which disconnects the internal microphone.
A live CD/DVD would not help without an app that actually records from the microphone. Audacity does recognize that the microphone exists but the output from the microphone is unavailable.
All I've got left is that it's either a hardware problem with mic or the sound card has some weird incompatibility with Linux. The next thing I'd do, if it were my box, is use lspci to determine the audio chipset and do a web search for "[chipset] Linux."
You mis-read.
Audacity does recognize it, as does pavucontrol. However, Audacity acts as if the device is muted, and pavucontrol reports that it is "unplugged."
I did a due diligence search on the problem before I reported it here. Again, I found the problem reported back in 2004 without resolution.
lspci reports "00:if:3 Audio device Intel Corporation Canon Point-LP LPC Controller (rev 11)" However, "Audio device" also encompasses the speaker, which does work.
Quote:
Originally Posted by ondoho
In which ways have you ascertained that the mic does not work at all? All I see in your OP is that one application (audacity) does not recognize it.
LinuxQuestions.org is looking for people interested in writing
Editorials, Articles, Reviews, and more. If you'd like to contribute
content, let us know.
