No mic (even after the wiki), please help! [Solved]

[denijane]

Hi,
when I tied to use skype I discovered my mic is not working at all.
I tried all the things from the wiki, and still nothing.
At least I managed to capture music and record it, which I couldn't do before reading the wiki, but this is not enough.
I'd really like to be able to use my mic.

What skype says when I try to make a test call is:

/dev/dsp: Device or resource busy

I'm using a Gigabyte laptop and my sound card is Intel (alsaconf says: Intel Coorporation 82801G(ICH7 Familly).
And ideas anyone what I should do?
My sound except for the mic is working perfectly.

[Fitzcarraldo]

Which version of ALSA and Skype are you using? Have you emerged the latest versions from Portage?

I'm currently running ALSA 1.0.14 and Skype (Beta) 1.4.0.94 and it works fine, and I no longer have to edit the HDA-Intel.conf file (which, as the SL Wiki explains, I had to do for a previous version of Skype). Also, it might be worth trying the GNOME Volume Control mixer (it's installed with SL 3.4 Loop 2b that I am using -- don't know if it is installed by 3.4e, but you can emerge it if it isn't) as I find it shows the Capture channels accurately on my PC, unlike KMix.

The Skype for Linux forum has a caveat about ALSA 1.0.14 and a microphone here:

http://forum.skype.com/index.php?showtopic=66544&st=40

(see the fix given by berkus) but it works fine for me.

[denijane]

well, I read those things, and I guess I tried most of them. Did what Berkus said...nothing helps so far...

And I don't think the problem is Skype, because my mic doesn't work at all. Tried with Krec and with something else, and there's no voice and no input form it, just noises.

I am with Alsa 1.0.14 and the skype is 1.3.0.45.r1, I tried updating it from kuroo and emerge, but for some reasons it won't update. But anyway, if I manage to have my mic working, I don't need the skype, I have better ideas.

After Google search I found this for the same error i get from skype:
"If you sound card driver only can support one (or very few) processes accessing it, then you have trouble. The latest NForce2 drivers are like this. If you run KDE3 for example, you get desktop sounds, but no other app can access the dsp unless it uses the arts daemon."

The thing is i have all kind of sounds working. Just the mic is not. Everything is unmuted, but still I get only noises and not even a hint of voice. It looks like something is preventing the mic from registering anythin...

Little update- when i try to play trough in krec, i get only high pitching noise. Maybe that could lead us to the actual problem. I start thinking that for some reasons the Sabayon don't recognise mic jacks as devices or something. Nor it recognise the internal mics.

Btw, when I load alsaconf I first get this message:
" modinfo: could not find module snd"

and then it all loads and works fine. Well, except for the mics...
And after few hours of messing with it, now the sound sucks...aaah

[denijane]

In the Gentoo forum they told me that my problem is
the following message I get when i try to update my alsa driver:
"configure: error: You have built-in ALSA in your kernel."
And one of the guys told me the following:

"This means that when your kernel was configured, before compiling, the sound drivers were included, but not as separate modules which can be loaded after the kernel is running. This is unusual and unwise. The only way to change the sound drivers is to change kernels -- get a kernel which was properly configured or configure and compile a kernel yourself."

Is there any way I can fix that in Sabayon?
Here's the link to the Gentoo forum:

http://www.linuxquestions.org/questions ... ost2862222

[Lucidor]

This may not apply to your specific problem, but I had issues with the microphone in Skype and solved it by playing with the settings of input and output (in the Skype application). For some reason, the default did not work but by specifying a specific ALSA driver it kicked alive. I also has problems getting the front mic connection on my Soundblaster Audigy 2 to work, but moving to the plug directly to the back of the card helped. The latter issue may be broken hardware of my specific equipment, but could be worth trying if everything else fails. And don't forget to activate the (correct) mic in the mixer.

[denijane]

I finally solved my problem.
I updated the kernel as suggested (and thanks to the wiki it was quite easy) and now the mic is working. As far as I can see, everything is working fine now.
Thanks to everyone who tried to help.
Updating the kernel sounded really scary, but I did it yesterday and it wasn't.
Bye