integrated mic way too low on Dell XPS 1530 on F9

[timliim]

I followed the procedure in
https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=474477#c16
and it worked great for me; the built-in mic on my XPS M1530 works
reasonably (no more low mic) with skype in F10. I have to use
"alsamixer -c0" (text mode) for volume control, though;
gnome-volume-control did not show the new "DigitalMic" control for me.

[timliim]

I know what I missed. In "Preferences", I need to check the newly
added device "DigitalMic", so gnome-volume-control will show it in
"Recording" tab.

[M4rc0]

That's nice to know timliim.

So when I decide to go for F10, I know the procedure.

My solution was removing pulseaudio and setting "Default" on skype.

Do you use pulseaudio on F10? Did you encounter any problems with your lappy and pulseaudio?

[timliim]

My own impression on F10 x86_64 + pulseaudio + XPS M1530: in general
ok, but choppy (some glitch sounds) at times, mostly in vlc. I change
output device (in skype, vlc, audacity) to ALSA when I run out of my
patience with pulseaudio. I didn't have to remove pulseaudio
packages, so the switch between PA and ALSA ("HDA Intel (hw:Intel,0)")
is only a matter of selection in skype, etc.

[titimoi]

I followed the same procedure from bugzilla but unfortunatly, the sound is not working anymore for gnome apps, just like exaile / gnome sound recorder or anything.. do you have the same probleme or did you do anything else special ?

[timliim]

Good point. I need built-in mic of M1530 only for skype, which
combination (built-in mic + skype) worked reasonably fine after
following procedure in
https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=474477#c16
I didn't try other recording application until an hour ago.

#1. gnome-sound-recorder (g-s-r):
Following your posting, I tried g-s-r and indeed it exhibited the
low mic issue; BUT I realized that there was no choice for input
device, thus g-s-r probably did not use the digital mic (digital
mic is the good one).

#2. audacity:
I also tried audacity, which also has the low mic issue
initially. Then I realized the default input device is "ALSA:
HDA Intel: STAC92xx Analog(hw:0,0)" (from menu View -> Toolbars
-> Device Toolbar). After changing the input device to "ALSA:
DigitalMic," the recording volume became reasonable, about 15~20
dB louder than the analog mic. The quality is not the best, but
usable for conversation.

#3. exaile
Does exaile record at all? I could not find any option for
recording in exaile. Please clarify your issue with exaile.

#4. skype
skype still works fine with "DigitalMic" as the "Sound In" device
after playing around with #1,2,3.

In short, I do have low mic issue with g-s-r, but g-s-r does not
allow me to choose DigitalMic either. Audacity allows me to
choose DigitalMic, which gives reasonable recording volume in
audacity.

[titimoi]

In fact when I say that I have a problem in gnome apps, I should have said that I don't have any sound in Gnome !! Exaile doesn't give any sound, as well as g-s-r ... I can choos Digital in g-s-r .. I can see a little bar that says how loud is my voice, and it seems to be pretty good.. but I cannot hear myself when I play what I recorded.. As well Exaile seems to be playing the song.. but I don't hear anything..

Indeed skype works well.. such as any video played on firefox with flash.. I don' know where is the probleme now.. if you have any Idea..

[titimoi]

could you give me the result of this command

rpm -qa | grep pulseaudio

and

rpm -qa | grep alsa

did you change anything with pulseaudio or alsa ?


I have that :

]# rpm -qa | grep pulseaudio
pulseaudio-libs-glib2-0.9.14-1.fc10.x86_64
pulseaudio-core-libs-0.9.14-1.fc10.x86_64
pulseaudio-libs-0.9.14-1.fc10.x86_64
wine-pulseaudio-1.1.14-1.fc10.i386
pulseaudio-utils-0.9.14-1.fc10.x86_64
pulseaudio-0.9.14-1.fc10.x86_64
pulseaudio-libs-0.9.14-1.fc10.i386

# rpm -qa | grep alsa
alsa-utils-1.0.19-1.fc10.x86_64
bluez-alsa-4.22-2.fc10.x86_64
alsa-lib-1.0.19-2.fc10.x86_64
alsa-lib-1.0.19-2.fc10.i386

[timliim]

Here is info you asked:

[timliim@yam ~]$ rpm -qa | grep pulseaudio
pulseaudio-utils-0.9.14-1.fc10.x86_64
pulseaudio-esound-compat-0.9.14-1.fc10.x86_64
alsa-plugins-pulseaudio-1.0.18-2.fc10.i386
xine-lib-pulseaudio-1.1.16.2-1.fc10.x86_64
pulseaudio-0.9.14-1.fc10.x86_64
pulseaudio-libs-0.9.14-1.fc10.i386
pulseaudio-debuginfo-0.9.14-1.fc10.x86_64
pulseaudio-libs-zeroconf-0.9.14-1.fc10.x86_64
pulseaudio-libs-devel-0.9.14-1.fc10.x86_64
pulseaudio-libs-glib2-0.9.14-1.fc10.x86_64
pulseaudio-module-gconf-0.9.14-1.fc10.x86_64
alsa-plugins-pulseaudio-1.0.18-2.fc10.x86_64
pulseaudio-libs-0.9.14-1.fc10.x86_64
kde-settings-pulseaudio-4.1-6.20090206svn.fc10.noarch
pulseaudio-module-x11-0.9.14-1.fc10.x86_64
pulseaudio-core-libs-0.9.14-1.fc10.x86_64
[timliim@yam ~]$ rpm -qa | grep alsa
bluez-alsa-4.22-2.fc10.x86_64
alsa-plugins-pulseaudio-1.0.18-2.fc10.i386
alsa-utils-1.0.19-1.fc10.x86_64
alsa-plugins-pulseaudio-1.0.18-2.fc10.x86_64
alsa-lib-1.0.19-2.fc10.x86_64
alsa-lib-devel-1.0.19-2.fc10.x86_64
alsa-lib-1.0.19-2.fc10.i386
alsa-lib-debuginfo-1.0.19-2.fc10.x86_64

> did you change anything with pulseaudio or alsa ?
I didn't recall I need any change to play sound. My problem was
recording with built-in mic, which was solved by
https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=474477#c16

I tried F10 live CD (32-bit gnome) just now, on M1530. Without
any change, g-s-r play .wav file with reasonable volume, with
built-in speaker. By any chance did you use headset? Could
you try the live CD and see how it goes?

> I can choos Digital in g-s-r .. I can see a little bar that
> says how loud is my voice ...

I saw the little bar indicating recording level, but how do I
choose Digital in g-s-r? Mine only has
File (New, Open, Save, Save As, Open Volume control, Properties, Close, Quit)
Control (Record, Play, Stop)
Help (Contents, About)
None of them allows me to choose DitigalMic.

[timliim]

Re: post #23
Titimoi,
The guy in
https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=474477#c25
seems to have same issue as you do (no audio). Did your no-playback
issue occurs only recently after certain update/local changes, or from the
beginning of F10?

[titimoi]

yeah.. this guy is me.. that's why he asks for the same question everywhere ! Well everything occurred after coming to F10 from F9 with an upgrade.. it worked perfectly well with F9... I'm not using a headset. Well sometimes in g-s-r I can choose the source for recording, sometimes not.. it's seems that I can now.. but if I chage just a little thing.. it changes .. it's so weird..

[titimoi]

I resolved my probleme by deleting everything related to pulseaudio :

yum remove pulseaudio-utils.i386 pulseaudio-utils pulseaudio-libs-0.9.14-1.fc10.x86_64 pulseaudio-core-libs pulseaudio-debuginfo pulseaudio-esound-compat pulseaudio-libs-zeroconf pulseaudio-libs-devel pulseaudio-module-gconf alsa-plugins-pulseaudio pulseaudio-module-x11 alsa-lib-devel alsa-lib-debuginfo

[timliim]

Congratulations, Titimoi!

> that's why he asks for the same question everywhere !
... and see the same answer from same guy everywhere :-).