pulseaudio, microphone and skype 2.1 beta in Fedora Core 12

[vantonuccio]

I have installed skype 2.1 beta on my Lenovo Thinkpad R61i, under Fedora Core 12. The webcam is connected to the USB port, and I use the microphone of the headphones (but I have the same problem with the internal microphone).

When I open skype from home, connected to an ISP through DHCP, both webcam and microphone work: I can listen the record of my voice in the skype's "test call". However, when I am from my office, where I connect to a LAN with a fixed IP number, the webcam works, but the microphone does not work. I can listen with the headphones, but when I try to record my voice, I can not hear anything.

Any help would be highly appreciated!
V.

========================================= (added on 01/15/2010)

I have actually two webcams, and I now know that the microphone under skype is working only when one of them is plugged in. It wa the webcam I used with skype the first time, i.e. a Logitech Quickam Pro 4000.
Why is the microphone only working when this webcam is plugged in, and not working when no or another webcam is plugged in? Where are the configuration files of skype 2.1 beta?

Thank you

V.

[murenti]

I also have a Dell Inspiron laptop with built in webcam and mic I have sound working and camera but no microphone.
Many thanks in advance for anyones help.

[cheerio158]

[bump]

I am struggling with the same problem with F14 on a Dell Latitude E6320 laptop.

When I upgraded Skype from 2.1 beta to 2.2 with skype-2.2.0.35-fedora.i586.rpm, the webcam now works fine but still do not have the microphone working.

One thing, I never did get the internal speakers working on this laptop and use a pair of USB speakers instead. Speakers which plug into earphone jack work well too. The USB speakers are working with Skype too.

I'm considering purchasing a microphone except that the microphone jack in part of a all-in-one earphone/microphone combo jack. I have no experience with these.

Any ideas?

[murenti]

Hi,
I fixed mine with a little tweeking via the pavucontrol, it may not be installed by default just type "pavucontrol" into the softwarec ontroller and check that all volumes are turned up with that. Hope that helps.

[cheerio158]

Originally Posted by dmurphy787

Hi,
I fixed mine with a little tweeking via the pavucontrol, it may not be installed by default just type "pavucontrol" into the softwarec ontroller and check that all volumes are turned up with that. Hope that helps.

Thanks for the tip but it didn't work for me.

I think that this newer laptop isn't quite supported for sound, microphone and even using the intel graphics driver hangs upon boot.

I'm running off a F14 x686 live usb with the 'basic video' (vesa). I may build a F15 live usb and see if that works better.

[murenti]

I was starting to wonder about my own installation and machine as well but I found that having the following files installed and then using the pavucontroll and checking the multimedia settings got it all to work normally for me, except some OSS games where I have to manually tell it use certain specs, but they are older games anyway.
Please check this list is active in your software installer and then check the pavucontroll again.
alsa-plugins-pulse, alsa-plugins-pulse-32bit, libpulse-browse0, libpulse-mainloop-glib0, libpulse0, libpulse0-32bit, libxine1-pulse, pavucontrol, pulseaudio, pulseaudio-esound-compat, pulseaudio-module-bluetooth, pulseaudio-module-jack, pulseaudio-module-lirc, pulseaudio-module-x11, pulseaudio-module-zeroconf, pulseaudio-utils
alsa, alsa-firmware, alsa-oss, alsa-oss-32bit, alsa-plugins, alsa-plugins-32bit, alsa-plugins-pulse, alsa-plugins-pulse-32bit, alsa-utils.

It turned out fine for me with a little persistence, I hope it does also for you

[cheerio158]

Please check this list is active in your software installer and then check the pavucontroll again.
alsa-plugins-pulse, alsa-plugins-pulse-32bit, libpulse-browse0, libpulse-mainloop-glib0, libpulse0, libpulse0-32bit, libxine1-pulse, pavucontrol, pulseaudio, pulseaudio-esound-compat, pulseaudio-module-bluetooth, pulseaudio-module-jack, pulseaudio-module-lirc, pulseaudio-module-x11, pulseaudio-module-zeroconf, pulseaudio-utils
alsa, alsa-firmware, alsa-oss, alsa-oss-32bit, alsa-plugins, alsa-plugins-32bit, alsa-plugins-pulse, alsa-plugins-pulse-32bit, alsa-utils.

I'm missing most of these! I will add these to the packages included in my liveusb, rebuild and post if this solves the problem or not.

Thanks!!

[murenti]

If that doesnt work the live usb could also be the cause as it seems to only load basics. You can install Virtualbox from here https://www.virtualbox.org/wiki/Downloads which will allow you to install Fedora and run it as thought it was the root system, there you can check all things before you decide to make it your primary OS. It will run as a proper installed OS without messing your current system up, but it will take as long as a normal install to install.
Let me know how you go.

[cheerio158]

You can install Virtualbox from here https://www.virtualbox.org/wiki/Downloads which will allow you to install Fedora and run it as thought it was the root system ...

Actually, I am also running Virtualbox (VB) under Windoze 7 on this laptop with and have a F14 VM. Does VB running as "the root system" emulate close enough to predict how a native install would behave?

I am going to include the missing audio packages in my next build. Also, your suggestion has given me the idea to scrutinize the video/graphics/xorg components. My biggest annoyance is being stuck using the basic (vesa) video. This does not let me use dual monitors.

BTW, I've been using Linux as my primary OS since FC1. My company's new hardware manager wouldn't let me load Linux on this new laptop for (valid) fear of voiding the warranty. On my previous company laptop, the Windoze/Dell crapware never got booted before I had wiped the drive and installed F10

Thanks for your help! I will post my progress.

[cheerio158]

Follow-up:

Rebuilt my liveusb with F15 and the video, sound and microphone issues are resolved on this laptop.

I can now use the proper Intel video driver and the internal speakers and microphone now work.

The video driver issues was a know bug in F14 as per the release notes.

The only problem ... now I have to use that horrible Gnome 3!

[murenti]

Well done, glad to hear it has worked out good, thanks for keeping me updated.