Bug 39982 - Cannot use internal Mic on Lenovo T500
Summary: Cannot use internal Mic on Lenovo T500
Status: RESOLVED MOVED
Alias: None
Product: PulseAudio
Classification: Unclassified
Component: core (show other bugs)
Version: unspecified
Hardware: x86-64 (AMD64) Linux (All)
: medium major
Assignee: pulseaudio-bugs
QA Contact: pulseaudio-bugs
URL:
Whiteboard:
Keywords:
Depends on:
Blocks:
 
Reported: 2011-08-10 08:00 UTC by Russel Winder
Modified: 2018-07-30 10:27 UTC (History)
3 users (show)

See Also:
i915 platform:
i915 features:


Attachments
output from alsa-info.sh on T500 (22.70 KB, text/plain)
2011-08-11 08:22 UTC, Russel Winder
Details
pacmd ls output (15.88 KB, text/plain)
2011-08-11 09:25 UTC, Russel Winder
Details

Description Russel Winder 2011-08-10 08:00:12 UTC
The PulseAudio Sound Preferences appears to give no way of using the internal microphone on a Lenovo T500 running Debian Testing.  The Input volume control appears to be for the mic input socket, there is no control for the internal mic.  Using the Gnome ALSA Mixer there are extra controls over and above what the PulseAudio Sound Preferences offers.  In particular there is a control Internal, which is required to set the input level of the internal microphone -- the power on default is zero which means the microphone is not providing source signal.

It isn't actually clear where the problem resides, it may or may not be a direct PulseAudio issue, but I was advised to submit a report here anyway since PulseAudio is the default sound system control and it should be able to control all the sound sources. 

In a sense this is a blocking bug, but there is a simple workaround so it is not actually blocking.

I appreciate this may not be a suitably complete bug report, but I can provide any appropriate information needed as required.
Comment 1 Colin Guthrie 2011-08-11 05:39:52 UTC
Can you provide the alsa-info.sh file (or link) for your h/w?


If the alsa control is simply called "Internal" (and not e.g. "Internal Mic" then this is where the problem lies - it should be called something vaguely sensible however this is often difficult to get driver writers to do :(

The option to use the Internal Mic vs. an external one should be available via the Connector option in the GNOME volume control UI, but if the driver has strange names..... well there is little we can do to get any kind of logical info from it.
Comment 2 Russel Winder 2011-08-11 08:22:37 UTC
Created attachment 50135 [details]
output from alsa-info.sh on T500
Comment 3 Russel Winder 2011-08-11 08:24:21 UTC
I downloaded an alsa-info.sh from the ALSA Git repository and ran it -- there didn't seem to be such a file on Debian Testing by default given the packages I have installed.  The output file is now attached.  Hopefully this is not too much data.
Comment 4 Colin Guthrie 2011-08-11 08:57:23 UTC
Nope, not too much data.

Hmm, the name is "Internal Mic" which is an element we cover.

Can you attach "pacmd ls" too?
Comment 5 Russel Winder 2011-08-11 09:25:21 UTC
Created attachment 50136 [details]
pacmd ls output

Attaching the output from "pacmd ls > pacmd_ls_T500.txt"
Comment 6 Colin Guthrie 2011-08-12 02:14:49 UTC
What does:
 grep "Internal Mic" /usr/share/pulseaudio/alsa-mixer/paths/*

return?

You are using a recent PA so this should contain all the necessary definitions...

I'll need to study the alsa output again, but I don't see why this isn't showing up properly :(
Comment 7 Russel Winder 2011-08-12 03:36:11 UTC
Never rule out user ineptitude and/or incompetence!

I guess a question at this point is where would this control show on the Sound Preference dialogue.  I assume somewhere on the input tab, except that it already has an input volume -- it binds to the Mic control (which I guess is for the microphane jack socket.

Anyway, result of search is:

|> grep Internal /usr/share/pulseaudio/alsa-mixer/paths/*
/usr/share/pulseaudio/alsa-mixer/paths/analog-input-aux.conf:[Element Internal Mic]
/usr/share/pulseaudio/alsa-mixer/paths/analog-input.conf:[Element Internal Mic]
/usr/share/pulseaudio/alsa-mixer/paths/analog-input.conf.common:[Option Input Source:Internal Mic]
/usr/share/pulseaudio/alsa-mixer/paths/analog-input.conf.common:[Option Input Source:Internal Mic 1]
/usr/share/pulseaudio/alsa-mixer/paths/analog-input.conf.common:[Option Capture Source:Internal Mic]
/usr/share/pulseaudio/alsa-mixer/paths/analog-input.conf.common:[Option Capture Source:Internal Microphone]
/usr/share/pulseaudio/alsa-mixer/paths/analog-input-fm.conf:[Element Internal Mic]
/usr/share/pulseaudio/alsa-mixer/paths/analog-input-internal-mic.conf:; For devices where a 'Internal Mic' element exists
/usr/share/pulseaudio/alsa-mixer/paths/analog-input-internal-mic.conf:[Element Internal Mic]
/usr/share/pulseaudio/alsa-mixer/paths/analog-input-linein.conf:[Element Internal Mic]
/usr/share/pulseaudio/alsa-mixer/paths/analog-input-mic.conf:[Element Internal Mic]
/usr/share/pulseaudio/alsa-mixer/paths/analog-input-mic-line.conf:[Element Internal Mic]
/usr/share/pulseaudio/alsa-mixer/paths/analog-input-tvtuner.conf:[Element Internal Mic]
/usr/share/pulseaudio/alsa-mixer/paths/analog-input-video.conf:[Element Internal Mic]
515 launcelot:~ 
|>
Comment 8 Russel Winder 2011-08-12 03:38:39 UTC
I am not sure if this is useful data but th Gnome ALSA Mixer Soundcard Properties dialogue lists the name and visibility:

Docking Mic     Docking
Internal Mic    Internal
Comment 9 Colin Guthrie 2011-08-12 03:55:09 UTC
Yeah the option should appear on the input tab. When you select that input a combo box should offer you the choice of Internal, Mic or Docking (and in theory this should be automatically selected, but... well, this doesn't quite happen yet).

Anyway, I think the problem is at the alsa level... the Internal Mic and Docking Mic simple elements only have volumes, not cvolumes, thus they cannot be used to controlling the volume of recording.

This smells very much like an alsa issue. I would post this over to the alsa-devel mailing list (a link to your alsa-info.sh output is useful) and ask why your mics do not have cvolumes. They should be able to help you.

Feel free to leave this bug open and post links to the thread etc. as it'll help other people on searching for this topic should they find it.

There is also a chance that you can play with the model= argument for your chipset. While your specific codec is not mentioned, perhaps some of the models are still valid... see the Conexant ones here: http://www.kernel.org/doc/Documentation/sound/alsa/HD-Audio-Models.txt

Simply put "option snd-hda-intel model=foooooo" into a file in /etc/modprobe.d/*.conf and then reboot.

Your amixer should change and you may find one that works.
Comment 10 Arun Raghavan 2012-02-08 23:07:30 UTC
Marking this as NEEDINFO to make parsing the buglist easier. This will still turn up in searches, though.
Comment 11 GitLab Migration User 2018-07-30 10:27:09 UTC
-- GitLab Migration Automatic Message --

This bug has been migrated to freedesktop.org's GitLab instance and has been closed from further activity.

You can subscribe and participate further through the new bug through this link to our GitLab instance: https://gitlab.freedesktop.org/pulseaudio/pulseaudio/issues/430.


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