[simons1000]

I, like quite a few others, have upgraded to 9.04 full using the guides that are available on these forums. Everything works well, apart from the mic. I've tried all the fixes I can find, but nothing seems to work.

There seems to be quite a few people asking the same question, and there doesn't seem to be a definite fix.

Does anyone here know if I just need to wait for a new driver or were I could find a working fix. Advice will be very, very welcome.

[bgib]

Did you ever resolve the non functional mic on the Dell mini 10 with Ubuntu 9.04? I have the same problem with no fix in sight. Thanks.

[simons1000]

No, never sorted it, I'll just have to wait for Karmic Koala

[inigopete]

pants! I was hoping this thread contained a solution! I'll keep an eye on it...

[sarahgrl]

I spent a bit of time, finally got the Sound Recorder to "record", meaning I could hear my sound test, but it was awful choppy and not at all usable. On a lark, I tested the Cheeze webcam app on my Mini 10v and -- it worked with audio capture! I am posting what I did below. Basically, installed the ALC272 drivers, using an old post from TNTC.TIG on this forum that I found. Minor tweaks to sound settings as well. I tried to keep my comments using /* <comment */ format so you could follow where I cut and pasted and where i made comments. Install is standard 9.04, but should theoretically work for UNR as well. Thanks to all the previous posters, especially TNTC.TIG who provided the main input.

/********************
source URLS
/********************
Latitude 2100 and Ubuntu Linux
Realtek
ftp://218.210.127.133/pc/audio/LinuxPkg_5.11.tar.bz2

/* Bug notes URLS */
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+s...ls/+bug/394793
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/StableReleaseUpdates
http://people.canonical.com/~ubuntu-archive/pending-sru.html

/********************
Driver download
/********************
1) Go to Realtek.
2) Click the downloads link at the top
3) Click "High Definition Audio Codecs (Software)"
4) Accept the agreement that says, basically, that you know the manufacturer may provide better drivers. Your Realtek webpage header should now read:

HOME > Downloads > Computer Peripheral ICs > PC Audio Codecs > High Definition Audio Codecs > Software

5) Scroll down to the Unix (Linux) section, and pick the “Express� site.
This will open a new window with an ftp link and a random ftp username / password you will need:

ftp://218.210.127.133/pc/audio/LinuxPkg_5.12.tar.bz2

6) change the link to ftp://218.210.127.133/pc/audio/LinuxPkg_5.11.tar.bz2

And follow instructions on how to access it, except that you will change the link to the 5.11 package. Note you will need the unique useridassword that was generated from the Realtek downloads page.

/********************
Driver installation and alsa-base.conf edits
/********************
Driver installation instructions (FROM THE README FILE WITH EDITS):

Manual install:
Step 1. unzip source code tar xfvj alsa-driver-1.0.xx.tar.bz2

Step 2. Turn on sound support from kernel config /*I didn't do this */(soundcore module, default turn on)

Step 3. Compile source code /* added the sudo command */
a. cd alsa-driver-1.0.xx
b. sudo ./configure
c. sudo make
d. sudo make install
e. alsaconf /* Did not use this, neither did previous forum poster */
f. sudo ./snddevices (Only kernel 2.4 does it) /*this comment is from readme file */

Step 4. Make a backup copy of the alsa-base.conf file in the /etc/modprobe.d directory
then from a terminal, (sudo) gedit /etc/modprobe.d/ alsa-base.conf file. For my install which is Ubuntu 9.04 Jaunty (standard, not UNR), I added the following lines in /etc/modprobe.d/ alsa-base.conf:

#Dell Mini options
options snd-ALC272

# Dell options based on Realtek readme
# ALSA portion
alias char-major-116 snd
alias snd-card-0 snd-ALC272
# OSS/Free portion
alias char-major-14 soundcore
alias sound-slot-0 snd-card-0
# card #1
alias sound-service-0-0 snd-mixer-oss
alias sound-service-0-1 snd-seq-oss
alias sound-service-0-3 snd-pcm-oss
alias sound-service-0-8 snd-seq-oss
alias sound-service-0-12 snd-pcm-oss
# End Dell options

Step 5. Reboot your pc

/********************
Ubuntu sound settings setup – Preferences and testing
/********************
1.) Go to System:Preferences:Sound
2.) My settings are:
Audio Conferencing > Sound Capture is set to “HDA Intel ALC272 Analog (ALSA)
Default Mixer Tracks > Device is set to “Realtek ALC272 (OSS Mixer)

If you Test using Sound Capture, you should hear the microphone playback just fine.

At this point, I'm not sure if I did a reboot or not prior to testing the mic. If it doesn't work, it doesn't hurt to do a reboot.

/********************
Ubuntu sound settings setup – Volume Control
/********************

1. Open the Volume Control (on my setup, I right-click on the speaker icon on the top right of my screen near the date/time)
2. My settings have the following tabs: Playback, Recording, Options, Sound Theme
3. Playback: Preferences are checked for: Master (Playback), PCM (Playback), Microphone (Playback), Capture (Recording), Input Source (Options)
4. Playback: Set the settings for “HDA Intel (Alsa mixer), Mic is max volume and the speaker icon has a “mute� on it
5. Recording: Capture settings to max volume, the mic icon has a “mute� on it

/********************
Ubuntu sound Dell Mini 10v microphone recording test results
/********************
Here is what my current setup does:

1. Cheeze video capture includes mic audio capture, and works just fines
2. Using the Sound Recorder results in a very choppy playback file, but you should be able to make out that the mic is picking up sound (use at least 5 seconds of voice). I found that Sound Recorder works out of the box with Karmic 9.10 alpha2 but could not get the wireless drivers to install so I reverted back to 9.04
3. As mentioned in previous section, testing using the Preferences:Sound:Sound Capture test works just fine
4. Did not test Skype
5. Did not test external (plugged in) microphone

/********************
Reinstalling drivers after Ubuntu updates (not tested yet, based on forum info)
/********************
From tntc.tig's post @ the URL I referenced:

Hopefully I'm not beating a dead horse with this thread. I see a lot of views, so I'm going to continue updating it. Every time ubuntu updates the kernel, you will have to repeat some of the steps to re-compile and re-install the drivers. Basically, I changed directory into the alsa-driver-* folder, and ran:

sudo ./configure
sudo make
sudo make install
sudo alsa force-reload.

The actual driver build (sudo make) will take a few minutes.

/********************
Conclusion
/********************

There is a published bug fix #394793 (see referenced URL above), apparently scheduled for the Jaunty 2.6.30 SRU (Stable Release Update). As of 2009-08-14, current status is Committed. It looks like the current SRU release is at 2.6.28 -11.42. If the SRU is updated to 2.6.30 by the time you read this, you may just need to make sure that the SRU is updated in your install.

I tried several configurations and mods to the alsa-base.conf file, but this seemed to have done the trick. The only thing is that, as I mentioned earlier, I am not sure whether other methods or configurations work with Cheeze, as I did not think to test it until after I had exhausted all options on the Sound Recorder and it still played choppy. Hopefully this will help and possibly other sound recording software (e.g. Skype) may be usable as well.

[tntc.tig]

Hehe. Glad I was able to help you get your audio working. As for the stuttering sound, you may be able to fix that by going to System->Preferences->Sound and setting Sound Capture to the first ALSA option (should be like ALC272 capture or something like that)

[jaguar]

If you enable the 'pre-release updates (jaunty proposed)' in the settings of the update manager, then the fix for the above mentioned bug (#394793) is downloaded installed and presto, the front mic works!