[ SOLVED ] Microphone not working in Skype

[mandoran]

I have a good set of new headphones plugged into the LL desktop, but despite research, I cannot get the microphone to record, I cannot be heard, in Skype.


I have digested this thread: https://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1101063&page=2&p=9307284#post9307284
which was advised in a similar circumstance, but despite everything appearing to be detected, nothing comes out of the mic.


How can I fix this?

[Wirezfree]

Hi,

A few more details may help us...

1. What make are they.?
2. Are these USB headphones/microphone, or the ones with the little 3.5mm plugs, usually Red/Green.??

If USB, open a terminal(CTRL-AT-T) and do a:

Code: [Select]

lsusbpost the results back...

[LL-user]

Mandoran, to mention the Skype version would be helpful, too.
Is it the one installed via Lite Software or the newest alpha version which is known to be hit or miss in regard to device recognition?

[mandoran]

Skype version is 4.3.0.37 and as far as I know its installation and updating has been handled by LL.


The headphones are connected via double jacks, not USB. They were a gift and appear to be Steelseries.


Hope that helps. The link I mentioned in my original post means that I have installed Gnome AlsaMixer and so have a better overview of the audio system, not that this has helped me much yet...


jt

[mandoran]

The microphone seems non functional in LL. I have tried recording audio and like Skype get no audio output. Viewing levels in Alsamixer there seems to be mic sound registering though. I am baffled. I have checked the headphones on a Windows machine and they work perfectly, so it is not a hardware issue.

[Wirezfree]

In the LL Volume Control Panel.
Do you definitely have the correct "Input Device" selected for Microphone.?
Also is the Tick Box[X] ticked to "Set as fallback".?
Mine is USB but you should have a Microphone Input option.

[mandoran]

I don't have a separate device in the top half of the Volume Control screen, but have three options in the dropdown in the bottom half, under Built-In Audio Analogue Stereo, with choices Front mic, Back mic, Line in, which change to plugged/unplugged depending on circumstance.


Here I can see that my front mic is plugged in, and the slider reacts when I speak into the mic. But I cannot get sound recorded in Skype, nor Audacity, though I am not terribly competent with the latter.

[Wirezfree]

This is my SKYPE > Options > Sound Devices:

[mandoran]

Yep, same here.

[mandoran]

I've installed an extremely simple audio recorder just to make sure that the problem is not Skype specific and am getting the same thing - nothing appears to emanate from the microphone, even though visually the audio levels jump in the volume control panel. So it appears to be system wide.


I just cannot create or record any audio through these headphones, and they do work on a Windows machine.

[Wirezfree]

Not sure what to suggest next...
Have you seen this.?

[mandoran]

Thanks, I hadn't seen that but it seems I have a microphone/recording problem that is more fundamental than Skype related.


Using some of that info I can make the microphone output go from unconnected silence to connected hiss, but no more.


Have to keep Googling I guess...

[LinxBeginner]

Hi, I just wanted to share how I solved my mic problem with Skype.  I have LL 1.0.8 in 2017 on Acer Aspire one.  To give my condition, microphone was working fine after going to $ gstreamer-properties to fix it. https://askubuntu.com/questions/163729/microphone-is-not-working-in-skype

Mic for skype was however still not working. then I found this page:
http://www.zyxware.com/articles/4857/solved-microphone-not-working-in-skype-in-ubuntu-on-a-lenovo-b40

I found many forum about this topic and many involved killing pluseaudio, etc, which I am not competent to do.   This simple processes did it for me; hope this helps others also.   Best

[mandoran]

Thanks, that is very interesting indeed, and something I certainly never came across while troubleshooting my problem.

[Artim]

Grrrrrrr, PulseAudio.  It was in Beta when it was first imposed on Ubuntu-derived distros.  I used to just remove it and replace it with ALSA, but it's more complicated now, so many applications have PulseAudio as a dependency.  Killing it (but leaving it's dead body in place, so to speak, by not uninstalling it) usually still works for fixing some applications that depend on it.