Ubuntu Jaunty 9.04 Skype sounds problems

The default sound settings on Ubuntu Jaunty worked fine for playback, but I was having problems with recording on Skype and with my headphones output.
After playing with the defaults, I changed the settings to make my Skype and headphones jack work.


Below are the settings that work fine for a Thinkpad T62


Below are the settings that work fine for a Thinkpad T61


Below are the settings that work fine for a Thinkpad T60


Below are the settings that work fine for a Thinkpad R50


Your millage may vary, but I would start to set everything to "Pulse". And if in case Skype does not work, change "Input Source" on Volume Control and pick the right Mic, if that does not work the next step would be to change Skype "sound in" setting to the first ALSA device on the list, as the example on T60.

Some Folks reported huge latency with pulse audio on skype calls, here is a config for skype using only ALSA on a T61:, this should fix the latency problem. You might need to execute "killall pulseaudio" to stop pulseaudio.




Thanks to: Marcin Bogdanski for the T61 config

Comments

  1. hi lafa,
    Thanks for this article, my laptop is think-pad R50e, actually i had this problem(mic on skype) on ubuntu 8.10 too and i tried some solution that i found in the Internet but it didn't work yet, now its the same in the Jaunty 9.04, I set the same as your setting screen-shot but it doesn't work, I am suspend to some changes in *.conf files that I made them during test other recommended solution. I reverted some of them and also I changed the mic options and skype's 'Spund In' as you recomend in the end of your article but they didn't work.Actually I feel these settings and configuration are conflicted , could you send me the alsa, pulse and etc config files, may be I need some changes there.
    thanks in advance

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  2. I updated the picture with more detailed settings, take a look.

    The basic thing is to make everything use pulse. If Skype does not work. Change to a alsa device for the "sound in" setting. To chose the right alsa device, you might have to try all, but start with 0.

    If this does not work, it's probably the mixer that does not have the correct settings, start with "mic select", increase volume on capture, increase volume on microphone, select mic boost, and mix mono, unselect the rest, mute the things you see in the picture to avoid feedback.

    You might have to go to volume control preferences to enabled all the options.

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  3. Thanks so much for this!

    The missing option for me on my T61 was the Internal Mic Boost on the Playback tab. Once I enabled that via Preferences and maxed it (both channels were set to zero), I was finally able to get Skype audio in to work.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Thanks for the tips/info,
    I've got an IBM Thinkpad T40 (but audio chipset is same as the R50).
    anyway, nuthin' seemed to work, that is, I did get sound with all "pulse" but NO MIC.

    I've had Ubuntu 8.04 and 8.10 on this same laptop and never had any audio problems especially with skype ? whats with all this pulse weirdness in Ubuntu 9.04 ?

    Anyway, instead I installed "CrunchBang 9.04" (basically its a nice-slimmed-down version of Ubuntu 9.04) and now skype works great.

    -some things never change, installing a different Linux distro is sometimes like installing another OS -oops, now it works again.
    :)

    good luck all, hopefully skype and/or Ubuntu will patch this up by 9.10
    ;)

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  5. amazing! thank you sooo much, I was struggling with this for ages. It also works on my HP pavilion

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  6. Thanks, i could solve my latency problem.
    :-)

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  7. Other options on http:\\linuxnopc.blogspot.com is a portuguese blog you may need to translate it automaticaly. It worked for me ;-)

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  8. Thanks :)
    I was fighting this for a while now.
    Atlast got is working now.
    Works perfect on my Lenovo IDEAPAD

    ReplyDelete

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