Audio Input for XPS m1730 running Ubuntu 10.04

Hello Mkjackson,

I'm using Dell XPS M1530 with Ubuntu 10.04 (Lucid Lynx) on it. I haven't encountered any problems yet - the support for this laptop is increasing with every release of Ubuntu, from my experience so far. I think the situation should be similar to your model. The webcam, fingerprint reader, touchpad, audio media buttons, internet connection, graphics card drivers - it all works, u only need to set up finger print reader through installing libpam-think finger through terminal (look into forums; "enabling fingerprint reader ubuntu") and install graphics card driver through Hardware drivers manager in Ubuntu. For the audio microphone input, it works with a little tweak. For usage of skype you need to uncheck an option of "Allow skype to automatically adjust my mixer levels" in the settings under Sound devices, for use of external microphone run "alsamixer" in terminal and change imput souce from Digital to Frontal mic. With these settings done, using Ubuntu is more than pleasant.

For some reason this isn't working for me.  I've used the steps you've described but somehow the audio input just will not work... I've even tinkered a bit in the input section of the Sound applet (System->Preferences->Sound) :-(  I know for a fact that it's not the hardware because it works in my windows partition.  DId you install something else to run audio other than the default Pulseaudio?

I'm not sure what the cause of your problem is. Do you get any input from the microphone at all? It is a known problem in Ubuntu that the recorded sound is quite low on volume or the volume is limited compared to Windows. But to my surprise the volume input in Lucid Lynx is sufficient, probably the best one of all my experiences with Ubuntu distros. For other users of XPS M1530 I know of audio works same way as mine. I haven't install any additional audio software, all out of the box, only changing settings in skype and alsamixer as I described in a thread above.

If you'd like to, you can also post a question about your audio issues on IRC Ubuntu live chat (for this, install "xchat" through Synaptic), which is a very convenient way to get help with such issues.

Also, the "sound capture" is using STAC92xx Analog

I've gone to the IRC channels to no avail.  For the record though, it would seem that both of you are using x1530s while I'm describing an issue with the x1730 which might have some other nuances.  I've tried fiddling in the "alsamixer" and "pavumeter" in tandem to discover the root of this issue, nothing... :-(  Just curious should ubuntu be using the driver HDA Intel?  I found this info by running "lshw -C sound | grep driver" as root...