[Nottingham] unable to set microphone volume

[VM]

Martin, you must have pulseaudio for use in Firefox. They removed alsa support many years ago.

On April 9, 2020 4:35:01 PM UTC, Martin via Nottingham <nottingham at mailman.lug.org.uk> wrote:
>Godfrey,
>
>Very good to see you on the list!
>
>Hopefully we can see and hear you later today? ;-)
>
>
>
>Very good details from Jason.
>
>I too have some sound problems that are yet to be 'investigated
>further'...
>
>(My 'work-around for pulseaudio fix' has been to submit to enabling and
>using the built-in microphone on an old webcam that pulseaudio
>fortuitously happens to recognise directly... Everything else through
>ALSA for me remains disconnected thus far...)
>
>The best instructions/details I've found so far are on the
>ever-reliable
>Arch wiki:
>
>https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/PulseAudio
>
>There are very many various other very turgid docs for Pulseaudio...
>How
>can an audio system be so multifarious and convoluted?! (Sorry, yep,
>bad
>pun...)
>
>
>Note that your microphone should be listed as a "source" and your
>headphones/speakers listed as a "sink".
>
>(My problem is that yes, I get all my sinks and sources listed by
>pulseaudio, but they are also listed as "unavailable"...!)
>
>
>Silly question:
>
>Is there a manual physical switch to turn on to unmute the mic?
>
>
>One 'quick test' is to see if:
>
>With your whatever videoconferencing app running, do you see for the
>PulseAudio GUI Volume Control something like the image below (appended
>to this message).
>
>Hopefully for the "Input Devices" tab, you see a recognisable unmuted
>input device? If so, you can set the input gain accordingly...
>
>
>Good luck?
>
>(IT support should never need to use phrases such as "hopefully" and
>"good luck"!...)
>
>
>My attempts to connect ALSA through to PulseAudio for myself can wait
>for another night...
>
>
>
>Hope you're keeping well.
>
>Stay safe!
>Martin
>
>
>On 09/04/2020 11:41, J J via Nottingham wrote:
>> On Wed, 8 Apr 2020 at 20:35, godfrey--- via Nottingham
>> <nottingham at mailman.lug.org.uk
><mailto:nottingham at mailman.lug.org.uk>>
>> wrote:
>> 
>>     Hi folks,
>> 
>>     In these days of isolation amd remote meetings on the internet, I
>find
>>     the mic on my system is very low volume.
>>     Some may say thanks, but I want to join in zoom and skype
>sessions.
>>     Yeah, I know of security worries but those are the access
>programs
>>     being
>>     used.
>>     I have been through sound settings, pavucontrol and other
>configuration
>>     progs, but mic volume control remains unable to be
>selected/altered.
>> 
>>     I am using ASUS laptop and Ubuntu 18.04
>> 
>>     Any suggestions as to how I might get it fixed?
>> 
>>     Godfrey

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