Regarding Audio Drivers

Regarding Audio Drivers

[Divanshu Singh]

Respected Reader

I am a long time Linux user. I am a full-time web developer but I have some
knowledge of C, C++ and bit of x86 assembly.

I have 4 Linux system at my home - a MacBook Air, 2 HP and 1 Dell and
recently I found that none of them is able to detect or work with an
external microphone. I have tried every possible configuration in ALSA that
made sense but nothing worked. I also tried re-installing drivers for my
sound cards. Searching the Internet, I realized that I am not alone there
are thousands of Linux users who face the same problem. I found this long
answer explaining why this problem exists with Linux system.

https://unix.stackexchange.com/questions/381071/headphones-with-combo-jack-force-internal-mic-for-input-and-headphones-for-outp

Many Linux users switch to windows just because of a microphone issue. I am
frustrated and want to end this for once and all.

I have never written a driver but I am a quick learner and have lots of
patience. Please guide me with following:
- Getting started with drivers
- Learn about ALSA enough to make contributions to it

With regards
Divanshu
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Regarding Audio Drivers

[Greg KH]

On Sat, May 12, 2018 at 11:14:50PM +0530, Divanshu Singh wrote:
> Respected Reader
> 
> I am a long time Linux user. I am a full-time web developer but I have some
> knowledge of C, C++ and bit of x86 assembly.
> 
> I have 4 Linux system at my home - a MacBook Air, 2 HP and 1 Dell and
> recently I found that none of them is able to detect or work with an
> external microphone. I have tried every possible configuration in ALSA that
> made sense but nothing worked. I also tried re-installing drivers for my
> sound cards. Searching the Internet, I realized that I am not alone there
> are thousands of Linux users who face the same problem. I found this long
> answer explaining why this problem exists with Linux system.
> 
> https://unix.stackexchange.com/questions/381071/headphones-with-combo-jack-force-internal-mic-for-input-and-headphones-for-outp
> 

All this means is that for your specific laptop version, you need a
quirk to be able to properly control the microphone.  It's not a big
deal, just determining how to do that is a bit tricky.

I suggest emailing the Linux kernel sound developers at
alsa-dev at alsa-project.org and provide the exact kernel version you are
using (first try the latest release to be sure it's not already fixed),
and any hardware information you can provide as well.

The developers there will probably ask you for more specific things, and
you all can work from there.

Best of luck!

greg k-h

Regarding Audio Drivers

[Divanshu Singh]

Thank you, I will do that.

On Sun, May 13, 2018, 12:28 AM Greg KH <greg@kroah.com> wrote:

> On Sat, May 12, 2018 at 11:14:50PM +0530, Divanshu Singh wrote:
> > Respected Reader
> >
> > I am a long time Linux user. I am a full-time web developer but I have
> some
> > knowledge of C, C++ and bit of x86 assembly.
> >
> > I have 4 Linux system at my home - a MacBook Air, 2 HP and 1 Dell and
> > recently I found that none of them is able to detect or work with an
> > external microphone. I have tried every possible configuration in ALSA
> that
> > made sense but nothing worked. I also tried re-installing drivers for my
> > sound cards. Searching the Internet, I realized that I am not alone there
> > are thousands of Linux users who face the same problem. I found this long
> > answer explaining why this problem exists with Linux system.
> >
> >
> https://unix.stackexchange.com/questions/381071/headphones-with-combo-jack-force-internal-mic-for-input-and-headphones-for-outp
> >
>
> All this means is that for your specific laptop version, you need a
> quirk to be able to properly control the microphone.  It's not a big
> deal, just determining how to do that is a bit tricky.
>
> I suggest emailing the Linux kernel sound developers at
> alsa-dev at alsa-project.org and provide the exact kernel version you are
> using (first try the latest release to be sure it's not already fixed),
> and any hardware information you can provide as well.
>
> The developers there will probably ask you for more specific things, and
> you all can work from there.
>
> Best of luck!
>
> greg k-h
>
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