Hi again! I found a workaround for the dead mic: adding 'position_fix=1' to the option list brought it back to life! However, it's still different from within the live system. The recorded stream is very quiet and contains significant noise, unlike in the live system where volume and quality were very good, even with the capture device almost muted! So, it still remains a very strange bug and I wrote another mail to the ALSA developer list containing additional information collected with their info-script. You can take a look at it there if you like (the devel, not the users list). I'm curious if I'll ever get a response... Thx for your help Cheers JK <div class="gmail_quote">2009/9/24 Colin Guthrie <<a href="mailto:gmane@colin.guthr.ie">gmane@colin.guthr.ie</a>> <blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; padding-left: 1ex;"> 'Twas brillig, and <a href="mailto:remrot@gmail.com" target="_blank">remrot@gmail.com</a> at 24/09/09 11:16 did gyre and gimble:<div class="im"> <blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; padding-left: 1ex;"> I've already tried to determine the exact parameters for the alsa modules, but I don't know to do that (lsmod and dmesg don't help). The only thing I can do is compare the alsa-base.conf files where the options are stored, but these files are identical, except for the 'probe_mask'. But without that I have neither sound output nor a capture device. I also compared the alsa-info files but again the only difference I see is 'probe_mask' related. To be honest, the more I investigate the less sense this all makes to me. Yesterday I tried again to record from within the live session and it works perfectly. Even the mic volume is very loud without a boost. This is driving me crazy... Here are the differences within the /etc/pulse/daemon.conf file (the other files are identical) daemon.conf: ; rlimit-rtttime = 1000000 vs ; rlimit-rttime = 1000000 ; flat-volumes = yes vs flat-volumes = no I assume the first is a typo?? Anyway, it's commented out. And you already noticed the flatvolumes thing, so nothing new there.... </blockquote> </div> Yeah I fixed the typo the other day :p Flat volumes shoudn't affect things at all but the other flag relating to HW volume control is telling. It basically tells me that the underlying alsa stuff is different in some what, so I'm swaying slightly on the side of it being an alsa issue in some capacity... possibly compounded by other issues tho'. I guess you could test the recording at the alsa level with some arecord commands may help confirm it but even then I'm still not sure.<div class="im"> <blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; padding-left: 1ex;"> I've posted to the alsa users mailing list, maybe one of the people there has got an idea. Thanks again for your help, if you've got any other suggestions I'll be happy to try them out! </blockquote> </div> Cool. I'll keep an eye open there too.<div><div></div><div class="h5"> Col -- Colin Guthrie gmane(at)<a href="http://colin.guthr.ie" target="_blank">colin.guthr.ie</a> <a href="http://colin.guthr.ie/" target="_blank">http://colin.guthr.ie/</a> Day Job: Tribalogic Limited [<a href="http://www.tribalogic.net/" target="_blank">http://www.tribalogic.net/</a>] Open Source: Mandriva Linux Contributor [<a href="http://www.mandriva.com/" target="_blank">http://www.mandriva.com/</a>] PulseAudio Hacker [<a href="http://www.pulseaudio.org/" target="_blank">http://www.pulseaudio.org/</a>] Trac Hacker [<a href="http://trac.edgewall.org/" target="_blank">http://trac.edgewall.org/</a>] _______________________________________________ pulseaudio-discuss mailing list <a href="mailto:pulseaudio-discuss@mail.0pointer.de" target="_blank">pulseaudio-discuss@mail.0pointer.de</a> <a href="https://tango.0pointer.de/mailman/listinfo/pulseaudio-discuss" target="_blank">https://tango.0pointer.de/mailman/listinfo/pulseaudio-discuss</a> </div></div></blockquote></div>