[meta-bug] Inverted Internal microphone (phase inversion)

Thinkpad U300s - bug 903853

Status changed to 'Confirmed' because the bug affects multiple users.

Asus U41SV - bug 997227

Lenovo Thinkpad SL410 - bug #1004819
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Acer Aspire 1810TZ - bug 1006089

Acer Aspire One D260-A has this problem, both with the latest 12.04 pulseaudio, and also with the new version in the proposed repository. The bypass using pavucontrol was successful.

My individual bug 99661 should be marked as a duplicate of this meta-bug.

Just to let you know my findings since two years . There is a closed source kernel (in Linpus for Acer Aspire One) driver to handle this kind of small array microphone from Fortemedia (here on Acer Ferrari One 200).
There are in fact 4 channels ie 2 stereo signals (force channels_max to 4 in hda_intel and patch_realtek). This is done to let fmaudio kernel driver (heavily plugged into hda_intel, infringing on the gpl in various ways) do beam, noise processing and other nifty things.
I started works on this. Please tell me if you are interested in my hacks (I managed to get the 4 streams and record them then work in audacity to try to decipher the noise reduction). I also started work on a pulseaudio module (I do not think the audio postprocessing should be done in kernel) fmaaudiosma which I talked upon on pulseaudio ML but this was sent before I found about the 4 channels trick.

Acer eMachines eM350
Machine 00:1b.0 0403: 8086:27d8 (rev 02)
 Subsystem: 1025:0349
Codec: Realtek ALC272X
Vendor Id: 0x10ec0272
Subsystem Id: 0x10250349
Revision Id: 0x100001

essentially bug#639846 (first raised for 10.04, but still present in 12.04

Note: I confirmed this bug by recording direct from hardware
   pasuspender arecord -Dhw:0 -fcd -d5 mic.wav
Then view waveform in Audacity to confirm that one channel is inverted version of the other

Lenovo S205 has the same issue - Bug 884652

Status update:

 * Submitted quirk upstream for Lenovo S205 (this one has a Conexant chip, for which we already have a solution).
 * SL410 seems to be a different problem judging from the latest comment in that bug.
 * @Brian burch, that's not the right bug number...

 * In discussion with upstream about the Realtek ones.

Thank you for your patience. The Conexant ones are trivial to fix now, but we're not sure what to do with the Realtek ones yet.

Good news! Upstream has written a solution today and wishes for some testing. I've packaged it up in a debian package. Please do the following:
1) Download and install the alsa-hda-dkms package just posted
2) Reboot
3) start Alsamixer (see https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Audio/Alsamixer ), make sure "Inverted Internal Mic" is muted
4) now try recording normally from Internal mic.

The following machines are added in this package:
Asus U41SV
Acer 1810TZ
Acer D260 (from bug 996611 )
Acer eM350
Lenovo S205

Please report back whether it works or not. Thanks!

Seems to work fine on my Ideapad S205 with alsa-hda-dkms_0.1_all.deb

In mine too, added a more detailed output in the bug #1004819 , thanks for your work!
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In my case (Acer Aspire 1810TZ) the alsa-hda-dkms_0.1_all.deb does not solve the problem. I can see the inverted internal mic in alsamixer, but I cannot edit it (see screenshot). I cannot see any microphone activity in the audio settings window (and in skype), unless I mute one channel with pavucontrol.
However when I use gnome-sound-recorder I can register sounds out of the box, but this worked also without alsa-hda-dkms.

Seems a sorta work, Lenovo S205. The internal microphone is now working in Skype, but the output volume control with pavucontrol doesn't work any more, the volume is always at its maximum level, independently from slider position, unless controlled with an application's function. Rebooting didn't help. Maybe, I'm just doing something wrong.

@Renzo, thanks for testing!

Possibly this is only a bug in alsamixer. If so, you might be able to change it with this command:
amixer -D hw:0 sset 'Inverted Internal Mic Capture Switch' 0

Also, could you give alsa-info output with this configuration?

@Renzo, sorry, it is probably correct in alsamixer. Just use the "space" key to disable recording of the Inverted Internal Mic in alsamixer.

David, you was right, I used the space key to disable the Inverted Internal Mic and now the microphone is working well in all applications. Thank you very much for your suggestions!

The package alsa-hda-dkms_0.1_all.deb SOLVED my problem.

Ubuntu 12.04
Lenovo g470

Thank you!!!!!!

Possibly this is only a bug in alsamixer.

Does the alsa-hda-dkms_0.1_all.deb work in Ubuntu 11.10?

Looks like we have the same bug in Lenovo E220s

@diwic - can you please take a look if this is the case and add that Laptop?

@Alex,
There is nothing I can look at in the alsa-info that would tell if this is the case or not - it has to be checked by someone who has the hardware (i e, you).
Because these bugs have to be fixed once per machine, every machine is a separate bug. Can you please file a separate bug for E220 and point me to it, by adding another comment in this bug with the new bug number in it?

Thanks!

I have a Lenovo G470, and followed the steps to certify that the notebook does not have an inverted microphone. It turns out it doesn't.

Nevertheless, have installed alsa-hda-dkms_0.1_all.deb to give it a try. The microphone started working OK on Skype after that, but the output sound of the speakers were suddenly really noisy and polluted (only on Skype). I decided to uninstall the package, and the microphone obviously is not working anymore. I can provide more information about the machine if needed. I am also following bug 1033011.

Lenovo G570, mic not working at all either

This also effects Acer Aspire ZG5 on ubuntu 12.04, 12.10 and 13.04.

> Just to let you know my findings since two years . There is a closed source kernel (in Linpus for Acer Aspire One) driver to handle this kind of small array microphone from Fortemedia (here on Acer Ferrari One 200).
 There are in fact 4 channels ie 2 stereo signals (force channels_max to 4 in hda_intel and patch_realtek).

it is possible to perform multi channel capturing when auto Mic and alt_capture are disabled by implement multi_in_xxx (open prepare and close ) similar to multi_out_xxx functions with the new generic parser

@John McHugh, thanks, I've tracked this machine in bug 1107477

Acer Aspire Timeline X 4830TG affected in 12.04, 12.10 & 13.04. Thanks for the workaround.

System76 Galago UltraPro (galu1): https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/alsa-driver/+bug/1227148

Lenovo IdeaPad Yoga 13: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/alsa-driver/+bug/1239392

Hi
Did someone finally manage to solve it on Acer eM350?
I triede to followed the steps from David Henningsson (2012-06-22), but it didn't work although eM350 was considered in the package...
Didn't manage to do anything to mute "Inverted Internal Mic", as does not show up -> would this be the problem? (see screen shot)
Many thanks for your support
Hugo

https://git.kernel.org/cgit/linux/kernel/git/tiwai/sound.git/log/?qt=grep&q=inv_dmic

 > Didn't manage to do anything to mute "Inverted Internal Mic", as does not show up -> would this be the problem? (see screen shot)

You need to press "F4" to see capture controls. By default, only playback controls are shown.

In case this does not work, please give alsa-info according to https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Audio/AlsaInfo - maybe there is more than one ID for eM350.

Samsung Ativ Book 9 NP900X3G: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/alsa-driver/+bug/1316518

Acer Timelinex 4830T

Lenovo G50

I'm running 14.04. Is there a solution I can apply yet? Fixing this is critical for me to be able to use this laptop.

Same problem on Lenovo G50-80

Can confirm the bug on Lenovo g50-80.

Alsa-hda-dkms package doesn't help (there is no "Inverted Internal Mic" entry in alsamixer after reboot).

Removed alsa-hda-dkms and tried "option snd-hda-intel model=auto" but it doesn't help.

Workaround "mute right channel" works but can it be fixed permanently (I don't want to manually mute right mic channel every time I use skype)?

Bug report for Lenovo G50-80 https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/alsa-driver/+bug/1504778

Short update:

 * Lenovo G50-80 - quirk upstreamed now (thanks Nikola for submitting Alsa-info!)

 * Acer Timelinex 4830T - quirk present as of today, i e, should work with latest kernel or hda-dkms update

 * Samsung Ativ Book 9 NP900X3G - looking through the separate bug report, this seems to be another problem than just mic inversion, needs some other type of fix probably

Lenovo B50-70 fits the description.

$ arecord -l
**** List of CAPTURE Hardware Devices ****
card 1: PCH [HDA Intel PCH], device 0: ALC233 Analog [ALC233 Analog]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0

I'm on Arch Linux and have tried adding "options snd-hda-intel model=inv-dmic" in either modprobe.conf or snd-hda-intel.conf but doesn't fix the problem - I think I'm almost there but don't fully understand what to set.

Muting one of the channels while boosting the other works every timw, just like in the description. Problem is, some apps (such as Facebook messenger video call) adjust the volumes on their own and they link left with right.

How to proceed and what info do you need, thanks!

 > Lenovo B50-70 fits the description.
 > How to proceed and what info do you need, thanks!

Please file a separate bug against the alsa-driver for your issue, make sure hardware info gets attached to it (either alsa-info as per https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Audio/AlsaInfo or the standard ones that follows when you do "ubuntu-bug alsa-driver" ), then write a comment in this bug, with your machine name and a pointer to the other bug. Thanks!

Bug report for the Packard Bell DOTS:
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/alsa-driver/+bug/1523232

Thanks.

Bug report for the Lenovo B50-70 inverted internal microphone
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/linux/+bug/1524215

Bug report for Asus S400CA inverted internal microphone
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/alsa-driver/+bug/1527732

Please disregard comment #48. This was wrongly reported as a bug by me. My apologies.

As regards comment #49: this (http://forums.linuxmint.com/viewtopic.php?f=49&t=177730) is what happened and how I solve it. Nothing to do with an inverted microphone.

Bug report for Lenovo E50-80:
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/alsa-driver/+bug/1529624

Same problem on Lenovo B50-80

On Lenovo G50-30 kernel 3.19.0-61-generic the attached alsa-hda-dkms_0.1_all.deb fails to install - there are compilation errors in the log.

I tried running the 4.4.0-24 (xenial) kernel but there was no "Inverted Internal Mic" in ALsamixer.

Im trying to file a report by running "ubuntu-bug alsa-driver"on my 14.04, but I get
"dpkg-query: no packages found matching alsa-driver"

Has the name of alsa-driver changed?

Any chance to fix inverted internal microphone on Lenovo B50-70 /comment #47/. Can you add a quirk, please.
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/linux/+bug/1524215

Lenovo ideapad 300-17ISK

https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/pulseaudio/+bug/1631043

WORKAROUND FOR GOOGLE HANGOUTS AUTO-ADJUST MICROPHONE BREAKS FIXES IN THIS BUG-REPORT:

# Disable auto adjusting of gain on mic:
# Edit as root: /usr/share/pulseaudio/alsa-mixer/paths/analog-input-internal-mic.conf
# Edit as root: /usr/share/pulseaudio/alsa-mixer/paths/analog-input-mic.conf
# Under "[Element Internal Mic Boost]" set "volume" to "zero".
# Under "[Element Int Mic Boost]" set "volume" to "zero".
# Under "[Element Mic Boost]" set "volume" to "zero".

http://askubuntu.com/a/736655

Same problem on Lenovo B50-30

It seems that Lenovo Yoga 300 also has the same problem. I reported Bug #1713784.

Sorry to necro such an old thread but there seems to be a regression. I have this same issue on my Lenovo Ideapad 320s. Given that it seems almost unique to Lenovo, would it be possible to create a general case for all Lenovo laptops where muting one internal microphone is an option by default?

@David Henningsson (diwic): we haven't heard from you on this bug in over 3-years. If you are still tracking this issue here and would like to keep doing so, please change the 'Status' of this bug to 'Confirmed'. Thanks!

[Expired for alsa-driver (Ubuntu) because there has been no activity for 60 days.]

I have the same problem with a lenovo V110 and ALC236.

I don't see an option to invert the channel or even mute permanently a channel.

Kernel 5.2.0

On an Acer Aspire 5810TG running Ubuntu 18.04 with latest 5.3 kernel. HDA Intel. ALC269 Analog. Pulseaudio was monitoring minimal sound from internal mic with both channels on, but ok with either left or right off. Audacity and Gnome Sound Recorder had no issues. Audacity showed two phase inverted channels. Same issues as above re Skype and Hangouts and same workarounds worked. External mono plug in mic - no problem.

Same problem on same machine with Debian 10 Buster.

Tried remapping the Pulseaudio stereo channels to mono which allowed even output through both speakers. For instructions see:

https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/PulseAudio/Troubleshooting#No_microphone_on_Steam_or_Skype_with_enable-remixing_=_no

After this, Pulseaudio still has to have one internal mic channel off to function. However output is now through both speakers instead of one.

In Ubuntu, Audacity shows two channels with same phase. In Debian, Audacity shows one mono channel. Same difference through the speakers.

I believe this is still a bug as Pulseaudio cannot produce output from with a phase inverted stereo internal mic as Audacity and Sound recorder can.

Best regards,
Your bleeding user

Same problem on Lenovo Ideapad 320-15IKB

Same problem on Lenovo IdeaPad 310-15IKB, ubuntu 19.10 with kernel 5.3.0-46.
Muting the right channel solved the problem tempuraly.

This finally solved the problem I had spent hours on! The computer in question is an Acer Aspire 5538 with Realtek ALC269. Running Linux Mint 21.1.

I experience the same on Lenovo IdeaPad 310-15ISK.
I filed a bug https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/linux/+bug/2011623