2010/7/10 Rafael Beraldo <rafaelluisberaldo@gmail.com>:
In my old laptop, every time I blew the (parallel) microphone, it could hear it. It doesn't happen with my 1201N and then I assumed that the mic wasn't working at all. For some reason, however, I tested it yesterday on Skype test call and --- surprisingly --- it worked. So this is it: the built-in microphone just works out of the box.
So this doesn't seem to be a kernel problem... As far as I know Skype uses OSS (or, rather, ALSA's OSS emulation). You could try different drivers in your media player and understand if the problem lies here.
Now, how do I know if I'm getting full power from my sound card? I listen to music with everything set to 100% when in my old Toshiba Satellite A135 100% was way too listen to. If things are just the way they are, what is the best way to amplify sound by software? I know that Ubuntu Lucid does that (I think it uses pulseaudio).
Short answer: you can't. Pulse is just another layer, and it won't help you to overcome hardware-related problems. There probably is an internal amplifier in your soundcard which isn't properly detected. I'd go with giving the rc kernel a try.
Finally, if I install a kernel from AUR, will yaourt replace it when a newer version comes to [core] repository?
It is totally a different kernel, which you can run in parallel with the official one. Just compile it and add a grub configuration for it, then choose it when rebooting. If you are satisfied make it the default until 2.6.35 comes out, otherwise keep the old one.
Thank you for the help!
No problem! Please do not top post when replying to mailing lists. Thanks. Corrado