[arch-general] nVidia MCP79

[bardo]

2010/7/10 Rafael Beraldo <rafaelluisberaldo at 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