SOLUTION: Mic Not Working in UBUNTU on TOSHIBA laptop.

Hello Tech Wizards and witches,Its been some time since I posted here but now on you can expect regular posts on multiple fields.

The issue we will be addressing and of course 'curing' will be the strange syndrome of " External or Internal Mic Not Working In Ubuntu in a laptop" I will be addressing this issue in phase to a TOSHIBA C660 running UBUNTU 10.04 Lucid Lynx as this problem is most seen in TOSHIBA laptops. SO here is the issue:

The External and Internal mic in laptop is not working. In the sense that the computer does not recognize sound from them and record the sounds given as input.

I am sorry that the method used to solve this problem gets more aching as each step pass, but as said "road to paradise is never an easy one".
So I will be guiding you step by step allowing you clear vision into each step done so that the process will be as easy as possible.

We will try to solve this in a 3 step process, the problem should be rectified in any one of these steps.

• Step 1: UBUNTU - /etc/modprobe.d/alsa-base.conf Customisation 

1. Note: You need to be able to get root (Administrator) privilege to complete any of these steps.   
2. Open terminal by pressing  Alt+F2
3. Enter:  gnome-terminal  in the text box that appear and click "Run".
4. You can also open the terminal from menu Accessories>Terminal.
5. Enter the command : sudo gedit /etc/modprobe.d/alsa-base.conf
6. A Text editor window  will appear with the alsa-base.conf file open. 
7. in the file look for a line that says: " options snd-hda-intel model= " something.
8. if it is there replace whatever is after the = with auto
9. Save and close the file.
10. Restart your computer and see if the mic is being recognized.
11. Congratulations if it does, else no worries move on to the next step.
12. |||Note: Leave settings as it is as it will support the next steps.|||

• STEP 2: Pulse Audio Tweaking

1. Note: You will need to be the root user to install the requires software "Pulse Audio Volume Control".
2.  You must install PulseAudio Volume Control for this.
3. Open terminal as in above step and run command: sudo apt-get install pavucontrol
4.  Now go to : Menu > Sound & Video (multimedia) > PulseAudio Volume Control
5. Go to the configuration Tab
6. Select Analog Stereo Duplex or Analog Stereo Input + Analog Stereo Output as the profile.
7. In Output tab select Analog Speakers As your port.
8. Enter the input Tab.
9. Select Hardware Input Devices in the drop down at the bottom.
10. Now speak into the mic and see if it is working by watching the indicator that move.
11. Congratulation if it responds if it does not, and if it do not just move on to the next step. In 99% case it will get solved within the next step.
12. Note: Leave settings as you have set now.

• STEP 3: Update ALSA driver.
• I understand that this is a bit tiresome step considering the time involved and complexity, but i will try to be as newbie friendly and try to take this as smoothly as possibly I can.
• Note: For this you will have to completely have root user privileges.
• FOLLOW INSTRUCTIONS HERE 

By the end of this final step your Mic should be running fine.
just make sure after the upgrade that the settings in the Pulse Audio Volume control is the same as said above.


That's All Folks this time.