[nylug-talk] Thinkpad sound question

[Jont Allen]

I have an thinkpad X61s, with Ubuntu 7.10 installed. Its new and
everything pretty much works, except I can't get the mic to work. The
mic works in the sense that I can get feedback through the speaker, so
the hardware is not broken, I just cant figure out how to turn it on so
that arecord or rec (sox) or skype work.

I tried to find the answer on linux laptop mailing lists, but was not 
successful.

I have tried the obvious things, such as alsamixer and some things with
asound (CMD) etc. Playback works just fine, once I unmute the loudspeaker.

Another clue: I call skype testing service, and when I turn on and off
the mike mute button, I can hear the noise go up and down (every so
slightly) when skype plays back my recording. However, the actual mike
signal remains "off" in that I cannot hear my speech.

There must be some internal state that is not connected to alsamixer
maybe? How would I identify that and turn it on?

Does this sound like a "bug" in the driver for the sound card (Analog 
devices AD1984 chip)?

Any ideas?
Jont Allen