I am having problems with the microphone on my headset in Linux. Sometimes it works, sometimes it will cut out mid conversation and at other times it just won't work at all. Normally I can reboot my computer and that will solve it but not always. I've tried fiddling about with the volume levels in kmix but it doesn't really help much. I've also upgraded Skype to the newest beta but the problem persists. I've used the headset on a Windows computer and it worked OK. Is there a diagnostics program or a microphone monitor that I can use in Linux to determine the state of the microphone?
It doesn't sound like the mic, it sounds like either the software you're using or else perhaps the sound system, especially if you're using OSS. I tend not to have the sound problems many complain about, but I have compiled OSS completely out of my kernels in favor of ALSA exclusively. In fact, ALSA has an OSS compatibility function which obsoletes OSS completely. So, my advice is to totally avoid OSS and see if the problem persists.
ALSA support has been introduced in the latest beta of Skype, so that's what I am using. I am pretty sure it's just Skype that causing the problems. It's no where near as good as the Windows version.
Make sure you're using ALSA in Skype, as it still supports OSS for legacy systems. But yeah, Skype for Linux is unstable and fairly unappealing. I guess they figure that since Linux has a relatively small market share, there's no compelling reason to much work into the Linux client. In closed source software, the open model that makes Linux software generally of the highest quality cannot apply.
