[sf-lug] USB mic not working under 14.04

[Rick Moen]

Quoting Christian Einfeldt (einfeldt at gmail.com):

> Hi,
> 
> I recently picked up a second-hand Macmice Miceflex [...]

Correct spelling:  'MicFlex'.

Lordie, Christian.  Haven't you figured out, after all these years, that
careless typos in your diagnostic data can prevent people from helping you?


> [...] USB desktop external microphone and have been trying to get it
> working under Lubuntu 14.04.  It seems that my system is not seeing
> it.  The mic is known good, because a friend gave it too me and was
> using it with a Windows machine.
> 
> me at mycomputer:~$ lsusb
> Bus 002 Device 004: ID 413c:2003 Dell Computer Corp. Keyboard
> Bus 002 Device 003: ID 046d:c00e Logitech, Inc. M-BJ58/M-BJ69 Optical Wheel
> Mouse
> Bus 002 Device 002: ID 8087:0024 Intel Corp. Integrated Rate Matching Hub
> Bus 002 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
> Bus 001 Device 003: ID 0d8c:000c C-Media Electronics, Inc. Audio Adapter
> Bus 001 Device 002: ID 8087:0024 Intel Corp. Integrated Rate Matching Hub
> Bus 001 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
> me at mycomputer:~$


So, I cannot help noticing that lsusb doesn't appear to list the device
at all, not even as 'Unknown USB x.xx Device (class x)', which would be
the default if the USB controller chip inventoried the device but then
the kernel failed to find an entry for the probed Vendor ID:Device ID 
hexadecimal digits in /sys/kernel/debug/usb/devices .  

Therefore, by your account, the USB controller chip is not inventorying
the microphone.  Which suggests to me that you have some sort of
non-Linux problem, e.g., a hardware-level one.

> I plugged the mic into a notebook running Lubuntu 18.04, and it didn't see
> the mic either:
> 
> me at laptop:~$ lsusb
> Bus 002 Device 002: ID 5986:0299 Acer, Inc
> Bus 002 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
> Bus 004 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
> Bus 001 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
> Bus 003 Device 002: ID 04ca:2007 Lite-On Technology Corp.
> Bus 003 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
> Bus 006 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0003 Linux Foundation 3.0 root hub
> Bus 005 Device 002: ID 0d8c:000c C-Media Electronics, Inc. Audio Adapter
> Bus 005 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
> me at laptop:~$

Yeah, as I said.

Given that your USB controller chip apparently isn't even seeing the
hardware item, I'm unclear on how you think a Linux User Group mailing
list can solve _that_ problem.

As far as hardware-level USB reliabilitiy problems (which are, frankly,
legion), start by making damned sure you plug the device directly into a
system USB port and do _not_ try to rely on a 'USB hub'.  If lsusb
continues to not even show the existence of an unknown USB device when
you plug it directly into a main-system USB port, try the other
main-system USB ports.  If that still produces not even low-level (e.g.,
lsusb) recognition of the device's existence, I don't know what to tell
you except that your assertion that the device is known-good is subject
to question.

Please note that your choice of Linux distribution is not particularly
relevant to this problem.  Your _kernel_ is relevant, because that
determines what vintage of usb.ids database it has.

Here is the very latest USB IDs database release, from the middle of
last month: http://www.linux-usb.org/usb.ids   I see nothing by the
indicated name, but of course they may well be OEMing something made by
a different company.  If you want to produce some useful information, 
get this device's USB ID, e.g., on the MS-Windows installation of your
'friend'.  Assuming, of course, the thing is still working.