[tlug] Accessing microphone

[Dave M G <martin@example.com>]

TLUG,

I'm interested in using VOIP-type applications like Ekiga within Linux.

However, I've hit an early obstacle. While my sound card puts out sound 
no problem, I can't seem to get any microphone support.

To test my mike, I've tried using what seems to be the simplest sound 
recording software I could find for Linux, gnome-sound-recorder.

When I start it, it returns this error:
Your audio capture settings are invalid. Please correct them in the 
Multimedia settings.

However, the term "Multimedia settings" turns out to be a bit vague. I 
can't find application specifically called "Multimedia settings", so I 
assume they just mean "make it work somehow".

Of course, first thing I did was check to make sure the mike works on a 
separate recording device, and that I have it plugged into the right 
jack. The hardware is good, I'm sure of it.

In the Gnome Panel, under System | Preference, there is a settings 
application called Sound. Opening it got me this error:
Unable to start the settings manager 'gnome-settings-daemon'. Without 
the GNOME settings manager running, some preferences may not take 
effect. This could indicate a problem with Bonobo, or a non-GNOME (e.g. 
KDE) settings manager may already be active and conflicting with the 
GNOME settings manager.

But, nonetheless it started. However, the interface wasn't helpful.  You 
can see in this screenshot that it's all to do with System Sounds, and 
where it has "Default Sound Card", it only gives me one option, HDA Intel:
http://autotelic.com/sound.png

So I'm kind of at a loss as to where else to go to configure my 
"Multimedia settings" so that I can obtain microphone recording.

What do I do next?

Thank you for any advice.

--
Dave M G