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So we all use Skype for cheap international communications. You may use it for conference calls too. It isn’t a bad solution – for free.

For Linux clients, Skype hasn’t been updated to make it just work with the modern sound systems. I’ve had trouble getting the microphone to work – just like many many, many others.

Sound works perfectly – I can hear everyone else, but they can’t hear me. I hear myself through the speakers, but they can’t hear me.

The fix that worked for me – there seem to be many of these fixes -

• run skype as root, once
• use alsamixer and set the Mic input up. There doesn’t seem to be a Mute toggle in this text interface.

Use alsamixer, not any GUI (like kmix or xfce4-mixer):

 – Go to the “Capture” View

 – Front Mi – 100

 – Mic Boos – 100

 – Capture – 42   <— Required; different levels are not good

 – Capture – 0

 – Capture – 0

 – Digital – 68   <—- Required; different levels are not good

 – Input So – Mic

 – Input So – Front Mi

 – Input So – Mic

kmix and xfce4-mixer don’t seem to work. The settings above are for my system. Your settings may need to be different.