Comment 5 for bug 533877

Ah Daniel, I see what is happening now perhaps. First, I had to press F4 in alsamixer to enable all capture options. Once there, for "Input Source" (there's also "Input Source 1" and "Input Source 2" so that's slightly confusing), I see the options specified in the enum you pasted, "Mic", "Front Mic", and "Digital Mic". Changing it to Digital Mic makes the integrated microphone work, but it seems to be a bug that this isn't available in the Sound Preferences applet. It has a "Connector" drop-down in the Input tab with "Microphone 1" and "Microphone 2" which correspond to the "Mic" and "Front Mic" options respectively, but no way to select the third "Digital Mic" option.

So, it seems like that option is for some reason missing from the Connector drop-down, and perhaps they should be named more usefully like they are in alsamixer. Also, "Digital Mic" should likely be the default for these models as it gives everyone a working recording experience. Using Front Mic as the default seems less useful as for most cases the integrated mic works fine; it would only be for more serious/professional recording that you'd want to use a different input.

What are your thoughts Daniel?