Some progress: first and foremost, I managed to get the next version of ALSA installed with no problems (there's a handy script at
this thread. I found no immediate solution to any of the problems.
However, I've managed to get my headphone jack working if nothing else. I don't know if the 6838 has as many confusing options as the 6828, but my laptop has 6 different sound devices, and the ones you can manipulate are, in no particular order:
HDA Intel (ALSA Mixer)
SigmaTel STAC9205 (OSS Mixer)
Playback: HDA Intel -- STAC92xx Analog (PulseAudio Mixebottr)
Capture: Monitor of HDA Intel -- STAC92xx Analog (PulseAudio Mixer)
Capture: HDA Intel -- STAC92xx Analog (PulseAudio Mixer)
The bottom three obviously deal with PulseAudio, which essentially works to patch sound from one source to another. I made sure the volumes were up to maximum on all of them (I'd rather deal with the primary sources, rather than secondary). You can mostly ignore the OSS Mixer. In the ALSA Mixer, make sure you've enabled the 'Capture', 'Digital', and 'Mux' sliders in preferences--ignore 'Capture 1' and 'Mux 1'; they're useless, as far as things go. Start with them on lowest volume, but make sure they're not muted. When 'Capture' and 'Mux' were at the highest, I was getting a piddly little sound until I unmuted 'Digital' and cranked it to its highest, but results may vary: I was using the awful little speakers on the laptop's front.
Also, you need to make sure that you've enabled 'Digital Input Source' in preferences, and set it to 'Digital Mic 1', not 'Analog'.
The recording was still pretty quiet, but I chalk that up to the actual microphone itself. This is good news, though--the microphone didn't work in Windows in the first place.
More to come in regards to making ALSA 1.0.19 work.
EDIT: Addendum--make sure you have 'Analog Loopback'
disabled, or you'll suffer some terrible feedback.
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