Front panel microphone does not work in Ubuntu 20.04 but works in Windows

Question

This is my first post here. I am a new user of Ubuntu and am currently running Ubuntu 20.04 LTS dual boot with Windows 7 in my desktop.

The issue I am facing is that the front panel microphone (pink jack) does not work in Ubuntu while the rear jack works fine. The mic is alright since it runs flawlessly in Windows. I would summarize the details and my research below:

1. At first the headphones jack too didn't work but changing the audio profile to 'Analog stereo duplex' made it work. But my microphones could only hear what is playing in the headphones (loopback kind of thing). I tried disabling loopback in alsamixer but no help.

2. In the input devices section of pavucontrol I see "Monitor of Built-In Audio Analog Stereo" (picks up the headphones output as input) and "Built-In Audio Analog Stereo" (which picks up input according to the indicator bar). While using audacity I can toggle between these two but in firefox it always asks for "Monitor of Built-In Audio Analog Stereo" only and no one can hear me in a meeting.

Here is a screenshot of the pulseaudio input devices tab

Here is a screenshot of the pulseaudio recording tab

3. I also tried using hdajackretask but couldn't really figure out how to map the rear mic to the front or something like that.

Here is a screenshot of the hdajackretask window

4. I am posting the output of pactl list-sources below

malyadeep@Malyadeep:~$ pactl list sources
Source #3
    State: RUNNING
    Name: alsa_output.pci-0000_00_1b.0.analog-stereo.monitor
    Description: Monitor of Built-in Audio Analog Stereo
    Driver: module-alsa-card.c
    Sample Specification: s16le 2ch 44100Hz
    Channel Map: front-left,front-right
    Owner Module: 21
    Mute: no
    Volume: front-left: 65536 / 100% / 0.00 dB,   front-right: 65536 / 100% / 0.00 dB
            balance 0.00
    Base Volume: 65536 / 100% / 0.00 dB
    Monitor of Sink: alsa_output.pci-0000_00_1b.0.analog-stereo
    Latency: 0 usec, configured 125000 usec
    Flags: DECIBEL_VOLUME LATENCY 
    Properties:
        device.description = "Monitor of Built-in Audio Analog Stereo"
        device.class = "monitor"
        alsa.card = "0"
        alsa.card_name = "HDA Intel"
        alsa.long_card_name = "HDA Intel at 0xfcffc000 irq 27"
        alsa.driver_name = "snd_hda_intel"
        device.bus_path = "pci-0000:00:1b.0"
        sysfs.path = "/devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:1b.0/sound/card0"
        device.bus = "pci"
        device.vendor.id = "8086"
        device.vendor.name = "Intel Corporation"
        device.product.id = "27d8"
        device.product.name = "NM10/ICH7 Family High Definition Audio Controller"
        device.form_factor = "internal"
        device.string = "0"
        module-udev-detect.discovered = "1"
        device.icon_name = "audio-card-pci"
    Formats:
        pcm

Source #4
    State: SUSPENDED
    Name: alsa_input.pci-0000_00_1b.0.analog-stereo
    Description: Built-in Audio Analog Stereo
    Driver: module-alsa-card.c
    Sample Specification: s16le 2ch 44100Hz
    Channel Map: front-left,front-right
    Owner Module: 21
    Mute: no
    Volume: front-left: 65536 / 100% / 0.00 dB,   front-right: 0 /   0% / -inf dB
            balance -1.00
    Base Volume: 6554 /  10% / -60.00 dB
    Monitor of Sink: n/a
    Latency: 0 usec, configured 0 usec
    Flags: HARDWARE HW_MUTE_CTRL HW_VOLUME_CTRL DECIBEL_VOLUME LATENCY 
    Properties:
        alsa.resolution_bits = "16"
        device.api = "alsa"
        device.class = "sound"
        alsa.class = "generic"
        alsa.subclass = "generic-mix"
        alsa.name = "ALC887-VD Analog"
        alsa.id = "ALC887-VD Analog"
        alsa.subdevice = "0"
        alsa.subdevice_name = "subdevice #0"
        alsa.device = "0"
        alsa.card = "0"
        alsa.card_name = "HDA Intel"
        alsa.long_card_name = "HDA Intel at 0xfcffc000 irq 27"
        alsa.driver_name = "snd_hda_intel"
        device.bus_path = "pci-0000:00:1b.0"
        sysfs.path = "/devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:1b.0/sound/card0"
        device.bus = "pci"
        device.vendor.id = "8086"
        device.vendor.name = "Intel Corporation"
        device.product.id = "27d8"
        device.product.name = "NM10/ICH7 Family High Definition Audio Controller"
        device.form_factor = "internal"
        device.string = "front:0"
        device.buffering.buffer_size = "65536"
        device.buffering.fragment_size = "32768"
        device.access_mode = "mmap+timer"
        device.profile.name = "analog-stereo"
        device.profile.description = "Analog Stereo"
        device.description = "Built-in Audio Analog Stereo"
        module-udev-detect.discovered = "1"
        device.icon_name = "audio-card-pci"
    Ports:
        analog-input-front-mic: Front Microphone (priority: 9000, not available)
        analog-input-rear-mic: Rear Microphone (priority: 8200, not available)
        analog-input-linein: Line In (priority: 8100, not available)
    Active Port: analog-input-front-mic
    Formats:
        pcm

I have searched a lot in the internet but couldn't find any working solution. I have tried editing the /etc/pulse/default.pa file to set default devices and also unmuted the channels in alsamixer and disabled automute but no success.

It would be great if anyone could help.

Thanks in advance!!

Answer 1

Fortunately I was able to sort out my problem using the hdajackretask just now. All I did was overrode the front pink mic port with internal mic and the front green headphone port by line out. After that I chose the pulseaudio profile analog surround 4.0 + analog stereo input and everything works fine now.

I am attaching the screenshot for the hdajackretask configuration and pulseaudio profile settings for reference.