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I have tried to make Skype work, but I have finally given up on Pulse Audio.  My problem right now is that I can hear the other person, but I can’t make it loud enough for the other person to hear me.

These instructions I found here: Pulse + skype delay issues in jaunty.

This kills all of the currently running pulseaudio processes:

#killall pulseaudio

This uninstalls pulseaudio:

#sudo aptitude remove pulseaudio

It gave this output:

The following packages are BROKEN:
 ubuntu-desktop
The following packages will be REMOVED:
 linux-headers-2.6.28-13{u} linux-headers-2.6.28-13-generic{u} pulseaudio
0 packages upgraded, 0 newly installed, 3 to remove and 0 not upgraded.
Need to get 0B of archives. After unpacking 76.5MB will be freed.
The following packages have unmet dependencies:
 ubuntu-desktop: Depends: pulseaudio but it is not installable
The following actions will resolve these dependencies:

Remove the following packages:
ubuntu-desktop

Leave the following dependencies unresolved:
libpulsecore9 recommends pulseaudio
Score is -81

Accept this solution? [Y/n/q/?]

I went ahead and said yes.  Again, the output is:

The following packages will be REMOVED:
 linux-headers-2.6.28-13{u} linux-headers-2.6.28-13-generic{u} pulseaudio
 ubuntu-desktop{a}
0 packages upgraded, 0 newly installed, 4 to remove and 0 not upgraded.
Need to get 0B of archives. After unpacking 76.5MB will be freed.
Do you want to continue? [Y/n/?]

Now, installing esound to replace Pulse Audio:

$sudo aptitude install esound

It gave this output, to which I said yes:

The following packages are BROKEN:
 pulseaudio-esound-compat
The following NEW packages will be installed:
 esound
0 packages upgraded, 1 newly installed, 0 to remove and 0 not upgraded.
Need to get 28.1kB of archives. After unpacking 102kB will be used.
The following packages have unmet dependencies:
 pulseaudio-esound-compat: Conflicts: esound but 0.2.40-0ubuntu3 is to be installed.
The following actions will resolve these dependencies:

Remove the following packages:
pulseaudio-esound-compat

Score is 119

Accept this solution? [Y/n/q/?]

Finally, remove the pulse audio configuration file.

#sudo aptitude remove /etc/X11/Xsession.d/70pulseaudio

No, I can hear only out of one side of the headphones, and I still don’t have the volume for the Mic.  I think my biggest problem is that I can’t turn on the Mic Boost!  Here are some posts I have searched.

Ddell Inspiron 1720, Ubuntu with Skype & Mic problem please……

Bug #289419

This might have a solution!

So, now, I am going to try to go back to pulse audio.

First, remove esound:

#sudo aptitude remove esound

result:

The following packages will be REMOVED:
 esound
0 packages upgraded, 0 newly installed, 1 to remove and 0 not upgraded.

Now, reinstalling pulse audio

#sudo aptitude install pulseaudio

Reinstalling one of the dependencies that I noticed it removed earlier:

#sudo aptitude install ubuntu-desktop

Now, installing the volume panel that is supposed to fix my problem (from here):

#sudo apt-get install gnome-volume-control-pulse

I rebooted just to make sure I was doing it right.  Then, I found the sound applet by the clock in the notification area.  I was able to right click on the sound icon and choose “Sound Preferences”.  On the input tab, the volume was set at somewhere between 50% and 75%.  When I adjusted it up, I had plenty of volume.