2.6.30 and Plantronic DSP 500 USB headset

Question

Hi,
First of all, sorry if I made mistakes in english, my first language is french.
Here is what's worried me:
I was using archlinux since kernel 2.6.28 and my headset was working fine, even with the kernel 2.6.29 series too.
After 2.6.30 upgrade, my headset microphone has stopped to work (in fact it's always in mute state).
I haven't try to rollback my kernel because at this time I had never did it before and I've prefered to try a fresh install... which did not work.
Unable to make it work, I've tried Ubuntu 9.04 (which is using kernel 2.6.28 series) and confirmed again that the device is working fine.
So, again,  I've completly formated my hard drive and step again with a fresh install.
Here is a quick 'how I proceed':
Install from archlinux latest CD and used network install to be up to date from the begining.
I've installed gnome environment. For the audio part I've proceed like this:
pacman -S alsa-lib alsa-utils
I've added 'alsa' to my rc.conf file
After that, I've launched 'alsamixer' to configure my audio board device (which is working perfectly).
I've lauched 'alsamixer -c 1' to configure my plantronic headset. I set the volume levels to the middle (by the way mute/unmute function made power on and off the mute led on the headset making me think that the device is correctly detected).
I used 'sudo alsactl store' command to store my config.
If I launch gnome audio volume control applet, my microphone is always flagged as muted. If I unmute it; after closing the applet and launching it again; it show's me again a muted microphone.
After some time (I don't know how long I must wait), the headset led is going back to red meaning the microphone is in mute state.
If I reboot, the microphone is mutted too.
Well, in few words, I have no more idea on what to do...
If someone have some ideas it's welcome.
Regards

Answer 1

Hi,
I've think to try the arecord like this:
arecord --device=**** -d 5 -vv -fdat foo.wav
but unfortunatly I don't know what to type as device name.
If I list my devices I got that:
arecord --list-pcms
default:CARD=Intel
HDA Intel, ALC888 Analog
Default Audio Device
front:CARD=Intel,DEV=0
HDA Intel, ALC888 Analog
Front speakers
surround40:CARD=Intel,DEV=0
HDA Intel, ALC888 Analog
4.0 Surround output to Front and Rear speakers
surround41:CARD=Intel,DEV=0
HDA Intel, ALC888 Analog
4.1 Surround output to Front, Rear and Subwoofer speakers
surround50:CARD=Intel,DEV=0
HDA Intel, ALC888 Analog
5.0 Surround output to Front, Center and Rear speakers
surround51:CARD=Intel,DEV=0
HDA Intel, ALC888 Analog
5.1 Surround output to Front, Center, Rear and Subwoofer speakers
surround71:CARD=Intel,DEV=0
HDA Intel, ALC888 Analog
7.1 Surround output to Front, Center, Side, Rear and Woofer speakers
iec958:CARD=Intel,DEV=0
HDA Intel, ALC888 Digital
IEC958 (S/PDIF) Digital Audio Output
null
Discard all samples (playback) or generate zero samples (capture)
If you have another suggestion as console capture software...