No Audio Input into Snow Leopard Guest

[Radiohead57]

Hello,

I've got a Snow Leopard 10.6.8 guest running on a MacBook host (10.10.5). I'm using the latest version on Virtualbox (5.2.16). I use an external USB sound "card" on the host, an ASUS Sonar U7, for line audio input, although this probably isn't pertinent to the issue (see below).

I have no audio into the guest from the Line In port of the U7 sound device, the host microphone, or any other incoming audio source from the host into the Snow Leopard guest. No problem with those signals on the host, also no problem with the audio output from the guest to the host, through the U7, and out the speakers. I have no problem getting the sampled audio from the line input into my Windows XP or Linux guests, either. I have Audio Input enabled in the Settings for the guest, and am using the CoreAudio drivers and the Intel HD Audio controller. (I've tried the other available driver/controller combinations and they either kill all audio or are no better).

Anyone else run into this? Anyone know why? And, most importantly to me, any suggested solutions?

Thanks.

[socratis]

I have no audio into the guest from the Line In port of the U7 sound device, the host microphone

So, assuming that you don't use the USB audio card, you have no in sound at all? Not even from the Internal microphone? What happens if you select that and you simply start talking? Nothing in the sound meter of the System Preferences?

Because on my 10.6.8 VM (10.11.6 host), if I have the defaults, I can definitely see the sound meter move.

[Radiohead57]

Yes, that is correct. Nothing from the internal microphone OR the U7 line input on the corresponding guest bar-graph meter. I even tried rebuilding the guest machine a second time, and got the same result.

[socratis]

OK then, let's forget the USB audio card for a moment. Just leave it out of the equation for a moment. Then:

• Start the VM from cold-boot (not from a paused or saved state) / Observe error / Shutdown the VM (force close it if you have to).
• With the VM completely shut down (not paused or saved), right-click on the VM in the VirtualBox Manager and select "Show Log".
• Save only the first "VBox.log", ZIP it and attach it to your response. See the "Upload attachment" tab below the reply form.

I would also like to see the "recipe" of the VM, the ".vbox" file:

1. Right-click on the VM in the VirtualBox Manager. Select "Show in Finder".
2. ZIP the selected ".vbox" file and attach it to your response.

[Radiohead57]

Socrates,

Thanks so much for your offer to help!

I think at this time it's unnecessary - after playing around in the guest's Audio Midi Setup, but not changing anything in the end except for possibly the microphone volume (I didn't change it by much, it was at about 50% or so) I started to get audio into the guest from the host's microphone! I had the microphone volume turned up all the way in both the host and guest previously in the System Preferences sound panels, so it wasn't just a matter of the microphone gain being set too low. I've been trying similar things for a week without success. So, I'm not sure what I did to make it work, but it's working now.

Once it started to work, I found that audio from the USB sound device Line Input comes through the guest's microphone input - not a problem, but necessary to know.

Again, thanks.

Now, is there any way to increase the input rate to the guest above 44100 Hz? That's the only option in the guest's Audio MIDI Setup, although for the host it's set at 192000 Hz. I would prefer higher bandwidth - 96 KHz or, preferably, 192 KHz - as I want to use a Software-Defined Radio (SDR) in the guest.

[socratis]

except for possibly the microphone volume (I didn't change it by much, it was at about 50% or so)

is there any way to increase the input rate to the guest above 44100 Hz

Tough question. If your USB works, I'd look for a solution in the guest, not VirtualBox. I vaguely recall a MIDI setup in OSX where you could play with things like that, but you'd have to search for this from the guest side.