Note: This probably isn’t limited just to the Dell Studio 1558.

For those who tried the HOWTO at https://help.ubuntu.com/ and ended up with headphones and microphones that don’t work, here’s how you do it:

  • sudo nano /etc/modprobe.d/alsa-base.conf
  • Into that file, insert options snd-hda-intel model=dell-m6-dmic. (Some forum posts will tell you to use dell-eq, but that left me with low volume on the laptop’s speakers and nothing happening on the microphone front. Using dell-m6 fixed my low volume problem, but the microphone was still dead. I read about dell-m6-dmic somewhere and guess what, bitches, it works.)
  • Restart ALSA and pulseaudio if you know how (I used to know this, and I blame alcohol for my sieve-like memory) or just reboot.
  • ????
  • PROFIT

TL;DR: Put options snd-hda-intel model=dell-m6-dmic in /etc/modprobe.d/alsa-base.conf to fix your shit.