Why is my mic so quiet in Ubuntu?

I have a Dell Inspiron 1520. Under Ubuntu 9.04, my mic is extremely quiet. Under Windows the mic is a good volume. I have crawled through alsa-mixer and all the sound options I can find in Ubuntu, but I can't get the volume above a whisper level.

Any ideas?

Update:

If I right click on a Volume Control icon and choose Volume Control I get This

Here is what is in this window. This is 2 levels, the first is the tabs, and the second is the things in the tabs

• Playback (All three of these control my system volume)
  • Master
  • PCM
  • Front
• Recording (All of these options are turned up to 100% and not muted)
  • Capture
  • Capture 1
  • Digital
  • Mux
  • Mux 1
• Switches
  • IEC958 [Checked]
  • IEC958 Default PCM [Checked]
  • Analog Loopback [Not Checked]
• Options
  • IEC958 Playback Source (Digital Playback, other choices are Mux and Mux 1)
  • Digital Input Source (Digial Mic 1, other choice is Analog Inputs)
  • Input Source (Mic, no other options)
  • Input Source (Mic, no other options)
• Sound Theme (excluded)

I have checked everything in the preferences window that comes up from the button below.

I had this issue with Ubuntu 18.04. On Windows 10 (dual boot), microphone works as expected. On Ubuntu, I could yell into the microphone and you could barely hear anything on the other end. None of the built-in settings were working including boosting the microphone. I finally found this suggestion which originates from here.

1. Install pavucontrol
2. Run pavucontrol and go to the Input Devices tab
3. Click the unlock button to unlock the channels
4. Set the Right channel to 0 (left should be above 0, possibly 100%)

I hope this helps somebody.

Is 'Mic Boost' a valid option for you?

Click on the volume controller on the top right, choose 'Volume Control'. From the dialog, select 'Preferences' button, and fine '[ ] Mic Boost'. For some reason, it's under Playback (should be under recording), make sure it's not muted and raise it up.