Skype on Linux with SB16 ISA PnP

I tried all the stuff I had read in all the forums about this subject (configure alsa, set priorities for /dev/dsp, configure arts, try aoss skype, etc.) , and it still didn't work. I could hear the other person's voice, but nobody could hear mine.

The beginning of the realization was when Hanson (a friend who lives with me) said that that "Mic" setting on my aumix/alsamixer was related only to the volume of the local output of the microphone, not the capturing volume. There was a "Capture" setting on alsamixer, but it was general, not exactly related to the microphone.

I kept trying, until I read somewhere that I had to install ALSA drivers as modules on the kernel and load them separately. While I was reading the Gentoo Linux ALSA Guide in order to do that, I came across a section where they told you how to unmute your audio after having set it up. They recommended the text-based amixer. As I'm an old user of aumix, I thought I'd do it there. But for a second I changed my mind and tried amixer.

It showed me two fields for the microphone called Front Left: capture (off) and Front Right: capture (off). I then typed:

amixer set 'Mic' cap on

And voilá!! All my problems were solved! Enjoy!