Computer 1: Cent OS 5.6 x32, Supermicro X8DAL-E motherboard
Computer 2: SL 6.1 x64, Supermicro X8SAX motherboard

Hi Guys,

On both computer 1 and computer 2, I plugged both a Cyber Acoustics
CVL-1064 Desktop Microphone and a Logitech 980463-0403 into the pink
"Mic" jack in the back (one at a time). If I click my microphone'
On/Off switch, I hear a thump in my speakers. If I thump on the mic,
I can hear the thumping in the speakers.

If I mute my microphone in gnome-volume-control, flicking my
microphone's switch only gives me a click and no thump. Thumping
on the mic is not heard in the speakers either.

I tried recording from Audacity with no joy.

So I switched to "arecord".

$ arecord -L
default:CARD=ESB2
Intel ESB2, Intel ESB2
Default Audio Device

$arecord -d 10 -f cd -t wav -D default foobar.wav

which does record 10 seconds of me making noise into my microphone into 
foobar.wav. Unfortunately, foobar.wav is completely silent.

I can play other *.wav" file with "aplay" (and Audacity).

Is there any trick to recording from my microphone? Anyone know what I 
am doing wrong.

Many thanks,
-T