Arch Linux

ThatBilal

Member

Registered: 2022-01-05

Posts: 3

[SOLVED] Can't connect to wired headphones

I have Arch with bspwm right now. Whenever I plug in my headphones the leds light up but the sound still comes out of the laptop speaker. I know that the headphones work with linux because it worked out of the box with kde. What software am I missing?

Last edited by ThatBilal (2022-01-05 19:36:45)

V1del

Forum Moderator

Registered: 2012-10-16

Posts: 25,296

Re: [SOLVED] Can't connect to wired headphones

pulseaudio or pipewire respectively. Alternatively check whether you have a dedicated card control for this in e.g. alsamixer, many integrated card have an "Auto-Mute" or similar which should lead to the general same logical effect (assuming the headset is a normal jack you plug  into the laptop, if it's USB or bluetooth or so there's no way around the other two for the "seamless" effect)

While we are at it, for these to generally work properly make sure you are starting the session correctly, if you're using startx make sure yoour .xinitrc follows the appropriate template: https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Xinit#xinitrc

ThatBilal

Member

Registered: 2022-01-05

Posts: 3

Re: [SOLVED] Can't connect to wired headphones

It's a USB headphone. I have pulseaudio installed. About the "Auto-Mute" thing, can you explain further?

V1del

Forum Moderator

Registered: 2012-10-16

Posts: 25,296

Re: [SOLVED] Can't connect to wired headphones

If all audio is handled by the same card, a relevant Auto-Mute is a driver level setting that makes the driver inherently mute the speakers when it detecs a connection to the jack. You can forget about that, as a USB card is a completely distinct sound card so a lot more logic is involved in making this happen. Assuming pulseaudio is properly started and working (... can you manually move audio to the USB headset in e.g. pavucontrol?) All you need to is add the line

load-module module-switch-on-connect

to your /etc/pulse/default.pa file (... as far as I know it's best to add it before the

.ifexists module-udev-detect.so

line, but thinking about it I'd say there's not much logic to that and it should not generally matter as long as you load it somewhere)

Last edited by V1del (2022-01-05 19:25:58)

ThatBilal

Member

Registered: 2022-01-05

Posts: 3

Re: [SOLVED] Can't connect to wired headphones

Thanks, that did it