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tofiffe

Member

Registered: 2016-02-14

Posts: 33

[SOLVED] Only one audio channel available on headphone jack

Recently my laptop started having issues with headphone jack, where only one channel (right) would be outputting sound. I have checked with a different pair of wired headphones and they behaved the same - both headphones work fine when tested on another device (phone), and both worked with the same laptop and install previously.

To rule out a hardware issue I tried creating a bootable image of Manjaro, where headphones performed correctly - therefore I believe it must be something wrong with my installation.

Perhaps worth mentioning - when testing the speakers of the laptop, both channels work fine playing individual channels on headphones only plays right side.

My kernel version is 5.16.7-arch1-1, I'm using GNOME 41.3 with x11.

How can I make the other channel work?

Last edited by tofiffe (2022-02-21 10:38:57)

V1del

Forum Moderator

Registered: 2012-10-16

Posts: 23,944

Re: [SOLVED] Only one audio channel available on headphone jack

aplay -l
amixer -c0
#If you're using pulse/pipewire 
pactl list cards
pactl list sinks
pactl list sink-inputs

Last edited by V1del (2022-02-18 10:20:54)

tofiffe

Member

Registered: 2016-02-14

Posts: 33

Re: [SOLVED] Only one audio channel available on headphone jack

aplay -l

**** List of PLAYBACK Hardware Devices ****
card 0: PCH [HDA Intel PCH], device 0: ALC289 Analog [ALC289 Analog]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 0: PCH [HDA Intel PCH], device 3: HDMI 0 [HDMI 0]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 0: PCH [HDA Intel PCH], device 7: HDMI 1 [HDMI 1]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 0: PCH [HDA Intel PCH], device 8: HDMI 2 [HDMI 2]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 0: PCH [HDA Intel PCH], device 9: HDMI 3 [HDMI 3]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 0: PCH [HDA Intel PCH], device 10: HDMI 4 [HDMI 4]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0

amixer -c0:

Simple mixer control 'Master',0
  Capabilities: pvolume pvolume-joined pswitch pswitch-joined
  Playback channels: Mono
  Limits: Playback 0 - 87
  Mono: Playback 87 [100%] [0.00dB] [on]
Simple mixer control 'Headphone',0
  Capabilities: pvolume pswitch
  Playback channels: Front Left - Front Right
  Limits: Playback 0 - 87
  Mono:
  Front Left: Playback 0 [0%] [-65.25dB] [on]
  Front Right: Playback 87 [100%] [0.00dB] [on]
Simple mixer control 'Headphone Mic',0
  Capabilities: cswitch cswitch-joined cswitch-exclusive
  Capture exclusive group: 0
  Capture channels: Mono
  Mono: Capture [off]
Simple mixer control 'Headphone Mic Boost',0
  Capabilities: volume
  Playback channels: Front Left - Front Right
  Capture channels: Front Left - Front Right
  Limits: 0 - 3
  Front Left: 0 [0%] [0.00dB]
  Front Right: 0 [0%] [0.00dB]
Simple mixer control 'Speaker',0
  Capabilities: pvolume pswitch
  Playback channels: Front Left - Front Right
  Limits: Playback 0 - 87
  Mono:
  Front Left: Playback 0 [0%] [-65.25dB] [off]
  Front Right: Playback 0 [0%] [-65.25dB] [off]
Simple mixer control 'Bass Speaker',0
  Capabilities: pswitch
  Playback channels: Front Left - Front Right
  Mono:
  Front Left: Playback [off]
  Front Right: Playback [off]
Simple mixer control 'PCM',0
  Capabilities: pvolume
  Playback channels: Front Left - Front Right
  Limits: Playback 0 - 255
  Mono:
  Front Left: Playback 0 [0%] [-51.00dB]
  Front Right: Playback 255 [100%] [0.00dB]
Simple mixer control 'IEC958',0
  Capabilities: pswitch pswitch-joined
  Playback channels: Mono
  Mono: Playback [off]
Simple mixer control 'IEC958',1
  Capabilities: pswitch pswitch-joined
  Playback channels: Mono
  Mono: Playback [on]
Simple mixer control 'IEC958',2
  Capabilities: pswitch pswitch-joined
  Playback channels: Mono
  Mono: Playback [on]
Simple mixer control 'IEC958',3
  Capabilities: pswitch pswitch-joined
  Playback channels: Mono
  Mono: Playback [on]
Simple mixer control 'IEC958',4
  Capabilities: pswitch pswitch-joined
  Playback channels: Mono
  Mono: Playback [on]
Simple mixer control 'Capture',0
  Capabilities: cvolume cswitch
  Capture channels: Front Left - Front Right
  Limits: Capture 0 - 63
  Front Left: Capture 43 [68%] [15.00dB] [on]
  Front Right: Capture 43 [68%] [15.00dB] [on]
Simple mixer control 'Auto-Mute Mode',0
  Capabilities: enum
  Items: 'Disabled' 'Enabled'
  Item0: 'Disabled'
Simple mixer control 'Headset Mic',0
  Capabilities: cswitch cswitch-joined cswitch-exclusive
  Capture exclusive group: 0
  Capture channels: Mono
  Mono: Capture [on]
Simple mixer control 'Headset Mic Boost',0
  Capabilities: volume
  Playback channels: Front Left - Front Right
  Capture channels: Front Left - Front Right
  Limits: 0 - 3
  Front Left: 0 [0%] [0.00dB]
  Front Right: 0 [0%] [0.00dB]
Simple mixer control 'Internal Mic',0
  Capabilities: cswitch cswitch-joined cswitch-exclusive
  Capture exclusive group: 0
  Capture channels: Mono
  Mono: Capture [off]
Simple mixer control 'Internal Mic Boost',0
  Capabilities: volume
  Playback channels: Front Left - Front Right
  Capture channels: Front Left - Front Right
  Limits: 0 - 3
  Front Left: 0 [0%] [0.00dB]
  Front Right: 0 [0%] [0.00dB]

pactl list sinks:

Sink #0
  State: SUSPENDED
  Name: alsa_output.pci-0000_00_1f.3.analog-stereo
  Description: Built-in Audio Analog Stereo
  Driver: module-alsa-card.c
  Sample Specification: s16le 2ch 48000Hz
  Channel Map: front-left,front-right
  Owner Module: 6
  Mute: no
  Volume: front-left: 0 /   0% / -inf dB,   front-right: 65536 / 100% / 0,00 dB
          balance 1,00
  Base Volume: 65536 / 100% / 0,00 dB
  Monitor Source: alsa_output.pci-0000_00_1f.3.analog-stereo.monitor
  Latency: 0 usec, configured 0 usec
  Flags: HARDWARE HW_MUTE_CTRL HW_VOLUME_CTRL DECIBEL_VOLUME LATENCY 
  Properties:
    alsa.resolution_bits = "16"
    device.api = "alsa"
    device.class = "sound"
    alsa.class = "generic"
    alsa.subclass = "generic-mix"
    alsa.name = "ALC289 Analog"
    alsa.id = "ALC289 Analog"
    alsa.subdevice = "0"
    alsa.subdevice_name = "subdevice #0"
    alsa.device = "0"
    alsa.card = "0"
    alsa.card_name = "HDA Intel PCH"
    alsa.long_card_name = "HDA Intel PCH at 0x604b118000 irq 178"
    alsa.driver_name = "snd_hda_intel"
    device.bus_path = "pci-0000:00:1f.3"
    sysfs.path = "/devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:1f.3/sound/card0"
    device.bus = "pci"
    device.vendor.id = "8086"
    device.vendor.name = "Intel Corporation"
    device.product.id = "06c8"
    device.product.name = "Comet Lake PCH cAVS"
    device.form_factor = "internal"
    device.string = "front:0"
    device.buffering.buffer_size = "19200"
    device.buffering.fragment_size = "4800"
    device.access_mode = "mmap"
    device.profile.name = "analog-stereo"
    device.profile.description = "Analog Stereo"
    device.description = "Built-in Audio Analog Stereo"
    module-udev-detect.discovered = "1"
    device.icon_name = "audio-card-pci"
  Ports:
    analog-output-speaker: Speakers (type: Speaker, priority: 10000, availability unknown)
    analog-output-headphones: Headphones (type: Headphones, priority: 9900, availability group: Legacy 2, availability unknown)
  Active Port: analog-output-headphones
  Formats:
    pcm

pactl list sink-inputs: empty

V1del

Forum Moderator

Registered: 2012-10-16

Posts: 23,944

Re: [SOLVED] Only one audio channel available on headphone jack

It's empty because you are not playing anything back which you should in order to check, in any case

 Name: alsa_output.pci-0000_00_1f.3.analog-stereo
....
  Volume: front-left: 0 /   0% / -inf dB,   front-right: 65536 / 100% / 0,00 dB

Check your favorite mixer application that allows you to show split channels, otherwise

pactl set-sink-volume alsa_output.pci-0000_00_1f.3.analog-stereo 100%,100%

tofiffe

Member

Registered: 2016-02-14

Posts: 33

Re: [SOLVED] Only one audio channel available on headphone jack

pactl set-sink-volume alsa_output.pci-0000_00_1f.3.analog-stereo 100%,100%

fails with: "Invalid volume specification"

What would be an example of an app that can split channels? I don't remember ever doing that and this used to work properly before and only broke recently.

V1del

Forum Moderator

Registered: 2012-10-16

Posts: 23,944

Re: [SOLVED] Only one audio channel available on headphone jack

Grml, drop the comma at the end

pactl set-sink-volume alsa_output.pci-0000_00_1f.3.analog-stereo 100% 100%

E.g. pavucontrol has a box to show the distinct channels of a given sink, most other serious pulseaudio mixing tools should as well somewhere.

tofiffe

Member

Registered: 2016-02-14

Posts: 33

Re: [SOLVED] Only one audio channel available on headphone jack

The command seems to have worked, albeit the left channel was barely audible instead of muted.

In pavucontrol channels were locked, but after unlocking them the left channel was muted. I increased left channel to 100% and it appears to be working fine, even after locking the channels together again.

The issue is now resolved, thanks a lot!