Arch Linux

bladesonfire

Member

From: California, USA

Registered: 2007-05-23

Posts: 44

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2nd HDMI output not working on laptop

I have a Dell XPS 9575 with integrated Intel graphics (it also has a discrete Radeon RX Vega M, but not being used) and 4 USB-C ports. Two of these I connect to external monitors using a USB-C-to-DisplayPort cable. The audio works for one of the monitors (Monitor 2), but not the other monitor (Monitor 1: my main monitor with better speakers).

Looking at https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Pu … figuration, it looks like there's an issue where PulseAudio will not use the HDMI audio unless it's the first output. Looking at the mailing list message, it's from 2010 so I'm not sure if it's still an issue. The message mentioned editing /usr/share/pulseaudio/alsa-mixer/profile-sets/default.conf, but when I went into that file, I was pretty much lost.

➜  ~ aplay -l       
**** List of PLAYBACK Hardware Devices ****
card 0: PCH [HDA Intel PCH], device 0: ALC3271 Analog [ALC3271 Analog]
  Subdevices: 0/1
  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
card 1: Headset [Logitech Wireless Headset], device 0: USB Audio [USB Audio]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0

Card 0,0 is my laptop speakers. Card 0,7 is Monitor 2. Card 1,0 is a wireless headset. All 3 work great.

When I try aplay -D plughw:0,y /usr/share/sounds/alsa/Front_Right.wav, replacing y with 8, 9, or 10, I get no audio output.

My fix for now is to physically change where the cables are plugged in so that Monitor 1 becomes Card 0,7, but this is not an ideal solution for me. Anyone know what I can do to get both HDMI audio devices working?