Arch Linux

Grant

Member

From: Italy

Registered: 2012-12-15

Posts: 246

PulseAudio not Really Switching to Headphones only when Plugged

Dear all,

I just got myself a fresh Arch + GNOME install on my new notebook. I just can't get the audio to work properly though.

Let me explain because it's kinda weird. PA does recognize that headphones get plugged in and indeed it does switch profile by muting Speaker entry and turning on Headphones and viceversa.
As you can see: (plugged out)

# amixer
Simple mixer control 'Headphone',0
  Capabilities: pvolume pswitch pswitch-joined
  Playback channels: Front Left - Front Right
  Limits: Playback 0 - 3
  Mono:
  Front Left: Playback 0 [0%] [-48.00dB] [off]
  Front Right: Playback 0 [0%] [-48.00dB] [off]
Simple mixer control 'Headphone Mixer',0
  Capabilities: volume
  Playback channels: Front Left - Front Right
  Capture channels: Front Left - Front Right
  Limits: 0 - 11
  Front Left: 11 [100%] [0.00dB]
  Front Right: 11 [100%] [0.00dB]
Simple mixer control 'Speaker',0
  Capabilities: pswitch pswitch-joined
  Playback channels: Mono
  Mono: Playback [on]

And when plugged in:

Simple mixer control 'Headphone',0
  Capabilities: pvolume pswitch pswitch-joined
  Playback channels: Front Left - Front Right
  Limits: Playback 0 - 3
  Mono:
  Front Left: Playback 2 [67%] [-12.00dB] [on]
  Front Right: Playback 2 [67%] [-12.00dB] [on]
Simple mixer control 'Headphone Mixer',0
  Capabilities: volume
  Playback channels: Front Left - Front Right
  Capture channels: Front Left - Front Right
  Limits: 0 - 11
  Front Left: 11 [100%] [0.00dB]
  Front Right: 11 [100%] [0.00dB]
Simple mixer control 'Speaker',0
  Capabilities: pswitch pswitch-joined
  Playback channels: Mono
  Mono: Playback [off]

But I can still hear the speakers output! From alsamixer and Pavucontrol it says they are muted but I don't know why speakers are not actually silent.

It's as if Simultaneous output was on. I looked into https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Advanc … ous_output but:

$ amixer sset "Auto-Mute" unmute
amixer: Unable to find simple control 'Auto-Mute',0

Anybody can help? It'd be much appreciated.

lenhuppe

Member

From: New Hampshire USA

Registered: 2018-12-10

Posts: 302

Website

Re: PulseAudio not Really Switching to Headphones only when Plugged

When I had issues with sound in Gnome I replaced pulseaudio with pipewire and it works great.

$ sudo pacman -S wireplumber pipewire-alsa pipewire-pulse pipewire-jack pipewire-v4l2 gst-plugin-pipewire

When prompted replace pulseaudio or jack with pipewire.

In the future you can install pipewire before installing Gnome.

V1del

Forum Moderator

Registered: 2012-10-16

Posts: 25,042

Re: PulseAudio not Really Switching to Headphones only when Plugged

Reads like a driver bug that isn't up to pulseaudio or pipewire. What actual card is this? can you post

aplay -l

? What's the notebook model?

Last edited by V1del (2022-07-07 12:09:13)

lenhuppe

Member

From: New Hampshire USA

Registered: 2018-12-10

Posts: 302

Website

Re: PulseAudio not Really Switching to Headphones only when Plugged

Reads like a driver bug that isn't up to pulseaudio or pipewire. What actual card is this? can you post

aplay -l

? What's the notebook model?

Not sure if its relevant but the wireplumber package was updated yesterday 7-6-22.

Grant

Member

From: Italy

Registered: 2012-12-15

Posts: 246

Re: PulseAudio not Really Switching to Headphones only when Plugged

When I had issues with sound in Gnome I replaced pulseaudio with pipewire and it works great.

$ sudo pacman -S wireplumber pipewire-alsa pipewire-pulse pipewire-jack pipewire-v4l2 gst-plugin-pipewire

When prompted replace pulseaudio or jack with pipewire.

In the future you can install pipewire before installing Gnome.

I think this made some step forward but the issue is still there. Also when I just have speakers the audio is very low even at maximum. I'm quite sure I saw this in the Wiki of Pipewire though.

Last edited by Grant (2022-07-08 15:30:43)

Grant

Member

From: Italy

Registered: 2012-12-15

Posts: 246

Re: PulseAudio not Really Switching to Headphones only when Plugged

Reads like a driver bug that isn't up to pulseaudio or pipewire. What actual card is this? can you post

aplay -l

? What's the notebook model?

Yeah I've come to think as well it's a ALSA thing. But I do have sof-firmware installed and all. Maybe the .asoundrc is wrong? Thing is, it does work but it just seems not to turn off when it should.

For instance, when I plug the headphones GNOME asks me via a pop-up if I want the mic or not (i.e. the audio profile).

What's also weird is that raising the Headphone parameter in Alsamixer also raises the Speaker volume (even if they are MM!)

Anyways, it's a Matebook D15.

$ aplay -l
**** List of PLAYBACK Hardware Devices ****
card 0: sofessx8336 [sof-essx8336], device 0: ES8336 (*) []
  Subdevices: 0/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 0: sofessx8336 [sof-essx8336], device 5: HDMI 1 (*) []
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 0: sofessx8336 [sof-essx8336], device 6: HDMI 2 (*) []
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 0: sofessx8336 [sof-essx8336], device 7: HDMI 3 (*) []
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0

(from lspci)

00:1f.3 Multimedia audio controller: Intel Corporation Tiger Lake-LP Smart Sound Technology Audio Controller (rev 20)

BTW, I just -syu'd with fresh pipewire and related and made no difference.

Last edited by Grant (2022-07-08 15:35:33)

V1del

Forum Moderator

Registered: 2012-10-16

Posts: 25,042

Re: PulseAudio not Really Switching to Headphones only when Plugged

This chip again, I've seen few notes of a kernel regression with this. Can you test linux-lts ? FWIW in regards to .asoundrc that "generally" will not have an effect on what the controls do but it should also not exist unless you really want to manually configure ALSA, you'd normally just have pipewire-alsa or pulseaudio-alsa respectively.

JoeyCorleone

Member

Registered: 2022-01-22

Posts: 88

Re: PulseAudio not Really Switching to Headphones only when Plugged

Yes, supporting this chip seems to be an ongoing effort. You could test stuff mentioned in the newest comments there and help the devs by providing feedback.

Grant

Member

From: Italy

Registered: 2012-12-15

Posts: 246

Re: PulseAudio not Really Switching to Headphones only when Plugged

This chip again, I've seen few notes of a kernel regression with this. Can you test linux-lts ? FWIW in regards to .asoundrc that "generally" will not have an effect on what the controls do but it should also not exist unless you really want to manually configure ALSA, you'd normally just have pipewire-alsa or pulseaudio-alsa respectively.

Yeah I just found a similar discussion on github where nobody could sort it out as well.

Actually rolling back to linux-lts made it worse as I get no sound at all, whereas with standard kernel there was some trace of audio working. I think I'll revert to it.

So I guess there's no solution for now - should I mark the post as 'solved'? I'll keep an eye on the Github pages if any solution pops out, or maybe get myself a pair of BT headphones as they seem to work flawlessy instead.