Headphone issue

[Patweezy81]

I may have posted this in the past I don’t remember getting an answer. Currently I have switch to Ubuntu mate and the reason for the switch is at the time I was using Mint 17 and after I update to 18.2 well I got that black screen and I was unable to get rid of it. It so happened that after I installed Ubuntu Mate I had the same issue and because I instantly fell in love with Mate, I decided run with it.

My issue as always been the same for every version of Ubuntu I installed. When I input my headphones it does not auto switch to the headphones I have to manually do myself unlike windows Computer when the headphone sare plugged in the main speaks are muted and only the headphones work and then after the headphones are removed the main speakers are back on again so to speak.

I have an AMD/ATI RV710 Radeon HD 4350/4550 which also does sound via HDMI. Also, on board sound on motherboard

The worst part is I have no idea what my computer is using. Meaning is it using my HDMI for sound and video as my current hook up monitor is also HDMI or my regular on board sound?

How do I get my head phones to auto select and mute the main speaks until I remove them. Just like a windows computer.

I have my video and audio terminal output below if this helps.

Video output

$ lspci -nnk | grep VGA -A1
01:00.0 VGA compatible controller [0300]: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD/ATI] RV710 [Radeon HD 4350/4550] [1002:954f]
Subsystem: Gigabyte Technology Co., Ltd RV710 [Radeon HD 4350/4550] [145

Audio output

lspci -v | grep -A7 -i “audio”
00:14.2 Audio device: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD/ATI] SBx00 Azalia (Intel HDA) (rev 40)
Subsystem: ASRock Incorporation SBx00 Azalia (Intel HDA)
Flags: bus master, slow devsel, latency 32, IRQ 16
Memory at feb00000 (64-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=16K]
Capabilities:
Kernel driver in use: snd_hda_intel
Kernel modules: snd_hda_intel

–
01:00.1 Audio device: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD/ATI] RV710/730 HDMI Audio [Radeon HD 4000 series]
Subsystem: Gigabyte Technology Co., Ltd RV710/730 HDMI Audio [Radeon HD 4000 series]
Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 0, IRQ 32
Memory at fea30000 (64-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=16K]
Capabilities:
Kernel driver in use: snd_hda_intel
Kernel modules: snd_hda_intel

02:00.0 USB controller: Etron Technology, Inc. EJ168 USB 3.0 Host Controller (rev 01) (prog-if 30 [XHCI])

I need to be able to put my headphones in and hear sound at the same time my main volume speaks are muted until my headphones are removed just like a windows desktop environment.

[Bill_MI]

Hi @Patweezy81, I welcome someone with a good pulseaudio method but over the years I’ve found the commandline alsamixer to do a pretty decent job with just this sort of thing. On a commandline:

alsamixer

F6 selects the card in case it doesn’t pick up your default audio device. Many things show up (graphics HDMI, webcams, etc) so it may be a good idea to press F6 to see what I mean.

Select items with Left/RightArrow. You may be looking to turn on something like “Auto Mute” or “Headphone Jack Sense”. When an item is selected the upper left has a longer description.

To toggle a setting on/off press “M” (for Mute I think) or set other things with Up/DownArrow.

It’s not the friendliest interface but may be worth the effort.

HTH

[Patweezy81]

Question does Ubuntu mate installs with alsamixer by default or do I have
to install it?

I ask because I’m working with a fresh installation.

[Bill_MI]

Installed by default in every Ubuntu-MATE version I've ever seen.

I can tell by the question you don't use the commandline. There is likely a GUI but I've never used one. Alsamixer is like the commandline answer to a graphical display it looks like this (and I've expanded the terminal window wide to show all the controls):

Notice <Auto-Mute> on the right is selected and this is exactly what my system needs to cut the speaker when the headphones are plugged in. It is currently "Enabled" but if I DownArrow it will switch to "Disabled". Unfortunately, your system may be totally different.

And you exit alsamixer with the <Esc> key.

[Bill_MI]

I looked in a virtual machine installation I have and here is another example, totally different than the first one.

Selected (in red using Left/RightArrow) says <Headphone> but the upper left has more info indicating the full name is Headphone Jack Sense and it is currently [Off]. I press "M" to toggle it on.

The change is immediate. If you find the right control you can instantly test the headphone operation without exiting this alsamixer program.

[Patweezy81]

I never knew alsamixer was install by default. Also as for the command line yeah I'm still in the process of getting used to it. I’m a fast learner but still I get confused when I see too much info at once.

For example thanks to you I leaned that my computer was listing both sound card the on-board and the HDMI . This is due to the fact that I had the HDMI connected to my monitor with HDMI and also I have green audio wire plug into the monitor and the base of the copter itself.As of this moment I remove the green audio wire so now I’m finally using HDMI for sound and video. Which is what I wanted so that is one issue resolved.

Further exploring alsa mixer presented more questions. When I run alsamixer I get what you posted in the first picture you posted looks exactly like mine and auto mute is already enabled. When I hit f6 I see the option to select my video card which thanks you I just learned how to do.

My first question is do I changed auto mute to disabled? I asked because I changed it to disabled and nothing happened as my headphones still does not auto switch over

I have open the sound preference and on the hardware tab set the hdmi profile to off for the headphones to kick over. When I remove the head phones I have to set the HDMI back to the on position

Please see my next post for the continuation of this reply.

[Patweezy81]

Then select the output tab and manually select HDMI digital stereo for the monitor speakers to come back on.
as you see in the picture the on-board sound for the headphones is still selected until I select the HDMI

So from my view it seems that the hardware are not changing or auto selecting as I think it should. I have to plug the headphones in select the hdmi from the hardware tab to off then when I remove the headphones I have to set the HDMI back to on then go to the out put tab and then select the hdmi for my monitor.

This is simply too much.

[Bill_MI]

My first question is do I changed auto mute to disabled?

You did perfectly by testing the affect of on/off. When a control doesn’t do what you thought, put it back just in case it affects something else.

But yes, the problem is becoming apparent. I was assuming a path existed to work with the headphone plug. But I do believe the headphone plug can only affect the “Built-in Audio Analog Stereo” device. If your output was from that audio device I would bet the headphone jack would switch. In particular, the “Line Out” connector of your last picture.

But a completely separate output device like the HDMI on your graphics isn’t part of that system that would automatically mute.

Did this particular setup really work on Windows with the HDMI output?

I installed a package called pavucontrol to see if it had anything for this. It is basically a volume control with lots more info. For example, it knows I have headphone, line out and HDMI plugged in or not but I don’t see a way to relate these across the two devices. However, there’s a “fallback” setting I don’t fully understand that may be a key.

Fallback… can an unplugged line out trigger the HDMI as a fallback somehow? I don’t have the hardware to test.

BTW, alsamixer is from the old ALSA Linux sound system that’s been replaced in recent years by PulseAudio which emulates the older ALSA system for compatibility. That’s why alsamixer still works. Just wanted to mention that for your research.

[Patweezy81]

No never fully tested in windows. I left windows 5 years ago when to fedora learned about Ubuntu went to Zorin and after my system crashed I went linux mint. Mit was alot more forgiving as all I had to do was double click the audio when the headphones were plugged in and when I want to switch back double click the hdmi.

The problem is after I updated to the latest version of Mint I got that black screen issue in which I learned how to resolved with the nomodset after I attempted to install mint 5 times and finally came to ubuntu mate. After cosign to mate I just really love the layout which reminds me of the old Ubuntu I instead in the past.

At this point I guess my only option is to get speakers and go from there? I’m wondering if I should juts go back to just using the on-board sound and change to DVI?

what is my best option at this point?

[Bill_MI]

Sorry I can’t help more on this one. Someone with a lot more insight into pulseaudio may know if it’s possible to have the headphone sense in one output device switch to another output device.

Anyone?

I’d never guess your best option. Using some device or another pair of headphones you can check the built-in audio card does what you want before investing in speakers or convertors, though.

[Patweezy81]

Thanks for all your help I learned a lot this time around this issue has
plagued me for a while now. I was so happy when I got to use hdmi and video
I ditched my speaks real quick. I think I that was a bad idea but let see
what the future holds

Thanks again.

[steven]

@Patweezy81 I think the issue your facing is that your using the HDMI connection for the output to your monitor. Normally when you make a connection to the HDMI port, both video and audio are switch to this interface automatically, and I’m assuming this is also bypassing the automatic switching to the headphones. Typically the HDMI port is a temporary connection, where for example you would connect a laptop to a TV set to watch a video or to use a streaming service such as Netflix.

I’m short on time at the moment, but I will test this out when I get the chance.

Question, is the system in question a laptop, or desktop?

[Patweezy81]

The system is a desktop, also my monitor has built in speakers.

[steven]

Sorry for the long delay @Patweezy81. I finally had the opportunity to test the HDMI headphone relationship, and it is somewhat like I imagined.

I was wrong in my previous statement about both video and audio switching automatically when a connection is made to the HDMI port. I still have to manually switch the audio to play through the HDMI port in Sound Preferences like you are currently doing, or on a per application level by using PulseAudio Volume Control.

sudo apt install pavucontrol to install PulseAudio Volume Control.

However as I suspected, when sound is set to play through the HDMI port, automatic headphone switching is not possible.

You may have to buy another set of speakers and run your sound through them in order to have automatic headphone switching.

Edit:

Does your monitor have a standard audio connection for the built in speakers? If so you could connect to them that way, and not have sound going through the HDMI port.

[Patweezy81]

Yes I have on board sound this would mean I need to switch from HDMI to
DVI as mate is auto selecting the HDMI every time. I will test the onboard
sound

Thanks