Would like to get my front panel sound jack working...

[gosa]

Hi all,

This may or may not originally be a newbie question, as I've read some threads here about sound problems trying to identify my own issue, but I still do not know what to call this one. Having that said I also found one thread talking about the front panel output, but it didn't "feel" like it was related to my problem.

So... here we go:

I would like to get the headphone jack working on the front panel of my computer. This is something that I've actually left pending since I first installed LMDE sometime in the beginning of the year, but now it feel like the time have come to actually do something about it, mainly because the jack on the back of my computer is already occupied by a splitter that: 1. leads to the tv in the livingroom, and 2. go to the speakers I have here in my office. This connection works without flaws, but whatever I do I just can't get sound out on the front of the box.

Here's what I have:

A "base" install of the latest spin of LMDE Gnome Edition (x64) - fully updated with the update packs following "latest".
My motherboard is a ASUS P7P55D where the onboard sound consists of VIA VT1828S 8-channel HD Audio
On this motherboard I one connector for front panel sound, where I can choose between using Via HD Audio output or AC97 output (in bios)
The cable from my box has both these connectors, and I'm currently using the HD Audio one (corresponding setting in bios)

This setup is no problem when running Windows 7 that I (still) dual boot with to be able to run Photoshop & Lightroom. In Windows I do have sound in my headphones.

So - where do I start? How can I solve this? And more important - what more info do you need to be able to give feedback?
- Thing is that I did read a thread talking about ALSA/Pulseaudio quite some time ago, but now that the LMDE-section is somewhat reorganized I can't find it... Also - would it be better to choose AC97 as output instead of HD Audio? (by changing the connector & motherboard settings)

Ohh.. also - the reason why I initially thought about this as a newbie question is because if someone tells me that "remove *** and try..." then I need help understanding the "how" that is involved in such a maneuver...

Thanks in advance!
/gosa

Edit/Update
With some help from xenopeek i tried a few things, like intending to configure my Alsa driver, I've found my way to Alsamixergui, I've removed Pulseaudio (and later also reinstalled it). I've changed from using the Intel HDA-connector to using the AC97. So far nothing...

I have discovered one weird thing though - Running Virtualbox with WinXP as a guest system the sound does come out of the headphone jack. My findings there are the following:

Code: Select all

When the Audio Settings for my Guest OS in Virtualbox is set to pulseaudio/AC97 I have sound (Didn't I just say I removed pulseaudio?)
When the Audio Settings for my Guest OS in Virtualbox is set to Alsa Audio Driver/AC97 I do not have sound!?!?!

And that's where I am - starting day 2 of my intents of getting the front panel headphone jack to give me something more than just static.

[xenopeek]

To get some input for analysis on our end, please open a terminal, and share output of following three commands:

Code: Select all

inxi -c 0 -Ax
cat /proc/asound/card0/codec* | grep Codec
lsmod | grep -e hda -e snd

Probably you will have to configure the ALSA driver, and manually set it to which "model" to use so it will see all jacks. Configuration is in /etc/modprobe.d/alsa-base.conf file, and if you are using the snd_hda_intel driver (should then be in output of above lsmod command), you would need to add a line like:

Code: Select all

options snd-hda-intel model=<model>

Of course, setting the proper model. Something like model=5stack-digout perhaps. After changing the setting, you can reload ALSA (to test it) with:

Code: Select all

sudo alsa force-reload

To find possible models to configure, see here:

• http://www.mjmwired.net/kernel/Document ... Models.txt
• https://help.ubuntu.com/community/HdaIntelSoundHowto

[gosa]

Hi Vincent,

Thanks for taking your time to answer...

Here's the output of the three commands you asked me to enter:
The first one:

Code: Select all

Audio:     Card-1 Intel 5 Series/3400 Series Chipset High Definition Audio driver HDA Intel BusID: 00:1b.0
           Card-2 nVidia GF108 High Definition Audio Controller driver HDA Intel BusID: 01:00.1
           Sound: Advanced Linux Sound Architecture Version 1.0.24

The second:

Code: Select all

Codec: VIA VT1828S

The third:

Code: Select all

snd_hda_codec_hdmi     26321  4 
snd_hda_codec_via      56995  1 
snd_hda_intel          26140  2 
snd_hda_codec          72699  3 snd_hda_codec_hdmi,snd_hda_codec_via,snd_hda_intel
snd_hwdep              13186  1 snd_hda_codec
snd_pcm_oss            41257  0 
snd_mixer_oss          17969  1 snd_pcm_oss
snd_pcm                68104  4 snd_hda_codec_hdmi,snd_hda_intel,snd_hda_codec,snd_pcm_oss
snd_seq_midi           12848  0 
snd_rawmidi            23297  1 snd_seq_midi
snd_seq_midi_event     13316  1 snd_seq_midi
snd_seq                45208  2 snd_seq_midi,snd_seq_midi_event
snd_timer              22581  2 snd_pcm,snd_seq
snd_seq_device         13137  3 snd_seq_midi,snd_rawmidi,snd_seq
snd                    52823  16 snd_hda_codec_hdmi,snd_hda_codec_via,snd_hda_intel,snd_hda_codec,snd_hwdep,snd_pcm_oss,snd_mixer_oss,snd_pcm,snd_rawmidi,snd_seq,snd_timer,snd_seq_device
soundcore              13152  1 snd
snd_page_alloc         13043  2 snd_hda_intel,snd_pcm

I suppose what I'm asking about is Card-1 from the first lines of output - don't really use the audio in my Nvidia card...

The rest - I feel a bit lost... I checked the first link you gave me, and according to that my line in /etc/modprobe.d/alsa-base.conf should be:

Code: Select all

options snd-hda-intel model=<auto>

(or is that without the "<> brackets"?)

Now - where in that file do I put it? Just about anywhere?
The file:

Code: Select all

# autoloader aliases
install sound-slot-0 /sbin/modprobe snd-card-0
install sound-slot-1 /sbin/modprobe snd-card-1
install sound-slot-2 /sbin/modprobe snd-card-2
install sound-slot-3 /sbin/modprobe snd-card-3
install sound-slot-4 /sbin/modprobe snd-card-4
install sound-slot-5 /sbin/modprobe snd-card-5
install sound-slot-6 /sbin/modprobe snd-card-6
install sound-slot-7 /sbin/modprobe snd-card-7
# Cause optional modules to be loaded above generic modules
install snd /sbin/modprobe --ignore-install snd && { /sbin/modprobe --quiet snd-ioctl32 ; /sbin/modprobe --quiet snd-seq ; }
install snd-rawmidi /sbin/modprobe --ignore-install snd-rawmidi && { /sbin/modprobe --quiet snd-seq-midi ; : ; }
install snd-emu10k1 /sbin/modprobe --ignore-install snd-emu10k1 && { /sbin/modprobe --quiet snd-emu10k1-synth ; : ; }

# Prevent abnormal drivers from grabbing index 0
options bt87x index=-2
options cx88_alsa index=-2
options snd-atiixp-modem index=-2
options snd-intel8x0m index=-2
options snd-via82xx-modem index=-2
# Keep snd-pcsp from beeing loaded as first soundcard
options snd-pcsp index=-2
# Keep snd-usb-audio from beeing loaded as first soundcard
options snd-usb-audio index=-2

/gosa

[xenopeek]

I suppose what I'm asking about is Card-1 from the first lines of output - don't really use the audio in my Nvidia card...

The rest - I feel a bit lost... I checked the first link you gave me, and according to that my line in /etc/modprobe.d/alsa-base.conf should be:

Code: Select all

options snd-hda-intel model=<auto>

(or is that without the "<> brackets"?)

Now - where in that file do I put it? Just about anywhere?

Remove the angle brackets, so just options snd-hda-intel model=auto (though I think this is the default, and you will need something more specific). Add it as the last line in that file (open the file with gksudo gedit /etc/modprobe.d/alsa-base.conf, else you won't have privileges to write to it).

[gosa]

Yeah, I know it doesn't really make sense with "auto" since that should be the default, but that's what it says on line 428 in that text document...
(http://www.mjmwired.net/kernel/Document ... Models.txt)

Anyway - I did just that, reloaded alsa and still nothing...
Or - nothing isn't exactly right - I get a bit of faint static.

Opening sound preferences from either the panel or from menu -> preferences and flipping through the different options doesn't really do anything either (not that I expected that, but still...)

Another thing... in the output in terminal (that you asked about) some text come out in red...
- Is that a feature or a sign that something's wrong?

[xenopeek]

Another thing... in the output in terminal (that you asked about) some text come out in red...
- Is that a feature or a sign that something's wrong?

Apologies, I should perhaps have mentioned this. The lsmod command shows a lot of lines, and the grep command limits that to only lines that have the word hda or the word snd on it (as I wanted to see those), and highlights those words in red. This is a feature of the grep command.

Instead of using the normal volume control, you may want to use (if needed, install) alsamixergui. This may work better, I've read on some sites.

[gosa]

Now this is interesting... I downloaded and installed alsamixergui, and besides the fact that the gui is a bit messed up (as with so many other apps these days) I only get this when I run it in Terminal:


And this is with no option for changing anything more than the two levels. If I run just alsamixer I get this:


But in this one I can change (by hitting F6) and control each channel individually. I pulled up the one called "Headphone" but still nothing... Maybe I'm wrong here but it seems like I have to set the HDA Intel as default, since the default is a two channel pulseaudio thing?



I'm starting to wonder if it would make a difference if I changed the front panel to AC97 instead....

[xenopeek]

I'm starting to wonder if it would make a difference if I changed the front panel to AC97 instead....

Worth a try.

[gosa]

Well... turned out it didn't work.

Next step I took was to follow tihs guide that I found with the help of google:
http://community.linuxmint.com/tutorial/view/439

- But that didn't work either...

So what the h*ck is preventing my sound to come out my front headphone jack, when I it works witrhout problems from Windows? Right now I don't know what will come first... loosing my hair from age, or pulling it from frustration.


Edit: seems that this thread treats the same issue... more or less. That one didn't get resolved (at least there's no post about it)
http://forums.linuxmint.com/viewtopic.p ... 70&start=0

[gosa]

Ok... now THIS is weird...
- My front headphone jack works running Windows XP in virtualbox, but not in the host OS.

How about that?

Edit:
When the Audio Settings for my Guest OS in Virtualbox is set to pulseaudio/AC97 I have sound (Didn't I just say I removed pulseaudio?)
When the Audio Settings for my Guest OS in Virtualbox is set to Alsa Audio Driver/AC97 I do not have sound!?!?!

This might be a good time to go to sleep - before I open something strongerthan a beer.

[xenopeek]

Ok... now THIS is weird...
- My front headphone jack works running Windows XP in virtualbox, but not in the host OS.

How about that?

Yeah, time for some sleep, because this is getting quite spacey

[gosa]

Well... here I am again. A new day, with old problems.

I've discovered another thing with my current setup. After activating system sounds I can hear a very faint, distorted sound everytime I do some kind of action with my system. I'ts almost like it's a sound that's bleeding over from somewhere else. It's very faint, and I can't tell what it is - but there is something.
- And it still works perfectly in Virtualbox.