External speakers etc...

[tenfoot]

The computer is an Acer Extensa 5220 and the OS is LinuxMINT Daryna.

I configured this new laptop for a friend and she has been using it without problems, until now.

CDs play through the internal speakers, although the sound is rather tinny. She decided to invest in external speakers. Connected them but found that they did not work. Playing CDs still resulted in the sound coming through the internal speakers. I have tried other speakers with the same result: internal speakers work, external speakers do not.

Downloaded and installed Skype but dong the test call resulted in her not being able to hear her message, not even through the internal speakers.

Sound is configured to use ALSA.

Is there anyone on the forum who can lead me to a solution, please?

tenfoot.

[tenfoot]

Now this is something I wouldn't expect to run into! Just came to ask the same thing, same laptop, the internal speakers keep working, regardless of the 2.5mm jack being plugged in or not! Tried it with bare Ubuntu 7.10, same thing. However, have an xp on one partition 'cause bl**dy corel wouldn't work under wine and tried it there as well, no problems there, as soon as I plug in the external speaker cable in, the built in ones go mute. So, it's definitely a driver thing. I already went to Realtek's site, here: ftp://66.104.77.130/pc/audio/realtek-linux-audiopack-5.01.tar.bz2 and downloaded the package, run the install, but still having the problem. Did that both in Ubuntu and Mint. No change. I didn't try wit the second RHEL4 file since it is declared to be an update. So, can't update the newer driver and nothing to update OTOH... So, if there is a reasonably simple way to do this, I think it would be nice to be able to read about it. Otherwise, the integrated tweeters work...

Glad that my friend isn't the only one having problems! I've downloaded the driver you mention and will be installing it. Hope I have better luck than you Will report back.

tenfoot

[tenfoot]

Well, I downloaded and installed the Realtek Linux driver but, as reported, it made no difference. Plugging the external speakers in does not cut out the internal ones.

As a matter of interest, the options for Sound in the Control Panel only show the Realtek driver for the Default Mixer tracks. It does not appear in any of the other menus. Should it?

Tenfoot

[rec9140]

plugging the jack in mechanically/electrically disconnects the lead to the speaker out... At least it was a common solution when there still were some normal stereo power amps on the market. These days it's all not-just-stereo

This is what I would expect to happen...hmm....doing this electronically seems to be a lot of hassle to have to wire this to a pin on the chip for speaker_sense...especially when the jacks are already standard parts to do this.

[rec9140]

Can you post the actual chip number so I can do a look up for the chip itself and see what kind of pins are on it?

Definitely looks to be that to mimic the part of the jack that does this they have a speaker_sense line thats brought high or low to indicate when something is plugged into the jack and then the driver kills the audio. Seems overly complex to do this .

I really find this crazy to do this when a $0.03 part, the jack, can do this and that is the correct way to do this.

[tenfoot]

I am lucky. I am lucky, lucky, lucky... and this plays via external speakers while the ones inside Acer laptop are silent! Whoo-Hooo!

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sudo aptitude install linux-backports-modules-generic
sudo gedit /etc/modprobe.d/alsa-base

then, just add this line to the bottom

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options snd-hda-intel model=acer

Worked for me in Ubuntu. Now I have to restart (and you will have to restart it too to take effect) and do it in Mint. Hopefully will do the same. Will report ASAP.

Hi! this is excellent news and even better that you've found it works with Daryna. As I'm a relative noob to Linux, please will you bear with me as I outline what I think you mean.

I presume his is a root configuration, so this is how I see it

(a) Go to a terminal and type susdo -s anbd login
(b) Type

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sudo aptitude install linux-backports-modules-generic
(c) type sudo gedit /etc/modprobe.d/alsa-base

but I have no idea what

Code: Select all

means or where I add the line at the bottom

Is it possible for you to email me (tenfoot@zed.net.nz), setting out exactly what I should do, as I don't want to stuff up.

Regards from New Zealand on a very pleasant autumn morning after three days of persisten rain and almost frost-like temperatures.

tenfoot.

[tenfoot]

Hi Zen Mod

Thank you for your very clear instructions. Everything went flawlessly. I got the expected confirmation request and there was a lot of screen activity. Then entered the gedit /etc/modprobe.d/alsa-base command and options snd-hda-intel model=acer at the end. All without error. Saved the file, closed the terminal, Shutdown the computer and then restarted it. All this is the good news The bad news is that when I plugged in the external speakers, inserted a CD and asked it to play, the sound still came from the internal speakers

I then went through the procedure again. The first command (after the password was entered) gave me a list of things that had been done. The only thing I could see that could be considered unusual were two message: The following packages have been kept back: xserver-org-video-intel and xserver-org-core. There were 0 packages upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 renewed, 0 to remove and 2 not upgraded. But as this does not refer to sound, I assume it means nothing is awry.

Typing the second command resulted in the long list from alsa-base and I again checked that the options snd-hda-intel model=acer was at the end.

Again saved the file, closed down and restarted the computer.

Regrettably, I still have the problem. Those blasted internal speakers still won't give up to the external ones.

Any further suggestions will be welcomed.

tenfoot

[tenfoot]

Hi!

Thanks again for a prompt reply. I'll do as you suggest and seek the help of Google. You are certainly "streets" ahead of me in Linux knowledge

tenfoot

[Sethusoid]

I have seen a lot of posts on different forums about issues similar to this. I too was having this problem on my Compaq Evo D510 with an Intel 8201DB sound chip. The internal speakers played even if external speakers were plugged in. After perusing many elaborate suggestions on how to fix this, I finally found a very simple one that worked for me. Simply open a terminal, and run "alsamixer". Then cursor to the right to the Headphone item that when selected lists "Headphone Jack Sense" in the "Item:" line at the top. If the little box above it shows two "M"s then press "m" to change it so it lists 2 Zero's (turning it on). Then cursor right to the "Line Jac" item and do the same thing. Then hit ESC to exit and all should be working properly. I now have control over my sound again!!! Now if I could just get Wine programs to play more than one sound at a time and not stutter lol.

[georgetoon]

Thanks for this. I just tried it on my desktop server system and no go.