Headphones have become silent (Linux Mint 18.2 / Sonya)

[janise]

The headphones have been working fine up until a few days ago when I turned the computer (Dell Latitude) on and they didn't any more – no sound can be heard.

It looks like a software/configuration problem because

1. different headphones do not work either;
2. if I boot a fresh Linux Mint 18.3 from USB flash, the headphones are working fine.

If I open the sound settings, I see the headphones on the device list. They disappear/appear from there when I'm plugging out/in the jack.

If I test sound with the laptop's speakers, they sound all right.

In the sound settings, when clicking between the speakers and headphones on the output devices list, the volumes get updated accordingly, and are different. Changing the volume does not solve the problem.

This didn't help:

Code: Select all

sudo apt-get remove --purge alsa-base pulseaudio
sudo apt-get install alsa-base pulseaudio
sudo alsa force-reload

[Ozo]

[quote="janise"]The headphones have been working fine up until a few days ago when I turned the computer (Dell Latitude) on and they didn't any more – no sound can be heard.

You looked at the sound settings probably by right click on the panel icon. Try going to Sound instead and look there. Just a thought. It must say the same. Oops, I realize you are on 18.2

If that fails try loading fresh audio drivers or just wait a few minutes and the resident experts will be here.

[janise]

Hey, Ozo,

When I open the sound from settings, it seems the same window gets open that when I open it from the system tray.

How do I load fresh audio drivers? Doesn't re-installing "alsa-base pulseaudio" packages do that? If so, it didn't help.

Just now I got another extra weirdness. Ran the "alsa-base pulseaudio" reinstallation commands pasted above, restarted the computer into a Linux Mint 18.3 OS from USB, tested the sound, restarted again back into Linux Mint 18.2, and now the speakers won't output the testing sound (the front right and front left speaker icons in the sound settings) any more. Although the sound by a VLC player is still output through the speakers just fine.

[Ozo]

Hey, Ozo,

There is a driver manager but I have never used that. Go there and see what that says.

I had a audio driver problem once and as I recall I went to Realtek and downloaded them from their support/download. I think all that you need to do that is enter the 64bit/32bit question. If you have a problem opening the package, ask.

EDIT: Just looked at Realtek. It looks like the driver packages work on kernel 4.7 or less so should work on 18.2 I think. Hold on I will edit this with a link.

Scroll down to Linux and select the first item on that list. Click on the word global to download.

http://www.realtek.com/Downloads/downlo ... wnTypeID=3

[janise]

Downloaded that Realtek driver, ran the "autorun.sh". It gave a couple of SSL-related error messages and something about non-supported locale (lv_LV-UTF8), but seemed to end with a message about the driver installation complete. Restarted the computer, but the headphones still do not output any sound. And the speakers are still all right.

[Pjotr]

Please generate an overview of your system like this:
- Launch a terminal window (this is how to launch a terminal window);
- make the terminal window full screen, to avoid chopped lines;
- Copy/paste this command into the terminal:

Code: Select all

inxi -Fxz

(if you type: the letter F is a capital letter)

Press Enter.

Copy/paste the output in your next message.

[janise]

Hey, Pjotr, here is the overview:

Code: Select all

$ inxi -Fxz
System:    Host: janis-Latitude-3570 Kernel: 4.13.0-26-generic x86_64 (64 bit gcc: 5.4.0)
           Desktop: Cinnamon 3.4.6 (Gtk 3.18.9-1ubuntu3.3) Distro: Linux Mint 18.2 Sonya
Machine:   System: Dell (portable) product: Latitude 3570
           Mobo: Dell model: 091WN9 v: A00 Bios: Dell v: 1.3.0 date: 07/22/2016
CPU:       Dual core Intel Core i5-6200U (-HT-MCP-) cache: 3072 KB
           flags: (lm nx sse sse2 sse3 sse4_1 sse4_2 ssse3 vmx) bmips: 9600
           clock speeds: max: 2800 MHz 1: 2400 MHz 2: 2400 MHz 3: 2400 MHz 4: 2400 MHz
Graphics:  Card: Intel Sky Lake Integrated Graphics bus-ID: 00:02.0
           Display Server: X.Org 1.18.4 drivers: intel (unloaded: fbdev,vesa) Resolution: 1366x768@60.00hz
           GLX Renderer: Mesa DRI Intel HD Graphics 520 (Skylake GT2)
           GLX Version: 3.0 Mesa 17.2.4 Direct Rendering: Yes
Audio:     Card Intel Sunrise Point-LP HD Audio driver: snd_hda_intel bus-ID: 00:1f.3
           Sound: Advanced Linux Sound Architecture v: k4.13.0-26-generic
Network:   Card-1: Qualcomm Atheros AR9462 Wireless Network Adapter driver: ath9k bus-ID: 01:00.0
           IF: wlp1s0 state: up mac: <filter>
           Card-2: Realtek RTL8111/8168/8411 PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet Controller
           driver: r8168 v: 8.045.08-NAPI port: e000 bus-ID: 02:00.0
           IF: enp2s0 state: down mac: <filter>
Drives:    HDD Total Size: 480.1GB (17.1% used) ID-1: /dev/sda model: KINGSTON_SUV400S size: 480.1GB
Partition: ID-1: / size: 424G used: 62G (16%) fs: ext4 dev: /dev/sda2
           ID-2: swap-1 size: 17.06GB used: 0.00GB (0%) fs: swap dev: /dev/sda3
RAID:      No RAID devices: /proc/mdstat, md_mod kernel module present
Sensors:   System Temperatures: cpu: 41.0C mobo: 27.8C
           Fan Speeds (in rpm): cpu: N/A
Info:      Processes: 260 Uptime: 2:59 Memory: 1358.4/15927.9MB Init: systemd runlevel: 5 Gcc sys: 5.4.0
           Client: Shell (bash 4.3.481) inxi: 2.2.35