Alienware and sound (Solved)

[eddieg780]

I have an Alienware laptop with win10 and cinnamon 18.3. On this machine when I plug in a headset on win 10 the headphones work but on mint it doesn't. I suppose the switching is software activated. Is there a way to either install some software to make this work in mint or does this feature only work on windows? I sure hope there is a way, I hate windows. Thank you.

[deepakdeshp]

Download Mint 19 iso image and try the live image and test if the sound works. If it does, preferably install 19 afresh, otherwise upgrade your mint to 19.
If yo want to keep the present version, upgrade the kernel to 4.15 using the update manager, reboot and test.

[catweazel]

I have an Alienware laptop with win10 and cinnamon 18.3. On this machine when I plug in a headset on win 10 the headphones work but on mint it doesn't. I suppose the switching is software activated. Is there a way to either install some software to make this work in mint or does this feature only work on windows? I sure hope there is a way, I hate windows. Thank you.

You can try alsamixer from a terminal. If that doesn't help, install and run pavucontrol to ensure the correct sound device is selected.

[eddieg780]

Will this work from the live version of 19 because home networking doesn't work in cinnamon 19?

[MrEen]

Hi eddieg780.

To expand on what catweazel said, in the terminal type alsamixer

You might have to hit F6 to select your sound card, then see if the Headphones column has MM underneath (or just no volume.) If so, use the right arrow key to select Headphones, then the m key to unmute, and/or the up arrow to increase volume.

Hope that helps.

[eddieg780]

Thank you. Going to alsamixer and choosing my sound card and headphones were muted and now it works.

[MrEen]

That's great. Good work, eddieg780!