Front Speakers Not Working

Quick to answer questions about finding your way around Linux Mint as a new user.
Forum rules
There are no such things as "stupid" questions. However if you think your question is a bit stupid, then this is the right place for you to post it. Stick to easy to-the-point questions that you feel people can answer fast. For long and complicated questions use the other forums in the support section.
Before you post read how to get help. Topics in this forum are automatically closed 6 months after creation.
Locked
EdK

Front Speakers Not Working

Post by EdK »

To have sound out of my (2) speakers I have to have the Systems Settings --> Sounds --> Output --> Speakers Built-in Audio selection on Analog Surround 4.0 Output but then it's only the Rear speakers that get any sound out of the speakers... The Front speakers when clicked are silent. I don't have surround sound speakers. I do have the speaker cable plugged into the correct audio output jack and they are powered on.

Any way to have this working correctly? I think having this taken care of might fix another, possibly related, issue I'm having.

Thank you,
Ed
Last edited by LockBot on Wed Dec 28, 2022 7:16 am, edited 1 time in total.
Reason: Topic automatically closed 6 months after creation. New replies are no longer allowed.
EdK

Re: Front Speakers Not Working

Post by EdK »

I have had mixed results in working with this issue. The computer's speakers used by the on-board sound card (HDA-Intel - HD-Audio Generic) are silent while the second sound card (USB-Audio - USB Audio CODEC) contained in my Ham Radio transceiver did sound. That seems to confirm that the computer does not see any front speakers in it's sound card. Those results shown below...

BTW... I do not have surround sound speakers so I plugged my speakers into the green "Spkr Out" jack. This resulted in front speaker sound when this was a windows machine so it's strange to me they're seen now as rear speakers. Oh well... no matter... I have all but two of my ham radio applications running correctly now. As I learn Linux I'm sure that I will eventually have those running properly too. Hopefully these notes will help someone with a similar issue even if mine is not solved at this time.

This given in response to my question on the LQ Forum...
$ alsamixer

Sometimes you have settings that change the mode of the soundcard. Which might ONLY be available in alsamixer.

$ cat /proc/asound/cards

And you might have multiple sound devices so the one you want to use is not default (index == 0).

$ alsamixer -c 1

And test that it works.

$ speaker-test -c 2 -l 1 -D hw:1

With -D pulse and other options depending on your sound setup. Your front speakers might be special and tied into HDMI audio at which point you might need to use something like -D hw:1,3 to have that be the output device. Audio gets complex these days since you likely have more than one audio device. Motherboard, video card, webcam, ... ... ... ... ... ... ...
....My Terminal commands and results....
ed@ed-den ~ $ cat /proc/asound/cards
0 [Generic ]: HDA-Intel - HD-Audio Generic
HD-Audio Generic at 0xfef40000 irq 16
1 [CODEC ]: USB-Audio - USB Audio CODEC
Burr-Brown from TI USB Audio CODEC at usb-0000:00:12.2-1.1, full speed

ed@ed-den ~ $ alsamixer -c 0 (Displayed the on-board surround sound card.)

ed@ed-den ~ $ alsamixer -c 1 (Displayed the transceiver's sound card.)

ed@ed-den ~ $ speaker-test -c 2 -l 1 -D hw:0
speaker-test 1.1.0
Playback device is hw:0
...
0 - Front Left
1 - Front Right
...

ed@ed-den ~ $ speaker-test -c 2 -l 1 -D hw:1
speaker-test 1.1.0
Playback device is hw:1
...
0 - Front Left
1 - Front Right
...
Locked

Return to “Beginner Questions”