Single speaker sound output - Acer Aspire 5742

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darkstrike
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Single speaker sound output - Acer Aspire 5742

Post by darkstrike »

Hi all, this is going to be an odd post in this day and age, but here we are!

I was recently given an Acer Aspire 5742 laptop from 2010 with 4GB RAM and an Intel Core i3 processor. It was the budget-est of budget laptops, so not a powerhouse, but still a very usable daily laptop even still. I had to replace the bottom shell panel as it was very broken and while doing so, found out that it has ONE speaker. ONE. And no, one isn't missing, the connector for the other speaker isn't even soldered to the motherboard!!!

That being said, I'd love to put Mint 19.2 MATE on it as it would run well...I've got a LiveUSB running to test thing, but all sound plays in Stereo and as Linux seems to think the one speaker is Left channel ONLY, I am missing everything from the right-channel?

The other issue is that it does have a headphone jack and sound comes through properly in the headphone jack from both the Left and Right channels. I don't want to have to set things to Mono and have sound working on the speaker with both channels through the one speaker, but then have Mono sound through my properly working Stereo headphones...

Is there just a balance adjust (I can't seem to find one...?) somewhere so I can just slide both channels all the way to the 'Left' to make both Right and Left Channels come out of the single speaker when using that, but then slide it back to center so Left Channel and Right Channel properly come out of their respective sides when using headphones...?

Thanks!
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Re: Single speaker sound output - Acer Aspire 5742

Post by darkstrike »

Drivers are up to date - I'm using 19.2 MATE, but don't see a balance adjust in the sound settings anywhere?
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Re: Single speaker sound output - Acer Aspire 5742

Post by darkstrike »

Thanks for the reply - I see nothing similar for Balance anywhere in MATE....maybe I'll have to use Cinnamon on it just to get a balance slider!
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Re: Single speaker sound output - Acer Aspire 5742

Post by darkstrike »

Found it, it didn't do what I wanted to...all that Linux balance does, apparently, is turn one channel's volume down or the other....as in, if I slide the Balance slider from the middle to 'Left Channel', it does not fade both channels to the left speaker, but merely turns down the right speaker so the Left speaker is the only one playing...this is not going to work, sadly.

Is there a way to set the speakers to a Mono output while keeping the headphones as a stereo output?
Last edited by darkstrike on Thu Sep 05, 2019 4:55 pm, edited 2 times in total.
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Re: Single speaker sound output - Acer Aspire 5742

Post by darkstrike »

No worries, thanks for the suggestions and help!
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Re: Single speaker sound output - Acer Aspire 5742

Post by MrEen »

Hi darkstrike.

Please post the output from running pacmd list-cards in the terminal. With the output I can give you 2 commands to run to switch the outputs from Mono to Duplex or vice versa. You can then assign the commands to keyboard shortcuts if you wish.
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Re: Single speaker sound output - Acer Aspire 5742

Post by darkstrike »

Hi MrEen - sorry for the slow replies - didn't have a chance to try this last night and headed to work now. I'll take a gander when I get home!

To clarify, will this mean I'll have to run the command to switch between mono and duplex every time I switch between using headphones and the computer speaker?
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Re: Single speaker sound output - Acer Aspire 5742

Post by MrEen »

darkstrike wrote: Fri Sep 06, 2019 10:35 am To clarify, will this mean I'll have to run the command to switch between mono and duplex every time I switch between using headphones and the computer speaker?
Yes. Just a quick one liner for each time and like I said, you can add a keyboard shortcut for each to simplify it even more.

If you really want it to be automatic, we can try an acpi event script that may work, but I've never tried that myself so can't guarantee it'll work properly. Once I see that output, I'll give you everything you need to try both ways.
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Re: Single speaker sound output - Acer Aspire 5742

Post by darkstrike »

Is there a way to have it switch back and forth by clicking on an icon?

Output of pacmd list-cards:

Code: Select all

mint@mint:~$ pacmd list-cards
1 card(s) available.
    index: 0
	name: <alsa_card.pci-0000_00_1b.0>
	driver: <module-alsa-card.c>
	owner module: 7
	properties:
		alsa.card = "0"
		alsa.card_name = "HDA Intel MID"
		alsa.long_card_name = "HDA Intel MID at 0xb4400000 irq 27"
		alsa.driver_name = "snd_hda_intel"
		device.bus_path = "pci-0000:00:1b.0"
		sysfs.path = "/devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:1b.0/sound/card0"
		device.bus = "pci"
		device.vendor.id = "8086"
		device.vendor.name = "Intel Corporation"
		device.product.id = "3b56"
		device.product.name = "5 Series/3400 Series Chipset High Definition Audio"
		device.form_factor = "internal"
		device.string = "0"
		device.description = "Built-in Audio"
		module-udev-detect.discovered = "1"
		device.icon_name = "audio-card-pci"
	profiles:
		input:analog-stereo: Analog Stereo Input (priority 60, available: unknown)
		output:analog-stereo: Analog Stereo Output (priority 6000, available: unknown)
		output:analog-stereo+input:analog-stereo: Analog Stereo Duplex (priority 6060, available: unknown)
		output:hdmi-stereo: Digital Stereo (HDMI) Output (priority 5400, available: no)
		output:hdmi-stereo+input:analog-stereo: Digital Stereo (HDMI) Output + Analog Stereo Input (priority 5460, available: unknown)
		output:hdmi-surround: Digital Surround 5.1 (HDMI) Output (priority 300, available: no)
		output:hdmi-surround+input:analog-stereo: Digital Surround 5.1 (HDMI) Output + Analog Stereo Input (priority 360, available: unknown)
		output:hdmi-surround71: Digital Surround 7.1 (HDMI) Output (priority 300, available: no)
		output:hdmi-surround71+input:analog-stereo: Digital Surround 7.1 (HDMI) Output + Analog Stereo Input (priority 360, available: unknown)
		off: Off (priority 0, available: unknown)
	active profile: <output:analog-stereo+input:analog-stereo>
	sinks:
		alsa_output.pci-0000_00_1b.0.analog-stereo/#0: Built-in Audio Analog Stereo
	sources:
		alsa_output.pci-0000_00_1b.0.analog-stereo.monitor/#0: Monitor of Built-in Audio Analog Stereo
		alsa_input.pci-0000_00_1b.0.analog-stereo/#1: Built-in Audio Analog Stereo
	ports:
		analog-input-internal-mic: Internal Microphone (priority 8900, latency offset 0 usec, available: unknown)
			properties:
				device.icon_name = "audio-input-microphone"
		analog-input-mic: Microphone (priority 8700, latency offset 0 usec, available: no)
			properties:
				device.icon_name = "audio-input-microphone"
		analog-output-speaker: Speakers (priority 10000, latency offset 0 usec, available: unknown)
			properties:
				device.icon_name = "audio-speakers"
		analog-output-headphones: Headphones (priority 9000, latency offset 0 usec, available: no)
			properties:
				device.icon_name = "audio-headphones"
		hdmi-output-0: HDMI / DisplayPort (priority 5900, latency offset 0 usec, available: no)
			properties:
				device.icon_name = "video-display"
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Re: Single speaker sound output - Acer Aspire 5742

Post by MrEen »

I'm sorry, what I was going to give you depended on you having a Mono choice in your list of Profiles that you don't have after all. I have another way to do this though.

Regarding clicking on an icon, if you mean an icon on your desktop, I think it can be done. I don't think my scripting skills would be up to the task, but we might be able to figure something out.

But you're going to need to adjust the volume down each time you change to Mono since two channels are getting mixed into one, which may cause distortion. Then reverting back to Stereo, you'll probably want to raise the volume again. My testing didn't require this actually, but the site I learned this from suggested this would be the case.

It's possible the best solution is this, and I know it's a bit more involved then just clicking an icon:

1. Make sure you have PulseAudio Volume Control installed with apt install pavucontrol

2. Run this in the terminal to add a Mono sink:

Code: Select all

pacmd load-module module-remap-sink sink_name=mono master=$(pacmd list-sinks | grep -m 1 -oP 'name:\s<\K.*(?=>)') channels=2 channel_map=mono,mono
3. To switch something that is outputting in stereo, open pavucontrol to the Playback tab and you should see the moving vumeter. Click on the box next to that selection that says Built-in Audio Analog Stereo and select Remapped Built-in Audio Analog Stereo. You should now be hearing all channels on your single speaker.

I believe all new audio streams might start on the last selected choice on the Playback tab of pavucontrol (that's how it's supposed to work at least) so when you want to revert back to Stereo, just click on the box again and change it back to Built-in Audio Analog Stereo.

Note: Right now, you'll have to repeat step 2 after each reboot. Assuming the above works properly for you, we can add that line to a file so it'll be automatically included upon booting up.

I'll look into scripting a way to make everything automatic, but let's see if the above works properly first.
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