I’ve had an issue these past few weeks where the audio for my Acer Aspire E-15 laptop is only playing through the headphone jacks, even when I try to test the built-in speakers directly. I have tried commands through ALSA and through the settings menus, but I can’t seem to get anything to play or to find any hardware issues. I’m wondering if anyone else has had trouble after recent updates or it might just be me?
Welcome to openSUSE Forums. To start with please share your audio environment and hardware details…
inxi -Aaz
I think it might be useful for us to list information about the cards and the current profile…
pactl list cards
pactl list sinks | egrep -i "output"
Copy and paste the output to your reply as preformtted text (refer to the </.> button in the forum editor).
Thank you so much for the help! Here’s the results of those commands, in order.
Audio:
Device-1: Intel Broadwell-U Audio vendor: Acer Incorporated ALI
driver: snd_hda_intel v: kernel bus-ID: 00:03.0 chip-ID: 8086:160c
class-ID: 0403
Device-2: Intel Wildcat Point-LP High Definition Audio
vendor: Acer Incorporated ALI driver: snd_hda_intel v: kernel
bus-ID: 00:1b.0 chip-ID: 8086:9ca0 class-ID: 0403
API: ALSA v: k6.4.0-150600.23.65-default status: kernel-api with: aoss
type: oss-emulator tools: alsactl,alsamixer,amixer
Server-1: PipeWire v: 1.0.5 status: off with: wireplumber status: active
tools: pw-cat,pw-cli,wpctl
Server-2: PulseAudio v: 17.0 status: active with: pulseaudio-alsa
type: plugin tools: pacat,pactl
I had to manually put the cards in order because of the known issues with the Intel Broadwell hdmi audio port.
Card #0
Name: alsa_card.pci-0000_00_03.0
Driver: module-alsa-card.c
Owner Module: 6
Properties:
alsa.card = "1"
alsa.card_name = "HDA Intel HDMI"
alsa.long_card_name = "HDA Intel HDMI at 0xc4310000 irq 48"
alsa.driver_name = "snd_hda_intel"
device.bus_path = "pci-0000:00:03.0"
sysfs.path = "/devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:03.0/sound/card1"
device.bus = "pci"
device.vendor.id = "8086"
device.vendor.name = "Intel Corporation"
device.product.id = "160c"
device.product.name = "Broadwell-U Audio Controller"
device.form_factor = "internal"
device.string = "1"
device.description = "Built-in Audio"
module-udev-detect.discovered = "1"
device.icon_name = "audio-card-pci"
Profiles:
output:hdmi-stereo: Digital Stereo (HDMI) Output (sinks: 1, sources: 0, priority: 5900, available: no)
output:hdmi-surround: Digital Surround 5.1 (HDMI) Output (sinks: 1, sources: 0, priority: 800, available: no)
output:hdmi-surround71: Digital Surround 7.1 (HDMI) Output (sinks: 1, sources: 0, priority: 800, available: no)
output:hdmi-stereo-extra1: Digital Stereo (HDMI 2) Output (sinks: 1, sources: 0, priority: 5700, available: no)
output:hdmi-surround-extra1: Digital Surround 5.1 (HDMI 2) Output (sinks: 1, sources: 0, priority: 600, available: no)
output:hdmi-surround71-extra1: Digital Surround 7.1 (HDMI 2) Output (sinks: 1, sources: 0, priority: 600, available: no)
output:hdmi-stereo-extra2: Digital Stereo (HDMI 3) Output (sinks: 1, sources: 0, priority: 5700, available: no)
output:hdmi-surround-extra2: Digital Surround 5.1 (HDMI 3) Output (sinks: 1, sources: 0, priority: 600, available: no)
output:hdmi-surround71-extra2: Digital Surround 7.1 (HDMI 3) Output (sinks: 1, sources: 0, priority: 600, available: no)
off: Off (sinks: 0, sources: 0, priority: 0, available: yes)
Active Profile: off
Ports:
hdmi-output-0: HDMI / DisplayPort (type: HDMI, priority: 5900, latency offset: 0 usec, not available)
Properties:
device.icon_name = "video-display"
Part of profile(s): output:hdmi-stereo, output:hdmi-surround, output:hdmi-surround71
hdmi-output-1: HDMI / DisplayPort 2 (type: HDMI, priority: 5800, latency offset: 0 usec, not available)
Properties:
device.icon_name = "video-display"
Part of profile(s): output:hdmi-stereo-extra1, output:hdmi-surround-extra1, output:hdmi-surround71-extra1
hdmi-output-2: HDMI / DisplayPort 3 (type: HDMI, priority: 5700, latency offset: 0 usec, not available)
Properties:
device.icon_name = "video-display"
Part of profile(s): output:hdmi-stereo-extra2, output:hdmi-surround-extra2, output:hdmi-surround71-extra2
Card #1
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 PCH"
alsa.long_card_name = "HDA Intel PCH at 0xc4314000 irq 49"
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 = "9ca0"
device.product.name = "Wildcat Point-LP High Definition Audio Controller"
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 (sinks: 0, sources: 1, priority: 32833, available: yes)
output:analog-stereo: Analog Stereo Output (sinks: 1, sources: 0, priority: 39268, available: yes)
output:analog-stereo+input:analog-stereo: Analog Stereo Duplex (sinks: 1, sources: 1, priority: 39333, available: yes)
off: Off (sinks: 0, sources: 0, priority: 0, available: yes)
Active Profile: output:analog-stereo
Ports:
analog-input-mic: Microphone (type: Mic, priority: 8700, latency offset: 0 usec, availability unknown)
Properties:
device.icon_name = "audio-input-microphone"
Part of profile(s): input:analog-stereo, output:analog-stereo+input:analog-stereo
analog-output-speaker: Speakers (type: Speaker, priority: 10000, latency offset: 0 usec, availability unknown)
Properties:
device.icon_name = "audio-speakers"
Part of profile(s): output:analog-stereo, output:analog-stereo+input:analog-stereo
analog-output-headphones: Headphones (type: Headphones, priority: 9900, latency offset: 0 usec, not available)
Properties:
device.icon_name = "audio-headphones"
Part of profile(s): output:analog-stereo, output:analog-stereo+input:analog-stereo
And last one…
Name: alsa_output.pci-0000_00_1b.0.analog-stereo
Monitor Source: alsa_output.pci-0000_00_1b.0.analog-stereo.monitor
analog-output-speaker: Speakers (type: Speaker, priority: 10000, availability unknown)
analog-output-headphones: Headphones (type: Headphones, priority: 9900, not available)
Active Port: analog-output-speaker
I note that both PipeWire and PulseAudio are active. I’m not sure if that is impacting here. I would recommend using pipewire-pulse with PipeWire. This will replace the native the PulseAudio server. Do this withsudo zypper in pipewire-pulseaudio and let it install/remove the necessary packages.
The profile information you shared shows that the speakers should be active. Check that nothing is muted via alsamixer -c0.
Check the default sink is as expected…
pactl info | grep "Default Sink"
It can be set if necessary…
pactl set-default-sink alsa_output.pci-0000_00_1b.0.analog-stereo
Does the following command produce audible sound?
paplay /usr/share/sounds/alsa/Front_Center.wav
or using the ALSA commands eg
aplay /usr/share/sounds/alsa/Front_Center.wav
speaker-test -c2 -D default
I’m not surprised both PipeWire and PulseAudio were active - I spent a lot of time trying way too many options for fixing the audio. Thank you for the help getting it sorted so I’ve only got one going.
Looks like nothing’s muted and the default sink is already set correctly.
None of those commands yielded any sound, though the dialogues all went through as if the test had successfully completed.
Thank you again for your help - I know this is kind of weird to troubleshoot via the internet!
Hmm…here’s one old archlinux thread where it was found that the internal connection to the speakers had become unplugged. Not as likely if you have never taken the laptop apart but maybe worth checking.
I’ve also seen a recommendation to add a kernel option quirk so the speakers are wired correctly. To do that you can create a custom config file eg 50-acer.conf…
sudo nano /etc/modprobe.d/50-acer.conf
and add the following entry
options snd-hda-intel model=auto,acer
This means: use “auto” for the HDMI card #0, and “acer” for the PCH speakers card #1. You can determine the order first using aplay -l
Then reboot and test again.
If “model=acer” doesn’t work, try “model=acer-aspire” instead. Again, check the card order first.
Let us know how that goes.
FWIW, an old openSUSE post where it was found that “auto-muting” was the cause of the issue.
Thanks for the additional tips - definitely had nothing in the headphones jack while testing, so I think we’re safe on that front. The issues arose just before I decided to open up my laptop to clean it, so I don’t think that’s a cause, but I can pop it open again tonight and check that the connection is secure.
I tried to get a conf file setup earlier, and it currently looks like this:
options snd-hda-intel index=0 model=acer vid=8086 pid=9ca0
options snd-hda-intel index=1 model=acer vid=8086 pid=160c
I’ll try adding “acer-aspire” rather than just acer, and switch the hdmi back to auto and report back here!
Aaaaaand it was the speakers being unplugged. >.< They must have jostled out of place, then when I cleaned it and checked connections, I forgot to check the “blank” bottom of the laptop. Thank you for helping me learn more about audio in openSUSE regardless! I appreciate it.
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Glad to have been of guidance. 
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